A Ralph Hulett Christmas, 2010 edition

Click on the thumbnails for full-sized images

Starting on Sunday until New Year's Day, we continue our annual tradition of posting Christmas cards designed by Disney background artist Ralph Hulett for card publisher California Artists. A new design will be going up every other day -- twenty in all. (To refresh your memory, here are the postings from past years.)

This year we took special attention to make sure these are all-new images that have never been posted on the TAG Blog. If some of them look familiar, it's because padre would take every opportunity to use variations on his most popular themes. (This is sometimes known as "maximizing Christmas card royalties.")

Also starting in a week, our annual December show of Ralph Hulett card designs can be seen in Gallery 839 at our headquarters, open Monday-Friday 8:30 am-5 pm.

All artwork © Estate of Ralph Hulett

Click here to read entire post

The Windmills of Ralph Hulett's Mind

© by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

In late 1962, a television director and documentarian named Gunther Von Fritsch came to artist Ralph Hulett's door and introduced himself. Besides being the original director on The Curse of the Cat People and the helmer of various t.v. shows, Gunther made travel films for SwissAir. He wanted to use Ralph as the subject of a film he was scheduled to make in Greece and Israel under the sponsorship of the airline.

Swiss Air would pay all travel and lodging expenses, Ralph would paint, and Von Fritsch would film him doing it...

Artist Hulett, always game for a new adventure (especially if he could tote his easel and paint brushes with him) accepted the proposal. And off he and Gunther Von Fritsch went to the Mediterranean.

For the next three months, Ralph Hulett painted landscapes the length and breadth of Greece and Israel (the painting above -- from one of the Greek islands -- is an oil rendered later back in California from a field study.) Fourteen hours of 16mm color footage was shot, then cut down to a half-hour documentary titled Shalom Yassu. Somewhere, in some cupboard or other, lies a print of the epic. I haven't seen it in years, but I remember it fondly.

Click here to read entire post

Purple Procession, by Ralph Hulett

The color of royalty is used almost exclusively in this dramatic candle-lit procession honoring The King of Kings.

Add On: Christmas Card Q & A ...

When did Hulett start doing Christmas cards?

He started in the early 1950s, with a royalty deal with a card compnay named California Artists, which was bought out by a company named Designers Showcase in the 1960s. Designers Showcase was bought out in the early seventies. Hulett painted cards almost up to his death.

How many designs would he do per year?

Twenty-five to thirty designs would be published in a fat catalog each year. The books would be set up on large tables at upscale stationary stores, department stores, etc. Customers would pore through the catalogs and select the cards they wanted to order. Hulett would usually paint an extra four or five designs each season, and the company would select the ones it most liked.

Some years Hulett would go on cross-country junkets to various department stores in different cities, promoting the cards. He would give painting demonstrations in stores, garnering publicity.

Were there other Disney artists who did Christmas cards?

I can think of two. Eyvind Earle (another background painter, remembered today as the stylist for Sleeping Beauty) and Josh Meador, who was the head of visual effects at Walt Diwsney Productions for many years. Meador worked primarily in oils.

Are you going to publish these designs in a book?

Maybe. Eventually. When I get some free time. We put the card designs up at TAG blog so they are out there. This is far better than having them sit in a storage vault gathering dust.

© 1961 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image. See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm. Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

Ralph Hulett's Christmas, Day 1

Another holiday season, another round of Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

For those new to the blog, Ralph Hulett was business representative Steve Hulett's father. He worked at Disney Animation from 1938 (when it was on Hyperion) to 1974, when he passed away.

The senior Hulett painted backgrounds for Disney animated shorts and features from 1943 to 1974. From 1949 to the time of his death, he also painted Christmas card designs, of which the above is a specimen from the 1960s. (Hulett painted various types of cards: winter landscapes, "character" cards, and still lifes.)

As you can see, he used various kinds of paint.

Anyway, we're getting down to the last of the new images. Prolific as Mr. Hulett was, he painted only so many Christmas cards.

