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the .xar file on this one in a little over 6 meg. It consists of 474 objects on 21 layers. 455 of those objects are on 3 layers. So what do you think of my impressionist K4? Forgive the size, it is a little large, but I could not bring myself to reduce it.
I posted the wireframe 1st just for sledger....
Wow!
This must be a labor of love John. So much detail.
Locomotive on a tressel at night...could be straight out of the lyrics of a country song...or an urban legend ;)
superb John - I can see what you meant about the tressel causing you the occasional headache - or words to that effect :D
love trains - especially in working mode
Well done John, a lot of patience and thought went into that one.
Brilliant!
Amazing John, simply amazing!
AWESOME, John!
6 stars.
ron
Looks really good :)
Phenomenal John, The Savoy Brown Blues Band released an album called "Hellbound Train"
in 1972 (God, 35 years ago) - they would have like this for the album cover, I'm sure.
Saludos,
Bob.
...and full marks for the smoke effect - quite realistic.
And that wireframe...!
WOW!! Pheww! That is a lot of work! Well done!
Now that's a big bruiser, John. It looks superb on the trestle.
Thank you so very much Bill, steve, Norman, Keith, zee, Ron, kmalsom, Bob, sledger, barry, and last but not least gray for the nice reviews on this piece. It makes the time spent worth the effort.:)
It really made my day. thanks!:)
I just wanted to test and see how well it looks in a frame.
John your work is great
greetings
Tremendous work and effort on that one, but it really turned out well.
Sven-Ingvar
I must apologize to my friend John (sorry John)
I nagged him as to when this piece would be done, and here it is now, quite a while after he posted it, and I had looked upon it for quite a while, I must admit.....
I was distracted by the little gremlins which live in my home:rolleyes: and forgot to come back and post on it....
Now, I'm back
What can I possibly say, which would do justice to this most excellent piece of work??? The only word which comes to mind (if I am to use only one) is "absolutelypositivelyincrediblymagnificent":D
There is no way anyone can second guess the amount of time John put into this piece... and man, you really have to admire a man with that kind of patience, and persistence (which seems to be mighty catchy around these parts)
I love it, I downloaded it, and there's nothing anyone can do about it:p
Great job John, congratulations, and just two questions:
#1. just exactly how many hours went into this piece?
#2. I'd really like to know... the very moment you had finally finished it... what did you do to celebrate???
You should get it printed up and framed and hung on your wall, John. It would look super.
I was thinking about printing/framing it and sending the original to my Father for a Birthday/Christmas gift. The K4 is one of his favorites and I have to credit him for getting me hooked on trains.
Then again I was also thinking about trying to sell a few prints of it. Will have to test that waters on that before I invest too much on matting/frames.
Time wise... I started seriously working on this piece on 1 nov and finished it up on 20 Dec. Maybe about 90 to 100 hours on this one piece. Then again, all drawing with xara is timeless.
Thank you Germaine, Joscari and Paul for your very kind reviews.:)
John, what a marvelous piece! Truly amazing! You did a great great great job!
I don't like seeing the frame so big and the masterfully-done picture so small. It should be the other way around.
Your time and patience has paid off bigtime!!!!!!!
It looks great in the frame John.
Thanks for the very kind comments Bob, Scottf and Keith. Large matting is all the rage in this neck of the woods and I was just experimenting. I like the matting color but do not like how the frame turned out. I was thinking of redoing the frame to look a little more like machined steel, which it really doesn't at the moment.
That just might be a good challenge... To see which frame would look the best on this print.:)
I am so honored to be your son. I hope someday to draw something similar to this... someday.
Beautiful work, John!
Once you've discovered the right frame for it, it will be amazing AND an amazing gift!
ron
All I know is the frame has to have a machined steel or cast iron Look. that would be awesome.
Thanks for the compliment my son...:D
John I think most of the work is tremendous but the front doesn't work for me. Where the Cow Catcher meets the coupling, it is too complicated and also around the boiler door at the front they both draw my eye into that piece of the picture and not to the full train. Is it not possible to combine some of the detail or at least simplify it but here that is only my opinion very else seems to think it's great. Certainly 5* for the amount of work you have put in.
