Where ART Lives Magazine Volume 1 Number 6 | Page 51

Richard De Wolfe
Eventually, I graduated to working in the art studio that he also owned in Toronto, where I was
first back to sweeping floors, emptying trash cans and watching the pros and what they did. Every
night and weekend I spent endless hours practicing my art, then showing the boss, until he finally
allowed me to try my hand at finished art for a client. In those days, the big accounts were Sears,
Eatons, The Bay, Canadian Tire and a few other large retail accounts. We did black and white line
drawings for the most part, for newspaper ads and flyers.
After a few years experience in the studio, I struck out on my own as a free lance illustrator. I
worked for many of the same clients and gradually added advertising agencies, production houses,
designers and publishers to my list of clients.
In those early years working in Toronto, I married my high