Southampton Central railway station signal gantry1950's - oil painting

The end of the platform at Southampton central station (Hampshire) is shown in this oil painting, created during late 2021. It is based on a B/W photo taken by J Bailey that was taken at some point in the 1950's.
One dominant and famous feature of the station is the large semaphore signal gantry situated at the western end of the station, which was removed in 1981. A small Victorian build 0-4-4 tank locomotive is receiving water before continuing with its journey to Fawley, on a branch line, with the main line running to Weymouth in Dorset.
The painting is sized at 33” x 23” and dome on primed mounting board. It can be seen in greater detail on this link. 

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.

SWT commission #ArtOnBoard 2016

SWT commission #ArtOnBoard 2016

Original acrylic painting and as applied to train

This is the pleasing end result of a commission from GTB advertising agency for a promotion for South West Trains (SWT), a railway company based on routes in the south west of England from Waterloo station (London).

The painting shows a scene based on the New Forest, Hampshire, in the south of England. The national Park is large and features various types of landscape. I picked a location near to Brockenhurst with which it is possible to view trains running through the landscape and show its famous residence, the livestock that is allowed to roam freely throughout the forest. This is mainly horses, cows, ponies and donkeys.

The original painting was done in acrylics on a canvas sized at 150cm x 70cm during August 2016. It had to be finished by the start of September, and was applied to the first of two trains during late October, and on which day I was invited to see the artwork (reproduced on vinyl sections) being applied. The art was to applied four times on each train. During late November the campaign, to advertise advertising space on trains, was unveiled officially. The above photograph shows it on the train displayed at Waterloo station.

More details of the project, including work in progress pictures, can be seen here.

#art #NewForest #painting #Hampshire #ArtOnBoard

SWT instagram posting depot photo

SOUTH WEST TRAINS instagram posting 

depot photo

This is a photo taken (27 Oct 2016) at Strawberry Hill railway depot (London) showing my art, partly applied, to a class 450 EMU as used by South West Trains. The top part of the design is missing at the time. The picture was displayed on Instagram before the official launch of the campaign. I was invited to the depot to see the artwork being applied.
#artist #ArtOnBoard #Hampshire #NewForest #painting

Martin's work is now being exhibited on our trains and many of you have spotted these around. Thank you for your pictures and continue to share those with us. We're excited to say Caz's work is coming soon #ArtOnBoard #OnBoardWithYou

A photo posted by South West Trains (@southwesttrains) on Nov 9, 2016 at 7:08am PST

Monster Train attacking Cowboys

Monster Train attacking Cowboys

A big, black steam train has transformed in to a monster. Some cowboys have come across it and the monster is angry. Its pistons have turned in to pincers and the firebox has teeth and claws to eat its victims with. Large clouds of dirty smoke are pumping out from the hot and aggressive metal creature, its lamp transformed in to an eye. The cowboys are trying their best at controlling it but the horse is very frightened.

Digital illustration painted in photoshop to A3 size during February 2014.

http://martin-davey.artistwebsites.com/featured/monster-train-attacking-cowboys-martin-davey.html

 

Monster Train attacking Cowboys-digital painting

More railway locomotive paintings

Exbury Gardens Railway 10th anniversary

Leopold de Rothschild driving 'Mariloo'

Exbury Steam Railway 10th Anniversary

During August I was invited to attend the celebrations for the exbury gardens railway 10th anniversary. The above painting was a commissioned work for presentation to Leopold de Rothschild, owner of the garden and railway, and is pictured in the cab. The locomotive is named 'Mariloo' and is pictured in the gardens. The painting is based on a great photo taken by Nigel Philpott, a manager of the gardens. I added the headboard,front of engine and the lord himself.
The painting is done in acrylics on a canvas 20"x16". I usually paint in oils, but due to time constraints I had to use acrylics, but I feel the outcome is successful. 
  

steam engine bulleid merchant navy pacific 30005 study

During the Exbury event I set up my easel and did a small demonstration painting in acrylics,12"x10 on canvas board. It is a detail of a merchant navy pacific express locomotive (30005). The under drawing was done before the event, and the painting was sold during the event.

from the website...

Exbury steam Railway 10th Anniversary 

This is painted on a canvas measuring 16" x 20". It is painted in Acrylics which is very rare for me to use, and this was my first Acrylic painting for decades. Often in my paintings the work will be started in Acrylics and then finished on top in oils. The deadline was very tight for this painting, and there was no time for allowed to let (oil) layers dry. I was suprised at how well the acrylic colours came out, and in addition the image was sharper than usual, perhaps because of the medium or the sharpness of the reflections on the engine boiler. The painting took about 5 days to produce. The image was to celebrate ten years of the existence of the the Exbury narrow gauge steam railway, situated at the Exbury Gardens and steam railway, Hampshire, in the New Forset, UK. The Engine was built in 2008 at the Exmoor steam railway, Devon and is named Mariloo. The driver pictured is owner, of the gardens and railway, Leopold de Rothschild. The railway opened in 2001 and this image is based on a modified photograph taken by Nigel Philpot.

steam engine Bulleid merchant navy pacific 30005 study

This small (10" x 12") acrylic painting was done as a demonstration painting in public at an Exbury Railway open day. It is of a section of a 'Merchant Navy Pacific' locomotive, built in the 1940s by the engineer Bulleid. This actual engine depicted was not at the location, but instead I used an old photograph taken years before. The painting was created in the engine shed at the garden railway, and probably contains a level of soot mixed in with the paint!

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. 

Animals On A Tube Train Subway Commute To Work

ANIMAL TRAIN COMMUTE

Painted in photoshop at A4 size, this is an entertaining collection of animals going to work. The interior of the train is based on a central line underground train. I wanted the passengers to do normal things that commuters do, ipod etc, and liked the horse with hooves operating a laptop. If the scene was slightly wider I would have had water on the floor around the base of the seals tail. Painted dec 2008.

from the website...
Traveling on the London Underground was something I did for over ten years. It was a only a matter of time before I decided to put animals in to replace humans in this normally mundane routine for many. Over half of the underground system is overground but an African savanna view like this outside would be very rare. The illustrated cartoon animals seen on their daily commute here are lions, an elephant, seal reading newspaper, cows, crab, horse typing on laptop, fox with ipod,rhinoceros reading paper, monkey hanging from hand rail, giraffe and a crab carrying its briefcase on its shell. It is painted in photoshop to A4 size and took about a 5 days to do. The original drawing is done on the computer using a drawing tablet, and then painted electronically using traditional painting techniques. The inside of the carriage is based on a central line train.