THE PROCESS
My process begins with translating inspiration into a rough pencil sketch. From there, I work color into the most detailed subjects —usually, the lead locomotive of a train.
A trio of brand-new Chesapeake & Ohio EMD SD50 locomotives haul West Virginian coal deep in the Appalachians, circa 1985.
April 2016
I take inspiration from a wide variety of sources, including railroad magazines and books, blueprints and drafts, and rail photo databases.
The Denver & Rio Grande Western’s streamlined California Zephyr carefully navigates Byers Canyon, Colorado, during winter 1955.
December 2016
THE MEDIUM
Graphite (sketching)
Fine-tipped pen (locomotive and rolling stock detail)
Colored pencil (color transitions, sky and ground coloration, snow, water)
Marker (bold colors, paint schemes, numbering and lettering)
Acrylic/oil (foliage, rock, other natural elements; fine edges)
GALLERY
A selection of my commissioned and freelanced work since 2013.
A Southern Railway freight at Charlotte, North Carolina’s Amtrak station, circa 1984.
May 2020
Factory-fresh Chicago & Northwestern motive power crosses the Missouri River at Blair, Nebraska.
March 2016
Classic 1990’s Amtrak expedited service at Niantic, Connecticut. Based on an Al Crossley photo.
January 2016
Denver & Rio Grande Western tunnel motors skirt the banks of Palmer Lake, Colorado in the ‘80s.
December 2015
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.
September 2018
A Burlington Northern coal train sweeps through Savanna, Illinois, during the winter of 1978.
December 2019
A pair of Delaware & Hudson Baldwin “Sharknose” diesels power boxcars through upstate New York in 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
©2015–2023 August VanCleave