PROGRESS BY PROCESS
Railroad art is a genre I’ve been infatuated with since childhood, inspired by the dynamic twentieth-century works of artists Howard Fogg, Tom Fawell, Ron Flanary and others.
In 2013, I began taking commissions for mixed-media prints depicting the continued industrial might of North American railroading. To date, I’ve completed thirty-seven such pieces.
A trio of brand-new Chesapeake & Ohio EMD SD50 locomotives haul West Virginian coal deep in the Appalachians, circa 1985.
April 2016
When drawing trains, I usually begin by interpolating scenes from multiple reference images into small pencil sketches. From there, I choose one scene for a full-size draft, and work color into the most detailed subjects.
I take inspiration from a wide variety of sources, including corporate and hobby publications, builder blueprints and company drafts, and online railroad photo databases.
The Denver & Rio Grande Western’s streamlined California Zephyr carefully navigates Byers Canyon, Colorado, during winter 1955.
December 2016
I often blur my backgrounds for a more cinematic look by blending pencil shading with overlaid acrylics for contrast. Some clients prefer I work directly from photo reference with minimal changes to the original scene.
My other method is a visual interpolation process of sorts, by which my research of a location aids me in creating original works from unseen points of view.
MIXED MEDIA
Graphite for sketching and shading, to begin
Fine-tipped pen for contrasted outline.
Train detail, including number boards, lettering, and logos
Marker for bold color in the light.
Color pencil for less-focused color areas.
Sky/ground coloration, water effects, snow and ice
Acrylic for contrast.
Foliage, rock, other natural elements; silver linings
In 2022, I was invited to present my work at the Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s annual Conversations in Lake Forest, Illinois. I made several new connections, including the editors of White River Productions’ Railfan & Railroad and Kalmbach’s Trains (both of whom would publish my photography the following year).
GALLERY
A Southern Railway freight passes Charlotte, North Carolina’s Amtrak station, circa 1984.
May 2020
Factory-fresh Chicago & Northwestern motive power crosses the Missouri River at Blair, Nebraska, late in 1993.
March 2016
Classic 1990s Amtrak expedited service at Niantic, Connecticut. Based solely on a photo by Al Crossley.
January 2016
Denver & Rio Grande Western tunnel motors skirt the banks of Palmer Lake, Colorado in the 1980s.
December 2015
One of the final days of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway before the BNSF merger; Chicagoland: August 1995.
August 2021
Newly outshopped DC-to-AC traction “convertibles” on the Norfolk Southern at Natural Tunnel State Park, Virginia.
March 2020
The “Spirit of the Union Pacific'“, UP 1943, races across the Nebraskan prairie with an executive excursion. Based on a Zach Pumphery photo.
September 2018
A Burlington Northern coal train sweeps through Savanna, IL, during the winter of 1978.
December 2019
A pair of Delaware & Hudson Railway Baldwin-built “Sharknose” diesels power boxcars through upstate New York during summer 1975.
July 2016
Thunder rolls as Florida East Coast Railway’s new General Electric ES44C4 locomotives cross into St. Augustine, Florida.
September 2015
An ex-Illinois Central locomotive holds for a passing CN freight at DuQuoin, Illinois.
December 2020
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