Loading ships Southampton Docks - water color sketch

Loading ships Southampton Docks - water color sketch

This sketch was done during an afternoon in June with the weather going from cloudy to sunny quite frequently. It shows a scene at Southampton east docks with two large 'box' like ships loading up with cars. The ship in the distance is moored on a an angled section of the dock. The closer one has its stern straight on and the ramp is connected to it for driving cars on or off.  All the cars are held in a purpose built multi storey car park, shown on the right, for a temporary period until transported away from the docks, or on to the ship for export. The red  'blob' is not a funnel but an emergency life boat that is shot away from the ship when launched in an emergency. The small water colour painting is just under A4 size and done on cheap paper.

Ships loading at Southampton east docks - water colour sketch

Marwell Zoo Zany Zebra campaign 2016 update 13

Marwell Zoo Zany Zebra campaign 2016 update 13

CASA BRAZIL  Zany Zebra by Martin Davey design vs finished sculpture

Recently, official photographs were taken in a studio showing my two completed painted Zebra sculptures for the Marwell Zoo 'Zany Zebra' campaign, which are due to be seen publicly on the streets of Southampton during during the summer. The start date is 16th July 2016 and runs until October. This design is sponsored by CASA BRAZIL, a Brazilian themed restaurant chain in the south of England (the other Zebra not shown here is by Associated British Ports). The image shows on the left the original design as drawn in photoshop. On the right can be seen the finished, life size painted sculpture. It can be seen that the design has transferred well from the flat, 2D image. Sometimes slight alterations are made because of the fact of dealing with a 3dimentional object can reveal 'gaps', not apparent in the 'flat' workings out. The colours have some changes, notably the yellow as an exact match was not available with the emulsion paints I tend to use on these projects and the photo as introduced a slight colour shift anyway.

Sunday Morning Rowing at Itchen Bridge, Southampton WIP painting

Sunday Morning Rowing at Itchen Bridge, Southampton:

WIP PAINTING

This composite photograph demonstrates work in progress on a recently completed painting showing rowers at a club preparing for a Sunday morning exercise on the River Itchen, Southampton. The picture shows 3 stages. The first panel is a red base colour ground with the drawing painted in brown acrylic paint. The second panel shows most of the basic, base colours applied to suggest tone and colour placement around the whole picture, which helps to give an idea of how the composition is working out and the final panel shows the finished painting. It is done on a 28" x 20" canvas on stretcher bars and painted with acrylics.
The painting was done during May 2016 mainly for entry in to the 'A Sporting Life' open art exhibition held at the Southampton City art gallery during Summer 2016. 
The finished painting can be seen here.
#hampshire #artist #southampton #marine #rowing

WIP of acrylic painting

'Sunday Morning Rowing at Itchen Bridge, Southampton'

 

View across River Itchen with factories

View across River Itchen with factories - water colour sketch

This small 7" x 10" water colour sketch was done on a Friday afternoon during June. It was not a sunny day and some hint of rain was in the air. The painting shows a view from a boat yard/ marina in Northam, Southampton looking across the River Itchen to the other side. Here are a number of factories and industrial units in the Bitterne area of the city.

View across River Itchen to Bitterne factories, Southampton - watercolor sketch

A Sporting Life: Submissions accepted

A Sporting Life: Submissions accepted

I found out recently that my two paintings for the exhibition at Southampton City Art gallery have been accepted.  A few days before the gallery tweeted an image of some of the paintings presumably accepted and was pleased to see my two paintings in the foreground.
The exhibition is called 'A Sporting life' and runs from the 25th June – 10th September 2016. 
#artist #Hampshire #exhibition #Southampton #paintings

Line up of paintings with my two submissions in the front

Upstart Crow Credit

Upstart Crow Credit

Sometimes I do work for television although it is rare nowadays, though in my earlier life most of my out put was for TV, mainly commercials. This series, 'Upstart Crow' has just finished its run on the BBC, with another series in the wings. My job was to create the drawings for the title sequence and the location inserts under the direction of my talented friend and director/ animator Kate Sullivan, whose web site is here. The comedy series is written by Ben Elton and stars David Mitchell, as William Shakespeare with a good supporting cast. Upstart Crow was commissioned as part of the 400th year anniversary of Shakespeare's death, strand of programme. The title sequence, and the style of the art obviously reflects the drawings of the day. Sadly, due to BBC rules, I only get a credit on the final programme of the series!
The artwork itself can be seen on my website, here.

Martin Davey credit on Upstart Crow

 

Working on close-up 02

Working on close-up 02

A small snippet of an acrylic sport themed painting currently in progress.... 

sport acrylic painting snippet 02

 

boat yard with crane - water colour sketch

boat yard with crane - water colour sketch

This water colour sketch, painted on a sheet measuring 10" x 7", was done on a sunny Sunday afternoon in June 2016. It is set in a boat yard next to the River Itchen, Southampton. A number of the undersides of boat hulls can be seen, with various pieces of clutter on the ground, with a large crane in the background used to life the vessels in and out of the water when required.

 boat yard with crane - water colour sketch

Working on close-up 01

Working on close-up 01

A small snippet of an acrylic marine themed painting currently in progress....

#artist #marine #dingy #sport #acrylicpainting

Southampton City Wall - watercolour sketch

Southampton City Wall - watercolour sketch

This sketch was done on a sunny Sunday morning in early June and shows a part of the remains of the old stone walls that once surrounded the town of Southampton, and date from the 1300's. The road it is on, the Weston Esplanade, would not have been there originally and in fact the sea would have been licking against the wall, while ships would have unloaded valuable cargo. The water colour sketch is 10" x 7" approx and took about an hour.

Southampton medieval wall - water colour sketch

Marwell Zoo Zany Zebra campaign 2016 update 12

Marwell Zoo Zany Zebra campaign 2016 update 12 

ABP Zany Zebra by Martin Davey design vs finished sculpture

Recently, official photographs were taken in a studio showing my two completed painted Zebra sculptures for the Marwell Zoo 'Zany Zebra' campaign, which are due to be seen publicly on the streets of Southampton during during the summer. The start date is 16th July 2016 and runs until October. This design is sponsored by ABP ( the other not shown by Casa Brazil) and the image shows on the left the original design as drawn in photoshop. On the right can be seen the finished, life size painted sculpture. It can be seen that the design has transferred well from the flat, 2D image. Sometimes slight alterations are made because of the fact of dealing with a 3dimentional object can reveal 'gaps', not apparent in the 'flat' workings out.

Blue boat - watercolour sketch

Blue boat - watercolour sketch

This small (10" x 7") sketch, that took about an hour to do, shows a boat moored within a marina in east Southampton during an overcast June day. This was my first venture in to watercolour painting for many years, in fact the early 1990s was probably the last time I touched the medium. It is not a perfect example of the craft but gradually as I proceeded with the project, elements of how to handle watercolour did start coming back to me. It is a very different medium to the acrylic/ oil paints I am used to!

Blue boat - water colour sketch