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Upcoming Artwork to Celebrate Retirement - Sydney Trains Waratah Test Set at Milsons Point

Having spent over 50 years developing designs, overseeing construction and managing civil, structural and rail engineering projects, I will be hanging up my hard hat, handing back my past 20 years of Australian engineering history stored on the Company laptop, and saying 'byethenoo' to colleagues and work-related friends in the coming weeks. To celebrate a transition from work to spending more time on my art hobby, I have gone back to an early significant rail project from 2006 through to 2015, to produce an art piece of one of the first Sydney Trains test sets coming into Milsons Point station with a view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (SHB) in the background. One of my senior bridge engineering colleagues managed the design & construction for deck strengthening and track support upgrade of the SHB and captured the image that I have used for the art piece. I will describe the process of developing the artwork through to posting onto the website. Click on the header title to see next page Images and description.

Ian Macfarlane

8/5/20262 min read

Pencil drawing followed overmarking by 0.1mm ink pen drawing

Original Image from end of Platform

Finished artwork

This art piece was selected specifically for my retirement evening as it was one of the first projects I won a significant tender for Halcrow - shortly after arrival in Sydney. It is dedicated to my ex-colleagues who worked on the PPP Waratah project for upto 10 years, bringing Sydneysiders a new comfort, safety and efficiency in rail travel throughout the Greater Sydney Network.

Selecting an A3 size premium 300gsm watercolour paper, I attempt to place the two main objects - the Waratah train centred in lower left third of the paper and the Sydney Harbour Bridge centred in the upper right of the paper - for composition.

I then draw in light pencil the key elements and when this looks ok, complete by hand-drawn ink overmark with a 0.1mm nib. I research my colour scheme, noting the original image taken around sunset with a warm summer evening lighting, allowing for a varied colour background wash for the sky area. I do try to vary the colour scheme from the original photo image, to help the artwork stand out. There are also items in the original photo image that get left out as they would detract from the focus of trying the keep the elements simple and in focus.

I go from light to dark in the colour scheme, sometimes going over the same area 3 or 4 times with the lighter, more watery, colours, with final shadow type wash and thicker paint on a small brush for the detailing. I also used a technique known as 'spattering' for the track ballast area and the platform waiting area.

This was another learning process and the end product admired by many for it's detail and overall composition. It was put up for donation auction at my retirement evening event - see separate Blog Post.

This artwork is available for purchase as a print in three different sizing - go to the Arthouse Shop if interested.