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I also saw Angus Wright from time to time, but he didn't say much either! However, I can only assume they liked my work because they kept giving me more!Īs for the Awdrys: I met the Rev Wilbert once and Christopher a couple of times.

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Britt was always too busy with the TV series to talk to me that much and so I liaised with the team of young ladies she had working for her in Southampton.

Much of that detail was done through a magnifying glass using a 0000 brush.ĭid you ever receive any feedback about your work from Britt Allcroft or the Awdrys? The book artwork was all done at 'repro size', depending on the size of the book.

Scandecor did a poster of it and it won an award.Ĭould you tell us what size the original artwork was for the poster and Annual stories?Īs I recall, the poster art was about A3 (16.5 x 11.7 in). I understand that this was originally (or later became) a poster. That guy is meant to be my all time hero, musical genius Frank Zappa.Īs an example, the cover of the 1993 Thomas annual (Fat controller towing a boat) is superbly detailed - right down to the wellies and catch of fish seen inside the boat. A guy with curly dark hair, wearing a yellow t shirt which has 'Joe's Garage' written on it, is fixing the ambulance. One that I remember (although I can't remember which book it's in) shows Henry and an ambulance which has broken down. Re: inside jokes inserted into a few of your illustrations - can you share some examples? I put them into most of the books and some of the jigsaws. There were lots of little 'in jokes' which only a few people knew about, mostly my family, especially my 2 daughters, Amber and Clover who were little kids at the time. Thank you! I always packed a lot of detail into my art and still do. Fans love the detail that you put into these illustrations. Some of your artwork is featured on the covers and story illustrations in the Thomas annuals during the 1990's. Yes, it was fun to do and one which I still have copies of. Given your interest in wildlife art, was this one of your favorite Thomas books to illustrate? Some of the flap books and pop ups took some working out technically, but the painting technique was the same.Īnother interactive book - Thomas and the Hide and Seek Animals (1993) is a favourite with fans who recall being fascinated by the illustrations when they were small. All the artwork was painted in gouache, colored pencil and ink. Did the illustrating and submission of your work to the Publisher for these interactive books require different art medium or techniques? Thomas the Tank Engine's Big Lift and Look Book (1996). Many of your illustrated Thomas-themed books are interactive for the very young e.g. When I came back to Australia in '94 and stopped working on TTTE, I stopped using it. Many years ago I saw a children's storybook with a character called 'Owain', which is the Welsh spelling of 'Owen'.I just thought it looked a bit unusual, and so I used it on the TTTE work. Can you shed some light on this little mystery? Most if not all of the Thomas story books you've illustrated credit your first name as 'Owain', not 'Owen'. They also provided screen shots from the series and videos (remember them?). In later series, they introduced a lot more but that was after I stopped illustrating them. Given the varied railway characters on Sodor, what reference material did you use or were provided with to illustrate them?īritt Allcroft provided me with a Style Bible which had line illustrations (side, front and back elevations) of all the trains, at the time, around 12. So that's how my involvement with TTTE began.

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That license was held by Kaye & Ward (later Heinemann UK) at the time. It's important to point out that at this time, Britt Allcroft only had the license to produce the tv series and accompanying merchandise, NOT books. So Manuscript asked me if I could come up with something based on that brief, which I did, and Britt was very pleased with it, so much so that she asked if I would create ALL the artwork for the worldwide merchandise. Britt Allcroft stipulated that the artwork should bear some resemblance to the original artwork in the 'Railway Series' published in the 50's but 'updated' slightly to look more like the TV series. Manuscript produced fine art prints and were approached by Britt Allcroft to produce a Thomas print, but there was no available artwork which was suitable and so some needed to be created. In the late 80's I was working as a freelancer in the UK for a company called Manuscript in Cornwall where I lived at the time. Owen, how did you first become involved with and interested in illustrating Thomas storybooks?