ABOUT a year ago I completed a 36 X 24 inch oil on canvas of a totally cool geared locomotive that I saw at the Railroad Park Resort in Dunsmuir, CA. This one, a "Williamette", is on static display, and there are maybe only 1-2 left in the Pacific NW in working condition. I had never seen anything like it– all 3 wheel arrays (called "trucks") have power to them via a crazy drive shaft that has gimbals and articulated gears and other cool moving parts that I have no idea about. All this enabled the engine to navigate tight curves up steep slopes in a logging operation, and that's why they were built. They were like the 4WD Jeeps of steam locomotives.
This engine wasn't resting on a trestle of course, but it really was necessary to portray it in its element. It was not uncommon for these things to trundle across temp bridgework, pushing beat-up flat cars of logs. This is my Photoshop composite using my photos with some old reference pics. I later changed the flatcar being "pulled" to one being "pushed", as my research showed this was pretty typical.
Image 3 shows the canvas all sketched out and ready for paint.
Image 4 shows an early stage of the painting with color being blocked in.
Pretty! I have no idea about what the technical stuff means but I liked that you dumbed it down for us at the end. ;) Mwah!
ReplyDeleteI like that you showed different stages of completion to show us how your work gets done. It really is a complicated process to do it right. So, it is accurate and beautiful!
ReplyDeleteHey-thanks, Mark! A true compliment coming from a pro like you!
ReplyDelete