Working on closeup 43

Working on closeup 43

 A small snippet of a family fishing oil painting...

Evening At Southampton Common Lake - WIP oil painting stages

Evening At Southampton Common Lake - WIP oil painting stages

painting in WIP stages - Evening At Southampton Common Lake

This oil painting features a scene at an ornamental lake within Southampton common, itself to be found in the middle of the city of Southampton. Above, the panel shows the artwork in stages. The initial stage is the composition drawn out in grey acrylic paint on a light brown ground base. The tonally brighter areas have been painted with a white wash, namely the sky and reflection to act as a guide and to help the painting tonally overall. The second panel shows an application of oil paint, diluted with thinner and applied as a wash with slightly darker colours, to act as under-painting. Once this has dried after a week or so the main body of paint, using oil paint straight out of the tube is applied, and it is at this stage that the correct colours and details are applied, with the forth panel showing the completed artwork which is done on a 16" x 20" canvas. 
The final painting can be seen at a higher resolution here.

Steampunk Girl With Spaceship - digital painting

Steampunk Girl With Spaceship - digital painting

Steampunk Girl With Spaceship - digital painting

This digital illustration was done over a period of February/ March 2018. It features a 'steam punk' inspired scene of a small, shuttle space craft that has made a forced landing on an alien planet. Its female pilot is out looking for help and deciding on her location while the sun sets. In the shadows some creatures are lurking in the shadows.

'Auto Sketchbook Pro' was used to create the artwork, initially running on an android tablet to rough out the basic idea and colours envisaged. As it is done on 'layers', the work is then exported to a Windows 10 computer running the same software but with more power, so that one of the first things to do is to scale up the document for better quality and continue painting. At a certain stage the artwork is then finished off in Photoshop, where final details and colour grading is carried out.

A larger view of the illustration can be seen on this link.

Red Boat Wreck Southampton - WIP oil painting stages

Red Boat Wreck Southampton - WIP oil painting stages

'Red Boat Wreck Southampton' painting in stages

'Red Boat Wreck Southampton' was painted during April 2018, and depicts a scene on the River Itchen, Southampton that is home to many boat wrecks.

In this WIP panel can be seen some of the stages of this acrylic painting, painted over a period of 10 days. In the first section can be seen the initial drawing of the scene with a wash applied for the tonally dark areas using 'paynes grey' coloured paint, and a white wash used for the areas of very light tonal values. This is done on top of a red/ brown 'ground' which acts as a base for the colours. 
The second panel now shows an initial layer of colours applied over the painting, at slightly darker values, which acts as the under painting. 
In the final section can be seen the finished painting, with the correct colour values painted on top of the under-painting. In addition the details in the painting are refined at this stage.

As the painting is all done in acrylic, it was quicker to do as there is no waiting for areas to dry, unlike oil paint.

The finished painting can be seen at a larger scale here.

Red Boat Wreck Southampton - acrylic painting

Red Boat Wreck Southampton - acrylic painting

Red Boat Wreck Southampton - acrylic painting

Painted in April 2018 the subject of this landscape painting are some of the boat wrecks to be found on this river in the city of Southampton. The river Itchen is host to many old and forgotten vessels, mostly small boats and rowing boats, some of which are now just the 'bones' of their former self.

The view shows two boats, one still painted red and has been converted to hold all sorts of pieces of wood and other junk on top of it. Possibly the boat is actually inhabited! As the river is tidal many wrecks are exposed on the mudflats when the tide is out and disappear when the water returns. In the distance can be seen Bevois Valley.

This acrylic painting measures 20” x 28” and is painted on thick watercolour paper.

A better view of the painting can be found on this link.

Working on closeup 42

Working on closeup 42

Marine ship painting WIP

  a small snippet of a marine based acrylic painting.....

 

Working on closeup 41

Working on closeup 41

WIP lake oil painting

 A small snippet of an old painting of a lake...

Spaceman With Space Station Orbiting Green Planet - WIP stages

Spaceman With Space Station Orbiting Green Planet - WIP stages

stages of digital painting of spaceman with space station illustration

Completed in January 2018, this digital painting shows a space scene, very much portrayed with a retro, 1970s flavour. Depicted in the scene is an astronaut looking on as a small scout ship approaches him. The small ship has presumable come from the much larger space station in the background, orbiting a hazy, green planet.
The digital illustration was drawn in 'Auto Sketchbook Pro' , running on an android tablet. At a certain stage the file was then exported to a W10 computer running the same software. then, at a late stage the artwork is opened up in photoshop for final detail and colour grading.
The final image can be seen here in detail.

Winter shopping season Southampton - oil painting

Winter shopping season Southampton - oil painting

Winter shopping season Southampton - 24" 36" oil painting

During very early 2018, the important Southampton City Art Gallery held an open exhibition where the theme was 'the seasons'. I created 3 oil paintings for this exhibition which were exhibited, and the one featuring in this post also won the competition beating over 500 other entries.

It shows a miserable, winters day in the middle of the shopping zone of Southampton City. It has been raining and members of the public have only the thoughts of shopping on their minds as they use the road crossing. One of the main features of the painting is the wet surfaces and puddles, that adds lots of visual interest to the scene in the form of reflections and damp surfaces.

The painting is done in oils on a canvas sized at 24” x 36”, and took approx 4 weeks to paint, during December 2017.
Details and pictures of the exhibition can be seen here.
The painting can be seen at a larger scale on this link.