#rws illustrations

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Mister Spong??????? I was not aware you were chill like that.

It's crazy how Clive Spong has actually done really good illustrations, but only for supplemental materials. I don't understand why so many of the faces in the canonical Christopher books look so godawful. Clearly he's capable of better.

[sparkarrestor]

Holy Shit he has a beard

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Also — I just hope it can be assumed as prerequisite to this discussion — any good Percy portrayal has to fully grasp this scene as one of the most illuminating moments in his canon.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

this illustration is funny as hell. i'm not sure i can think of a funnier one.

[mozawesterburg]

The Railway Series Books by Rev. Awdry Vs. TTTE TV show First time Reactions: Part 3.5: Tank Engine Thomas Again

I lost my whole draft of initial thoughts about Tank Engine Thomas Again, but I wanted to bring attention to one illustration in particular. For the purpose of comparing the TVS with the books it was inspired by, there seems to have been a very deliberate attempt at recreation the illustration. And I think it says a lot about how impressive Reginald Dalby's work was. Given that Rev. Awdry was very particular about the details, it makes sense why he seemed to have sought out different artists before approving Dalby for the job.

Middleton's drawings are atmospheric, and he could draw engines pretty well! There's something more whimsical than grounded about them. This is IMO par for the course for kids books really. Some kids book illustrations from back then are absolute garbage, especially in reprints in the 60s through the 80s that fell into my hands in the 2000s, and I think he used a lighter hand with the colors for a more pastel, Lilo and Stitch background kind of touch. I think it doesn't help that the colors of the surviving copies have probably faded.

But Dalby's work just makes the characters and the world feel more real. It's not just more detailed faces on the engines, which I'll admit right here and now was my gut-reaction to the switch in illustrator. It's a more effort in each drawing. More attention to making the engines look like their real life counterparts (which seems like an INCREDIBLE level of detail for illustrations for a kids book, and not drawing up blueprints for a real engine!! Even storyboards filming live action commercials didn't have that kind of detail that Dalby's drawings did). This post isn't to praise this artist and smear Middleton at all. He did a damn good job. But on the subject of comparing the TV show to the books, I really wanna highlight in particular how the humans are depicted around the engines in Dalby's drawings. Realistic proportions and movements, and yet those movements and postures are so fluid and lifelike.

Like there's... just no competition. There's so much FEEL in the first picture. Look at Topham in the drawing, sitting on the boiler! Look at the guys just chilling on the cab roof. They look like this is going to take all day and they're taking it as a well earned fun-day! I can just hear the men talking casually as they wait for a bite. Topham I also comes off like a real chill kind of personable boss who'd laugh and share jokes with the crewmen while they sort out this very unusual situation. This image in particular is really cool to me because I like seeing the humans and their fluidity next to the rigid, metal engines. I could do a mini fic just trying to script out what they were talking about in this picture or certain pictures like this... I just... Now the models used would restrict movement so there's only so much they could do. The one thing I will give the model depiction of the scene over the illustration is that Thomas is still making a grimace. He's still supposed to be in a ton of pain while this was going on, I thought? (less they pulled the offending fish out that was blocking the feed pipe first, then went back to fish for all the rest). So while I absolutely buy that he would be CURIOUS about the elusive fishing pole, once he realizes what they are about to do with it, it makes sense he'd be ALL HELL NAH.

Tangent. TW for surgery.

Storytime: My badass coworker, an elderly lady who ran the deli, told me about being taken hospital with intense abdominal pain one day while I was off shift. They rushed her to the ER as soon as she got there, realized she had a obstruction, I believe in the intestines. They didn't even bother to put her under the gas. They brought the tools to her. AWAKE. They started giving her drugs to kill the pain already but STILL. This kind lady who drove me home many days, and introduced me to my husband lived to see another five years, and retired after four. Rest in peace, Becky. <3

/tangent Anyway, with that story in mind...

I THINK THIS ICONIC FACE MAKES A BIT MORE SENSE.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

I was about to say "I think it's a shame we never got a RWS illustration of a split-headcode diesel" and follow it up with this:

However... we have.

They just look like ears. I wonder if it was the Edwards that made it that way or the Reverend.

That is a notably odd design choice! Good question 👀

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

I have one more headcanon, based off a photo of Duke in the RWS version of Grandpuff. Steam engines at will, can rotate their smokebox door, which means also being able to rotate their faces. Bill and Ben once they learned about this and had a great deal of fun that day. Many screams were had and many more fainted or derailed themselves.

link to last time we discussed this illustration here; there's a screenshot for those wondering

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

this is clearly @shinygoku getting in my head (like that's a bad thing?) but i was tempted to put this in the gallery of ship-launchy rws illustrations

it's not really a "look there's obviously crushing on here" picture but it does have big power couple glam shot energy