Terrier Tank railway locomotive at Havant Station - WIP stages

Terrier Tank railway locomotive at Havant Station - WIP stages

Stages of painting the railway locomotive at rest

This railway themed painting was produced during November 2019, and is based on a poor quality photograph taken during 1957 at Havant station, UK. The photo above shows work in progress over four panels. In the first can be seen the initial drawing done in brown acrylic paint on top of a brown wash. As the painting referred to an old blurry and contrasty photograph, a lot of research had to be done to actually see what the everything actually looked like in terms of detail, as it was hidden in the shadows or difficult to make out. Not just the locomotive but the buildings and cars. Also the original picture had two men crewing the locomotive, but these were reposed by a friend and redrawn in to the scene. Once the scene was nailed down the first application of thinned oil paint is made in the form of underpainting, which gives a indication of areas of colour using darker tones/ hues. In the third panel thicker paint has been applied over the underpainting which is more in keeping with the final intended tone/ colour. The final panel shows the completed oil painting which also had an addition layer of 'glaze' or transparent paint applied to enhance colour/ contrast within the scene. This railway scene can be looked at in detail by following this link.

Terrier Tank railway locomotive at Havant Station - oil painting

Terrier Tank railway locomotive at Havant Station - oil painting

Painting of a 'Terrier' locomotive taking on water at Havant.

This railway themed oil painting shows a small tank locomotive (called because of the water tanks mounted each side of the boiler) at a station. The engine is being topped up in the station bay in the English town of Havant, on the south coast. The locomotive crew consisting of the driver and fireman are to be seen preforming checks before departing for another service, and refilling the water tanks. Based on an old blurry and contrasty photograph taken in 1957, some research was made in to the engine (a 'Terrier numbered 32661) and the surroundings, including the cars. In addition the figures were reposed and then redrawn, but based on the ones in the picture. The locomotive itself is a LBSCR/ SR class A 0-6-0T, commonly known as a 'Terrier'. These small but very popular locomotives were built during the 1870s, and have a very elegant design. Many were still in service in to the 1960s, and a number can be found still running on preserved railways.

Painted using oils in November 2019, on mounting board sized at 33” x 23” approx. The artwork can be seen in greater detail on this link.

Fantasy big railroad locomotive departing city - digital illustration

Fantasy big railroad locomotive departing city - digital illustration

Finished artwork of a giganitic steam locomotive at a big city fantasy illustration

The subject of this scifi/ fantasy scene is a extremely large steam locomotive about to depart a city comprising of some very tall skyscrapers. Some employees of the railroad are having a meeting before departure. The landscape has a retro/ 1940s vibe in terms of the design of the buildings, car and locomotive sitting on the monorail railroad track. The main engineer is dressed in a classic uniform for the job.

Auto Sketchbook pro was used for the creation of this digital illustration. Initially it was started using a Samsung tablet to rough out the idea up to a certain stage. It would be nice to continue using the tablet but it has technical limitations as digital work is processor and ram intensive. It is exported to a windows desktop computer, still running the same program but with the power that is now available. One of the first jobs is to resize the whole image to something that can be printed up to a large scale, the initial image being too small for anything other than screen viewing. Then the whole painting is redrawn/ painted to the final required details/ colour for final output.

The illustration was completed during early December 2019, and can be seen in detail by following this link.

Southampton Freightliner Train Maintenance - oil painting

Southampton Freightliner Train Maintenance - oil painting

Southampton Freightliner Train Maintenance - oil painting

In this industrial scene can be seen maintenance work taking place at the Freightliner railway depot at Millbrook, Southampton, in the county of Hampshire. The closest locomotive has had part of the body shell removed so as to expose the 12 cylinder diesel engine, where men are working on the power unit. In the distance can be seen an other main line freight engine and an elderly shunting locomotive. The locomotives shown are a class 66, class 70 and a class 08. The two figures dressed in orange overalls were added to provide scale and interest to the scene.
The painting was done during August 2017 and is painted in oils on mounting board, measuring 20” x 28”.
This painting can be seen in detail here.

Working on closeup 32

Working on closeup 32

A small snippet of a railway/ industrial painted subject.... 
 

WIP close up of fitter maintaining engine

Little Happy Pigs On Train Journey

DAY TRIP FOR PIGS ON RAILWAY

This painting dates from 2005, and is one of the earliest photoshop illustrations of mine on the internet. I enjoy painting 'eccentric' railway locomotives, and I wanted to, at the time paint a picture which is clear and cute to the viewer. I have built in unrealistic curves in to the train track, hills and clouds.

from the website...
This is a very early digital painting, possibly the second one produced. The illustration shows some pigs on a day trip riding on a train in the countryside. The engine is a red steam engine, driven by a happy pig driver. The passengers are happy as well looking at the scenery, though one of them is busy reading a newspaper. I did intend to redraw this at a larger resolution, but the image changed in to another, similar illustration instead.