Click here for more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards

Click here to read entire post

The first day of Ralph Hulett's Christmas

© by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

Another Yuletide season kicks off, therefore we'll put up another round of Christmas cards by Disney background artist Ralph Hulett. Starting with one more "court jester" card ...

For those of you new to the blog, my late father painted a ton of holiday cards over a span of thirty years. Many were done for a card company named named "California Artists," and in those quaint, long-ago days before giant, interlocking conglomerates ruled everything, many card companies paid royalties on the designs.

Such was the case with California Artists. And dear old Dad made almost as much money from his yearly Christmas cards as he did from background painting at Disney.

Nowadays, Hallmark and the like just want to buy card art outright. What a marvelous, corporatist age we live in ...

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards. (UPDATE: this search link is now fixed.)

Click here to read entire post

White Christmas, by Ralph Hulett

Ralph Hulett's specialty of background design creates a winter landscape with brilliantly defined light and shadow ...

© 1955 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

Three Kings, by Ralph Hulett

Artist Ralph Hulett has employed unusual transfer-painting technique for this sophisticated rendering of the Three Kings.

© 1961 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

Ralph Hulett Christmas cards, classes of 1955 and 1961

Starting today (and running through New Year's Day), we continue our annual tradition of sharing Ralph Hulett Christmas cards. There is a show of Hulett's work at the art gallery at TAG's new headquarters; drop by during our office hours (Monday-Friday 8:30 am to 5).

This season's posts comprise the bulk of Hulett's 1955 and 1961 catalogues for the California Artists greeting card company, complete with their original titles and the (occasionally kitschy) catalogue captions.

Your favorite butler, Cheerio, bows graciously at your threshold and extends a hospitable holiday greeting to your friends.

© 1961 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image. Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

Ralph Hulett's Christmas, day V

© by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

This design is another of Ralph Hulett's lighter-hearted "character" cards (alternating between the scenic cards and the character-driven cards.) The Disney influence is readily apparent: lots of round shapes. Dad usually painted next season's designs six months ahead.

He would paint a lot of cards in his home studio, but some at Disney. The background department had a quota of b.g.s it expected its artists (Dad, Bill Layne, Al Dempster, and Ann Guenther) to do in a given week. Because Hulett painted seven days a week (weekends and vacations were also painting time, since wielding a brush was both his vocation and hobby), he was fast. And when he finished his allotment of backgrounds for the week, out would come the Christmas card designs.

Management, as far as I know, never complained.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

Mousie, by Ralph Hulett

"Mousie" branches out as an artist as he gilds the pine cones on this Christmas bough.

This is one of Hulett's "character cards" -- vaguely styled after Disney-type characters, which is understandable, since many of these designs were painted on Disney lunch breaks, where Ralph worked as a background artist for three decades ...

© 1961 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image. See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm. Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

Happy Holiday, by Ralph Hulett

St Nick, the juggler, keeps in trim for a million chimney chutes.

One of R. Hulett's "character cards," seasoned with a smidge of the Disney house style. They encompassed mice, jesters, friars, and of course St. Nick.

© 1955 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image. See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm. Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

Another Ralph Hulett Christmas, part 1

© by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

Today we begin our annual holiday tradition of posting Mr. Hulett's christmas card art.

For those of you just joining the cocktail party, Ralph Hulett is a relative (my father, actually).

Born in Illinois in 1915, he moved to California at age 7, graduated from Glendale High School, went to Chouinard Art Institute on a scholarship, and started at Disney in 1938.

He worked in the Disney background department for thirty-plus years, working with the likes of Claude Coats, Al Dempster, Eyvind Earle, Ann Guenther, Bill Layne, and Walt Peregoy. (I'm sure I'm leaving a few notables out; I always do.)

Throughout his life, he enjoyed having multiple careers. He created record album covers, beach towels, and independent films. Also Christmas cards. Lots and lots of Christmas cards.

