Clive Spong is the current illustrator for the Railway Series.
Life with Thomas
Clive Spong was a graduate of Leicester College of Art, like predecessors C. Reginald Dalby and John T. Kenney.
Previously, little had been disclosed in regards to the working relationship between Christopher and Clive. However, Christopher has commended his "superb" work in the collection of his books published in 2007. It is for this reason that Clive has remained throughout the run of Christopher Awdry's books, illustrating more Railway Series books than any of his predecessors before him. This was likely out of enthusiasm for the characters which he had appreciated in childhood, boldly coloured and strongly drawn, which the Reverend W. Awdry himself observed as being "accurate and consistent", even if they were emulating Dalby's work to some extent!
Co-operation also appeared to be high on Chirstopher's adgenda, as he tried to find new viewpoints and angles for Clive to do to avoid repetition in the pictures.
Clive was, however, the first illustrator to break Wilbert's golden rule about engines having no faces outside of Sodor - he did this in "Thomas and the Great Railway Show" - depicting National Collection engines such as Mallard, Duchess of Hamilton, Green Arrow and Iron Duke (complete with moustache) with faces.
Illustrations by Spong never seemed to stay with one style for long, and seemed to evolve throughout the time he was doing them - changing from solid and bold to slightly more water-coloured, with engines having sand-coloured faces as opposed to their usual grey! The latter books of the series saw a real move away from emulating the previous illustrators and more toward the development and incorporation of his own style into the Railway Series.
In the years following 1996, when his services were not required for Railway Series books, Clive's work centered primarily around illustrating for educational books and he did little in the way of fiction, but he stated in an interview with Sodor Island Forums in late 2006 that he would return to the Railway Series if the opportunity arose. He prove to be as his word when the Railway Series returned to a full print run in 2007.
Clive also was involved in illustrating pop-up books and other Railway Series spin-offs such as "Thomas and the Evil Diesel", "Thomas' Christmas Party", "Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree" and a rewrite by the Reverend W. Awdry of "Thomas Comes to Breakfast".