AndersI wrote:First sketch of a class 'R' freight engine. Please help me get it better. It's difficult to do the tender as anything else than a black/grey blob...
To be honest, I agree with DM. I cannot understand why you downgrade yourself so much in drawing steamers. Your engine shows talent!
If you really want some help, here are a couple of suggestions about how I'd improve that engine. Of course, any drawer has his own style, so take the following as a mere suggestion.
I like your shading effort very much, although I find it follows some horizontal lines a bit too much. So I've tried to change a bit the colors of the pixels on the boiler, using more shades of grey. (Don't be afraid of using a large range of colors in the palette!).
I would say that the piston needs to stand out of the engine a bit more than what you drew. If you see the picture, it's clearly there and it's quite bulky. So I've done it a bit lighter, because the light would hit the engine right there.
The domes are very well drawn, although they might use a darker shade of grey to the base (where the light doesn't get).
I feel the cab was a little bit too long, so I shrunk it by one pixel, merging the two back windows. I understand the windows are three, but TTD drawing is tricky and sometimes it is okay to reach a compromise like this one.
As for the tender, the only thing I thought it might need is a good shading. Remember the light comes from top and right, so the top-right corner is gonna be the lightest one and the bottom-left the darkest one. You can start from the extreme pixels and then fill in the space in the middle by playing with different shades of grey.
Remember, getting the right shape is the first step, but TTD train drawing is all about shading!
I hope this helps. Again, I like your style and I can't wait to see more from you. What do you think?
Cheers!
(Attachment has my editing on top, original in the middle, then DanMack's editing).