Over the next several weeks, we'll be putting up various samples of his holiday work here. As for offerings from earlier times, click on the link below.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

The Seventh Day of Ralph Hulett's Christmas

© by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

With all the pro-union, anti-union invective flying back and forth in the comments section of "Accelerated Disintegration", now is maybe a good time to post this Hulett Christmas card...

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

The twenty-fourth day of Ralph Hulett's Christmas

© by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

The jesters again. Carrying trays again. If you scroll down, you'll find another design quite similar to this one. These colorful bits of card art came out years (decades) apart, and Mr. Hulett wasn't above reworking designs that had earlier sold like hot cakes.

Two more Christmas cards to go ...

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

The third day of Ralph Hulett's Christmas

© by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

Mr. Hulett had himself a little mini-business painting cards with specific characters. His tall/short jesters were characters he painted every year in various activities. The jesters (or are they servants?) holding Christmas-type foods became a vertical card this particular year and a horizontal card in another year.

(You get a subject that enjoys robust sales, you do variations ...)

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

Twilight Journey, by Ralph Hulett

The bell-gable arch and the twilight sky firm an imposing background for this strikingly beautiful oil painting of the weary travelers.

R. Hulett didn't paint very many Christmas cards in oils, but this is one of them. Most were done in the manner of Disney backgrounds.

© 1961 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image. See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm. Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

The last day of Ralph Hulett's Christmas

© by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

LAST DAY of Christmas cards -- and Mr. Hulett departs with a Chirstmas Mouse in a pine tree. Can't get much more festive than saying goodbye with Santaesque vermin.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

The Last Day of Ralph Hulett's Christmas

(c) by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

And so we come to the last of the Hulett Christmas cards, with Santa Claus burying himself under beach sand, being politically incorrect. (Santa is no doubt here because he grows weary of Blitzen blowing smoke rings in his face.)

** Happy New Year **

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

Ralph Hulett's Christmas, day VI

© by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

Another moody landscape card, slightly reminiscent of the “Ave Maria” section of Fantasia (on which Father did air-brush effects during his first couple of years at Disney...)

And how did the Christmas cards get sold in those far-off days of the early 'sixties? Why, the card companies had large albums out on large tables, complete with order forms. And potential customers would flip through the books examining sample cards, then order box sets of the cards they liked. This system of card buying has largely passed from existence, as has card companies paying royalties.

Back then, the card companies would send their artists out on publicity junkets to department stores across the fruited plain, where they would paint sample designs for the assembled multitudes, give interviews, and interact with the store managers.

Below is a picture of my father and fellow Christmas-card artist James Warren out on such a junket in 1963. Dad is the one looking over his shoulder with the marker or paint brush (or whatever it is) in his hand. James Warren is the artist who's seated. (I've no idea who the man in the light coat is.) So you see? There was more to the Christmas card industry than simply painting pretty designs at your day-job at Disney. You also had to fly around the country promoting the artwork.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post

The ninth day of Ralph Hulett's Christmas

© by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

Here's another "wise men travelling to Bethlehem" card. From the early sixties.

Which leads to a story: In 1960, Ralph H. wrote, produced and painted a film on the birth of Christ titled A Light Shines In the Darkness. It was slightly less than twenty minutes, a film of artwork depicting events around the birth of Jesus. He used a similar style to the one seen here: Dramatic lighting and colors, varied angles.

He worked on the film after hours at Disney; a cameraman in the animation camera department shot it for him on film-reel ends so Dad could keep costs down. Ralph used a few limited-animation techniques, but the film was essentially camera moves with styled artwork.

When Dad finished the film, he showed it to Walt Disney, who said "Nice. What do you plan to do with it?" Which sort of took the wind out of Father's sails, since he was hoping Disney would maybe pick it up.

The picture was ultimately distributed by Cathedral Films. Here's another Christmas card (posted last year) which echoes the style of Light ...

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

Click here to read entire post