Plein air painting 70

Painted on an early morning day in September 2022, this landscape painting shows the iconic Bargate structure in the city of Southampton. It was originally the entrance to what was then a town and would have had tall walls either side to protect the town from invasion. There are still a number of 'gates' and sections of wall around the city indicating its size at the time. It was built in Norman times and is grade 1 listed. Behind, on the right, a new development is rising which will help to showcase some of the existing wall in that part of the city.

Painted on mounting board sized at 12" x 9.5" in oils.

 

Plein air painting 62

French street, Southampton is home to a number of interesting old buildings. The street leads from the city to the waterside and is found in the "old town" area of the city, mainly dating from the medieval era. In this landscape plein air painting the road is shown running down in the direction of the water side, to what is still used as part of the port. The ferry terminal is in the distance. On the right hand side can be seen the "Medieval merchants house", a structure dating from the 13th Century, and one that is very distinctive not only for its timber beam work but also for the hanging barrel situated on the front of the property. It was built for use by wine merchants and has a number of storage cellars, and a target for invasion by the French in 1337.In later years it stored wool and then became split into separate dwellings and eventually falling in to disrepair until saved for the nation.

The oil painting measures 12" x 9.5" and is done on mounting board.

Girl and Dragon fantasy - drawing vs painting comparison

Girl and Dragon fantasy - drawing vs painting comparison

Girl and Dragon fantasy - drawing vs painting comparison

The picture shows the initial drawing and finished painting of 'Girl and Dragon Fantasy' together. Both the drawing and painting are created digitally using 'Auto Sketchbook Pro' app, to be found on tablets and desktop computers. To begin, the drawing would have been created with each object, for example the dragon, within the composition on a separate layer and cleaned up on a further layer until the drawing looks reasonably good to work from. 
After this step is done the sketch is then enlarged in Photoshop to the required output size and saved, and again each element is placed and painted on separate layers to make working on the file easier and more flexible, using Auto Sketchbook pro again.
Sometimes the drawings will be changed slightly, because it can be found that the content need some improvement.  The drawing is just to act as a starting board, so the subject to be revised when being painted would in effect be redrawn at the same time, rather than go back and alter the drawing level. It can be seen that there are a few subtle changes between the drawing and painting on close examination.
The finished painting can be seen here in closeup.

Girl with Dragon Fantasy - digital painting

Girl with Dragon Fantasy - digital painting

Girl with Dragon fantasy - digital painting

This fantasy digital painting was done during the latter part of January 2017. The subject is a girl armed with sword with a large black dragon behind her. In the background can be seen an abandoned castle.

It was painted using 'Auto Sketchbook Pro' running under windows, with final grading and some extra textures added using Photoshop.
The painting can be seen in detail here.