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| Step 1 After finishing my perspective plot (done on tracing vellum) to correct distortions from my digital camera reference photos, I tranferred my drawing to the support as shown, and started to render the Depot and all of the surrounding vegetation. The Depot walls were rendered with pastel applied with a stump, followed by graphite & colored pencils. |
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| Step 2 Here I am gradually working my way from the side of the Depot around the turreted tower, adding color & detail to the sandstone & windows as I progress to the wall facing the railroad line. I've also managed to get two-thirds of the blue-gray metal roof done at this point as well. |
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| Step 3 Here I've added color & detail to the sandstone wall facing the railroad line & I've finished the roof. Now I've begun to render the ground around & in front of the Depot, the cover over the period luggage cart on display & other details in the left foreground. |
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| Step 4 Continuing to move closer to the front of the scene on the left, I've managed to render the rest of the sidewalk, the lamp post, garden, & the cover over the luggage cart. I've also completed the massive brick cornerpost and I've started to add the ornamental iron fence rail attached to it. |
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| Step 4a This close-up of the left foregound of the painting shows the detail of the sidewalk, the lamp post, garden, & the cover over the luggage cart to good effect. Notice how I've reestablished the location of the uprights of the ornamental iron fence rail with faint strokes of white colored pencil. |
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| Step 5 Here the ornamental iron fence rail is finished and I've moved on to render the worn, eroded concrete curbing that faces the railroad tracks. I've also made substantial progress on the gravel ballast in the railroad bed & the tracks themselves. |
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| Step 6 With the scene nearly complete, it's now time to finish drawing the train & add the shadow it casts on the ground in front of the Depot. |
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| Step 7 With the cast shadows of the train added to the ground with colored pencil, I'm now pre-shading the train with a 4H pencil to establish values, highlights, and refine or correct details before adding color. |
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| Step 8 With the 4H pencil pre-shading complete, colored pencil was burnished over it to add color to the train. Next, I sealed the painting with flat lacquer to protect my colored pencil work and allowed it to dry overnight. Then I applied Frisket film and trimmed out the sky areas so they could be painted with my airbrush. The result is pictured here. |
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| Step 8a With the sky done, I turned my attention to finishing the fine details that would make the scene complete: finishing the semaphore post, reestablishing & rendering the chain-link fence, and refining the details of the train. |
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| Step 9 After finishing the semaphore post and restoring the chain-link fence posts with gouache, I used this set-up to consistently draw the cross-hatching to represent the chain-link on the fence using a 4H pencil. |
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| Step 9a This close-up shows effectively how well this technique worked to represent the chain-link on the fence. You can also see the details of the spoked wheels on the luggage cart that were added before the hatching was rendered to the fence. |
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| Step 10 In this close-up you can see the details on the lead locomotive that have been enhanced using gouache or acrylics: the pneumatic brake lines & couplers, the Southern Railway logo, the yellow-painted handrails at the steps, the faint addition of windshield wipers, and a glowing effect added to the headlights. |
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| Finished! And there you have it! A moment from the days when Southern Railway still proudly served the South, passing a proud piece of the heritage of Fort Payne, Alabama - the Fort Payne Depot Museum ! |
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