I’ve tried a few times over the years to draw one of the Traction Cities from Mortal Engines, but I’ve never been very happy with the results: perspective and man-made structures really aren’t my strong point. But I’ve been doing a few pictures lately to go with an e-book guide to the world of the books, The Traction Codex, which will be released later this year. It seemed incongruous not to have a picture of London, so I had a go, and here’s the result. It’s partly inspired by the engravings in a five-volume set of Victorian travel books called Picturesque Europe that I inherited from my grandfather. It also owes more than a little to one of my favourite pieces of Mortal Engines fan-art, the picture by Christian Bravery that is currently in pride of place on my official Facebook page. From him I borrowed the idea of showing the city from behind, where there are lots of interesting smoke stacks and exhaust pipes, rather from the front, with its impossible-to-draw ‘jaws’.
generic wordless expressions of wonder
