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I have written this short piece to introduce myself. I live with my wife and two grown-up sons in Medway, Kent, UK and I am a freelance graphic artist/designer by profession. As a boy I lived to the south of London, between Morden and Sutton, and would often cycle to one of the footbridges at the south end of Wimbledon Station and wait for the steam hauled main line trains to thunder underneath me, although I had no idea what they were - what a waste! I also visited the Talyllyn and Ffestiniog railways while on holiday with my parents in the early sixties. My real interest in railways dates from a visit to the Bluebell Railway in 1974. I liked what I saw and wanted to learn more. This led to me visiting Camden library, near where I worked in Holborn, and working my way through their stock of books about steam locomotives and railways in general. At the same time I became a member of the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society and visited other steam railways around the country. |
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Masthead for Bluebell News |
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During the eighties I started producing drawings of steam locomotive. Starting by just producing a line drawing and applying flat colour, then adding more detail to each one and using an airbrush to make them three dimensional. This has now led to the highly detailed illustrations I now produce. My early illustration of Bluebell Railway locomotive Stepney was printed and sold to benefit the railway. I have also produced graphics for the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society, such as the masthead used on the Society magazine. My involvement with the Bluebell Railway led to me being asked to produce the artwork for Battle of Britain Class, No. 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair's enamelled plaques. The locomotive is currently being restored at Sheffield Park, Sussex. Although I had one of the originals as a guide this was damaged so I needed to do some research to produced the new artwork. I also look after the Bulleid Society's web site. Recently I produced the black and white line drawings for John Havey's book on the Bulleid Merchant Navy Pacifics - published by Ian Allan. John obtained a lot of engineering drawings from the National Railway Museum and working from them I was able to produce accurate scale drawings. These cover most of the locomotive and tender variations of this complex class. |
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Although a lot of my involvement is with Southern locos my interest covers all companies, indeed the modelling I do is Great Western. I have started to produce models in Scale Seven of the period just before the First World War, this indulges my love of Edwardian locomotives and means I can also use a different livery from the normal chocolate and cream for the coaching stock. My quest for accuracy led me to producing my own transfers for the wagons I have built, as I was not happy with the ones available commercially. I am also interested in wildlife and am a member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which has led me to try my hand at bird illustration. I hope this brief self profile has been helpful. If you are wondering about the style of lining on the left-hand side of the page, the Great Western used it on Royal Locomotives to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897.
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