Sketching your Layout

[Tdm]

Has anyone had a "professional" sketch/drawing made of their layout, on the lines of the ones found in the Peco N gauge Setrack plans book (see example pic below).

I would love a drawing of my layout showing my rolling stock like the one below.
I wrote to Peco asking if their artist took private commissions but the answer was no.
Quite happy to pay a fair price for a decent sketch of my layout - do you know of anyone who would be willing to do one.

My drawing capabilities to not stretch to the standard required, but my existing layout is now complete and I can supply Anyrail & Scarm layout plans plus a list of rolling stock and where it's normal position is on the track, and of course photographs of the layout taken with my camera (as well as YouTube video footage).

Just an idea.

[keerout]

Hi Terry,
Maybe you have a local art-school ? Can be a good source for talent & I never heard of an art-student that refused a possible commission.....
Gerard 

[Tdm]

Thought I'd have a go today at drawing my layout although I do have both an Anyrail (flat) plan and a Scarm 3-D one. Didn't attempt to draw any of my rolling stock on it though, and also missed out some of the complicated "Industrial" unit bits.
Just wondered are there any drawings/sketches of typical n gauge rolling stock I could copy/paste/resize on the layout (engines/Carriages/wagons etc.) rather than have to draw them in myself.
The background on the East & South walls is a reflection of what I painted on those walls myself, plus on the East wall I have stuck quite a number of low relief buildings purchased from scenecraft.
The covered station at the bottom is something I cobbled together myself from odd bits and pieces lying around the apartment, and is meant to be the main terminus. On the far right is where I have my Morley controller and switches for the electrically operated side mounted point motors.
Killed a few hours even though the Sun is beating down outside.

[PostModN66]

Pretty good I would say.....well done!

Cheers  Jon 

[Kipper]

I have seen a computer program, that will convert a photo to a drawing (similar to those photos that look like oil paintings). Cannot recall what it was, so not much help, but a word with your local photo printing shop might help.
Also, there are projectors on the market, that take a 6x6 print and project it onto a drawing board (or the wall), and you can then draw over it - bit of an artist's cheat! Brand is KopyKake or similar.

[adzeman]

I am not certain which programme you are refering to as your comment regarding oil paintings is confusing me but, I use Sketchup which comes free from Google.  With this programme you take a photograph of a building to a corner, then project the resultant photograph on to a formed rectangular drawn cube.   One of the tools with the programme is a push & pull tool which allows projections and inprints to be formed.  The programme is simple to use but a word of warning, if you have any training with CAD or simiar you will have difficulty as the commands on Sketchup mean totally different things to what you are used to on a graphics package.  It requires persiverance.  Because of this difficulty when my drawing is complete I transfer it to Microsoft Visio to explode it transfer to modelling in card and get the scale correct.  My son who is not CAD trained uses the Sketchup tool provided to explode to a pattern.
Regards. Adzeman

[Kipper]

No fiddling about required for the program I am thinking of. Just scan or load your photo, and it converts it to either sketch or watercolour or oil painting effect. Will have to try and find it, but have seen it advertised in artists magazines. Allows you to see how a particular view would look if drawn or painted with different art materials, a bit like a preview of what your finished painting would look like. Can also be used to print out your photo as one of those effects, even if you are not an artist.

[Tdm]

Thanks  for the replies guys - hope you can find that software drawing aid you mentioned Kipper. I have heard of "Sketchup" but never tried it - Anyrail say to use it until such time as they come up with their own 3D facility which they say is in the pipeline.
Must also do some more work on my layout using the Focus "create your own model railway" software that my son bought me for Xmas - as that shows your layout from all angles with your trains running round it. Not all that easy to program though. Only got the track down on the Focus layout so far - clicking on the point switches shown at the bottom changes them, and moving the 2 right hand side power levers moves the trains on each track backwards or forwards at various speeds according to the points settings. Not added any scenery yet to this system but there is a fairly large library of rolling stock and buildings and trees and tunnels etc and you can set the track at various levels.
Looking at some of the examples of what other people have done you can make a very impressive working layout, but it could take some time. You can change the viewing angle at any time, zoom in & out, and even view from an assumed camera on the front of one of the engines as it goes round the track.

[trainsdownunder]

Is this the software ?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/focus-multimedia-create-your-own-model-railway-deluxe-pc-windows-a07gx
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Create-Your-Model-Railway-Deluxe/dp/B000KP8KH0

[ParkeNd]

Corel Photo Paint will do what you want from a photo. You can even choose from pencil sketch, crayon, charcoal, watercolour and many others.

[Tdm]

Is this the software ?
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/focus-multimedia-create-your-own-model-railway-deluxe-pc-windows-a07gx
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Create-Your-Model-Railway-Deluxe/dp/B000KP8KH0

Yes - that's the one, I was wondering where he got it from as there is a Maplins shop in Chester and he orders a few things from Amazon. There are some amazing layout examples that come with the software, but creating my own will probably take 12 months.

Oh - and thanks ParkeNd for the mention of Corel Paint, that's another one I haven't tried. Nice part of the Country where you live, hope the recent bad weather in the U.K. hasn't spoilt any of it.

[ParkeNd]

Corel Photo Paint is available for a free trial download. You can probably do what you want without having to buy anything at all

[Kipper]

A couple I have found are snapstouch.com and fotosketcher.com. Both have free downloads, and convert your photo to whichever drawing or painting medium you wish. I think these might be Windows only, not Mac.