Inspired by Camille Pissarro, Lordship Lane Station, Dulwich, 1871.

We chose Lordship Lane Station, Dulwich by Pissarro for a few specific reasons. The painting spoke to us quite loudly as although it is a still painting, it felt as if it was a moving image. The incoming train was captured in time beautifully by Pissarro’s brush strokes and we really loved the way everything in the painting coexisted with each other. We also felt that a lot could be done with the piece, through the use of modern animation techniques.

In our research we found out that Pissarro painted this picture from the view of the station’s footbridge. The painting was put together in 1871, a time in which trains were only just being introduced in the area. This had quite an influence on our animation, as we decided to focus on the advancement of time and technology respectively. We decided to span from the birth of this area’s urbanization to its current state.

To make our animation, we used oil pastels in a similar way to which Pissarro used his oil paints. We had to recreate the original painting, and with only a week to do so, we used solvents to add more fluidity. After we were happy with the primary environment for the piece, we used cel sheets on top to add more details as the animation runs. We then used a rostrum camera to capture frames individually and put together our final animated piece.