Southampton Northam Railworks - oil painting

Painted in early 2022 this scene shows railway works at Northam (Mount Pleasant) a suburb of Southampton. The normally busy four track railway is closed and the level crossing for road vehicles has been temporarily pulled up. New track is due to be placed on fresh ballast using the approaching panel hanging from the rail crane. In the distance in this industrial scene, can be seen some of the landmark buildings of the city of Southampton.
This painting measures 33” x 23”, done on mounting board using oil paint. A number of photographs were taken a couple of years previously and used for reference for this artwork. Unusually this engineering/ transport artwork was painted in public during a residency at the Southampton city art gallery, in public, during the spring of 2022.

The painting can be seen in greater detail here.

M7 Steam engine in the Southern Countryside - WIP stages

Railway painting featuring M7 tank locomotive in the country WIP.

A steam railway engine is shown running through the southern English countryside in a 1950s setting. The artwork is sized at 22" x 16" and painted in oils on mounting board. It was done for reproduction as a greeting card, sized at 7” x 5”, for a railway society.

The panel above shows three stages of the paintings evolution. In the first panel the drawing, done in dark brown acrylic paint can be seen, which is painted on a brown wash. White paint has been added to indicate tonally lighter areas, such as the sky. Moving on to the second panel a basic set of colours has been added using diluted oil paint. This is done to indicate where the colours and tonal variations are within the artwork, and act as an underpainting. The third and final panel features the finished oil painting. Here the paint has been applied over the underpainting in a thicker and more refined manner, and detail added. This nostalgic railway scene can be seen in better resolution 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.

Working on closeup 70

Working on closeup 70

 A small snippet of a railway based oil painting...

Fantasy big railroad locomotive departing city - WIP stages

Fantasy big railroad locomotive departing city - WIP stages

Stages of the digital artwork consisting of the gigantic railway locomotive.

A gigantic railway locomotive is about to depart a city with very tall skyscrapers in this 1940s inspired retro railway illustration. The digital artwork was completed during December 2019. The first stage of the illustration was to do the initial drawing/ colour concept on a Samsung tablet running software called 'Auto Sketchbook Pro', a drawing app that uses a pressure sensitive pen. Once the concept is worked up to a point using the device, the file is then transferred to a more powerful windows desktop machine, which also runs the same program. The tablet can only do so much before it reaches its operational limits and the image, to be printable, needs to be of a far bigger size than the tablet can cope with. The file is exported as PSD levels as set on the tablet app, and these remain on the desktop file. The image is enlarged to 6000px (horizontal) and then is redrawn/ repainted at this new definition, with some work carried out additionally in Photoshop.

The picture below shows three panels, the first is the drawing with the second showing the colour rough as completed on the tablet. The final panel features the finished artwork as completed on the desktop machine. The illustration can be viewed 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.

closeup working progress 09

closeup working progress 09

 A small snippet of an industrial fantasy scene...

Women texting on Christchurch station - WIP stages acrylic painting

Women texting on Christchurch station - WIP acrylic painting stages

stages of working on 'Women texting on Christchurch station' art

This painting was produced during June 2018, and shows passengers on a station awaiting a train. They are all busy texting while awaiting transportation during a sunny winters afternoon.

The panel shows four stages to the creation of the painting, which is sized at 16” x 12”, and painted on stretched water-colour paper. In the first panel the drawing is shown, done in brown acrylic paint. A wash with the same colour paint is applied to show the shadows. Unusually in this case I did not do a coloured 'ground' over the paper, normally a yellow ochre or red, but just kept the paper 'white'. In the second panel dark base colours are applied, to help establish positioning of colours and act as an under-painting layer for when future paint layers are added. The third panel shows progression on the details and layers of paint being built up to there intended tonal values, which it turn leads to the finished artwork as shown in the forth panel.

The painting can be seen in detail on 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.

class 85 electric locomotive at euston station

class 85 electric locomotive at euston station

This is so far the oldest image of mine that has been posted here. It was painted in 1992/93 and it is,unusually for this blog, painted in gouache. It was based on a B/W 35mm photograph I took back in 1990. At that time I was also developing my own B/W prints, in the bathroom! The colour reference was gained from reference and my own memory.
These were old electric locomotives at the time. Built at doncaster,UK in 1960, they were withdrawn and mostly scrapped in c1990, this one pictured, scrapped in 1991.

from the website...
This is quite an old painting, one of my oldest pieces on this site. It measures 15" x 10" and is painted on paper with acrylics. The artwork shows a class 85 electric locomotive at Euston (London) station in the early 1990s. These railway locomotives disappeared shortly afterwards from the network. It is based on a B/W photo that I took on a 35mm SLR camera and then printed my self (chemically) on to paper using an enlarger. Painting on paper allows one to paint finer details, in a small area than on canvas, due to the absence of the canvas weave. The driver in his cab helps to add interest and anticipation to the composition. I also felt that the 'straight on' composition adds a factual, no nonsense feeling to the artwork.
Painted early 1990s.