Before the Next Departure

Finished editorial illustration, landscape 4:3. On a plain warm-cream platform, a railway dispatcher stands left of centre reviewing an enormous ivory paper service form held at chest height, a cobalt pencil poised against it. Distinctive silhouette: very long narrow legs, short broad coral jacket, tiny head, simple mitten hands and minimal face. The form has only three faint horizontal rules, no writing or grid. At the right edge, crop into the rounded yellow nose of a comically squat train, with one dark window; no passengers. Loose hand-drawn marker contours, broad flat colour fills and fabric-like patches edged with a few oversized embroidered dashes. No intricate stitching or hatching. Slight forward lean suggests cheerful concentration before departure. Clear silhouettes at thumbnail size, generous empty cream space above and to the left. One scene, no diagram, no text, no logos, no watermarks.