The Anatomy of a Painting

I have been asked many times: "How long does it take you to do a painting?"  So for those that have wondered I have added this page. 


I was called and asked if I could do a painting of a locomotive that was never built.  As I had done this many times before there was no problem with the idea.  I was sent the builders drawings of the locomotive.  It is of an ALCO C636P or the Passenger version of the C636.  The designers at ALCO put a cowling on the locomotive and put a steam generator in the unit.  My client thought it looked "rad" and wanted to see how it would look as a Southern Pacific unit.

This is the sketch I came up with as to how the C636P would have looked.  I chose the area of the Pequop mountains of eastern Nevada.  The time of year would be spring.  Talking with the client we figured that the locomotive would be in the 6070 series.  I first drew the locomotive as per the plans but as most SP locomotives had snowplows, I quickly roughed one in to see how it would look.   


This is the first day of work.  Mainly it is just placing the locomotive and train in the space that the client dictates in this case 14" x 28."  I also lightly sketch in the background profile from photos of the area the train is running.

Day 2:  The paint starts to fly.  I also thought that since the SP had a unique light package, that I would add it to the front of the locomotive.  At this stage I had planned to have the train be #22 which was an eastbound mail train that ran from Oakland to Ogden.


Day 3:  Most of the background is in except for the upper lefthanded corner.  The scenery is mostly roughed in but as it is a watercolor I need to get it right the first time.  I add the shadows and tree lines to highlight the train.


Day 4: I start on the locomotive.  As I am making something that was never built I needed to check how other SP units wore the paint scheme and also how other ALCO Century series locomotives had the intakes and lovers arranged.  I also was looking at ALCO PAs and EMD FP 45's for ideas for the cowling.

Day 5:  The locomotive takes shape but needs to be refined.  I also got a call from the client stating he wanted me to put a dome in the consist.  Therefore the train went from #22 to #28 the Overland Limited.

Day 6:  The locomotive was going along fine and I threw some color in the back to see how the train would look, with the dome.

Day 7:  The locomotive is close to the final set up before it can be lettered.  I did turn the lights on however.  I also didn't like the way the train in the back looked so I moved the cars around.  This looked better to me but there was still much detailing I needed to do and the background in the upper corner was starting to gnaw at me.

Day 8:  I finished the train and the foreground. I even finished the upper left hand corner! The client wanted exhaust which I added but did not want the signal line pole at the left of the painting.  The client wanted the marker lights to be on depicting a "first" section of the train.  I chose the locomotive numbers to be 6074 lead unit and 6071 as the trailing unit.

Day 9:  This is the finished painting.  Darks touched up, lettering touched up, scenery touched up, signal pole gone and my signature added.   Done!



Oil
I was asked if I could put up an oil painting along with the watercolor above.
I needed to do a painting of a locomotive that ran in the south for the Christmas Card line.  I chose to do an Atlantic Coast Line 4-8-4 on the Havana Special.  The train would be southbound, time around 8:20 a.m., after a storm had dumped snow from Virgina to North Carolina. 


Day 1: Sketch out the locomotive and the area where I want the train to be located.   This is watercolor canvas I was given to see if I like the way it worked.  It didn't take watercolor too well, but I liked the tight weave and decided to see how it worked with oil.  The size is 18" x 24."   The most difficult part of this painting was finding photos of the ACL 4-8-4s.  I found 7 photos to work from, none of them very good.  


 
Day 2:  I wanted the sky to be ominous looking, with the train out racing the storm.  I threw in a stormy sky and also the North Carolina pines that are so prevalent around the northern part of the state.  I tried to show speed with the exhaust but not sure I like it.  I also started to work on the smoke box and pilot of the locomotive.



Day 3:  Progress at this part of the painting is painfully slow.  There is a lot of layering paint as well as adding information to the locomotive.   Again, it was hard to get the information I needed to make the locomotive 100% correct.   I also noticed that I had the color scheme on the tender wrong.




Day 4:  I fixed the colors on the tender!  I also got the pilot to where I could moved on with out turning the paint in to mud and worked back adding the cylinders and drivers.  I also filled in the boiler and shaped it.  I added the bell and whistle too.



Day 5:  I rounded off the boiler and added the piping, hand rails etc.  I also cleaned up the drivers and side rods and put more detail on the pilot.  The cars on the train were next up.  The train came from New York and as it is the Christmas Season, this would be one of seven sections of the the Havana Special.  I borrowed a few "Pennsy" to make the trip south.



Day 6:  Remember I didn't like the exhaust?  Well as I looked at the sky I thought it needed more action, so I changed the sky and the exhaust, which also means I had to redo the pines.  I did tighten up the locomotive and finish the drivers.




Day 7: Oil paint dries slowly. Most of the locomotive was still wet so, I worked on the scenery.  Now the pines have green showing instead of just shadowy shapes.  I also added a small rise behind the locomotive and started on the track.  As the boiler was drying I added a few more color variances to it and also added lights to the markers.   As, I looked, I still didn;t like the exhaust.



Day 9:  The paint dried enough so I could put the final details on the locomotive and tender, plus turned on the headlight and started lettering the locomotive.   I also added more detail to the cars and started on the track.


Day 10:  Now we're cookin'.  Finished the locomotive, but would find I had misplaced some piping.  I fine detailed the cars and added two more to the train, making it 19 cars long instead of 17.  I also worked on the track.  To make the track look good I have to spend one to two days on it, even with snow around it, to make it look right takes time and a lot of work.



Day 11:  With the train complete, its time to work on the scenery.  I found a photo of an ACL freight train heading through the area I had envisioned before I started to paint this.  I added exfoliated trees and detailed the bushes.  I also started on the foreground, which I was making  up as I went along.  I also changed the exhaust.  I like it now.



Day 12:  I brightened up the marker lights and added the "extra section" flags.  It looks finished but something isn't right!    It looked too crowded and out of balance.  I looked at the photo of the area I found and decided to change it.




Day 13:  Finished!  The painting has more balance and the clear area below the track, now draws your eyes to the locomotive.  I added more grass to on the far side of the locomotive, moved the drainage ditch further from the track.  Gave it the once over and singed it,. Done!

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