John
I know exactly what Peter means - the front end is a tad 'fussy' - but hell it is an excellent piece of work - my eye is actually drawn to the front of the white steam and from there effect is great - such work is far beyond me
I see what you mean peter. personally, I tend to watch the front of a speeding locomotive. the rest of the train just seems to follow that. I never claimed it was photorealistic, it is an impressionist piece, thus I am allowed lots and lots of artistic license...
I used the attached photograph as a model. As with any photograph the further you are from the focal point the less detail you get. :)
real artwork
congratulations with your work
greetings
Thank you Germaine. It is so nice to get positive feedback on a piece.:)
John,
Thanks for sharing the development of this drawing. It's been fascinating to watch the growth. The overall effect of the engine is fantastic.
Could I just add a couple of comments (not criticisms). You've obviously spent hours on the locomotive, then added the trestle bridge. The bridge appears a mere gossamer compared to the heavy engine above it and tends to unbalance the image to me.
You also point out that the front end is the "business" and that's right. How about accentuating it with a bit of receding blur? I'd prefer to see the front of the locomotive in the centre of the span.
Hope you don't mind my comments.
wow that is a lot of work john, it looks terrific....the only thing that doesn't seem to work for me is the background colours. Compared to all the great detailed work in the engine and bridge it looks to me like two different art works....fantastic stuff though....tao
Sorry Roger, I don't agree. Adding a detailed background would pull the eye away from the fantastic artwork that's the whole point of the drawing. I think the choice of background is just right. I don't agree with Egg either (Seems like a day for being different) - The bridge looks plenty strong enough (John probably has a picture of a bridge just like that). It's just been made a little lower key than the engine, which is again the subject of the picture.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tao jones
It has a really cool wall poster effect....crazy amount of detail....well done, John.
Eric
Thanks so much for the kind comments Egg, Tao, Keith and Eric.
Those types of trestles always looked that way. When the right of way needed a large fill or a trestle and tall trees where handy they used the trestles. I doubt there was many tall trees left in GB by the steam age, so I can see where you might think it spindlely. I think they used more stone arches in GB where stones and mortar where more plentiful than tall trees. On some lines they actually used trestles like this to throw a line around a cliff face instead of doing a cut through hard rock.
I was thinking about doing a background for it, but I found it much easier to make the background totally out of focus, to accentuate the subject. I still have the outlines of the mountain stream and the mountains for a background. I might do another version with that... I think I would add a few teenagers taking a dip under the trestle if I drew that. I just need to take a break from it for a while...
On bluring the image, there is a remarkable lack of detail as you go further back. I guess I could blur the edges a bit... Will have to think about it and pway around see if I can blur just the right amount as one progresses from the front of the engine.
On placing the front of the engine in the middle of the span, I think that would unbalance the picture and reduce the impact I am tring to capture. I was trying to capture the raw power this engine would have envoked as it sped across the trestle. :)
Thanks again for the kind comments and critques.
Thought you might like to see this John. A local trestle, still standing but unused for many years.
Awesome shot Gray... The uprights are thicker in your shot. I was just winging it and not drawing anything to scale so my uprights might be a bit thin. If you will notice, my diagnals where on the outside, where yours are on the inside. I envisioned iron turnbuckles as the interior diagnals, but was just too tired to draw them in... Then would appear very thin anyway, if visible at all.
I do like my view better. The engine looks more imposing and massive. I think Egg would like this shot better, because the engine is in the center of the span... Too me it looks too much like a toy and not the massive machinery which they where.:)
Thanks for posting this picture Gray.... I at least know my memory isn't totally gone yet...:D
BTW: I finally got time to print out the picture as an 8x10 and it looks sweet... Now I just have to mat and frame it.
You're right John. This pic just shows off the trestle and makes the engine look toy like. Your illustration emphasizes the power of the engine. I hope you'll post a pic when you get it all framed up. I'd like to see it.
Can you imagine... the thoughts that may have went through the very first engineer to ever take a train over such a structure??:eek:
They sure knew how to build things, back in the days:) I would never trust a tressel like that which was built from 1978 to present....
with the cost of lumber I doubt very much you would ever see a trestle like that built since the sixties... Much cheaper to move dirt these days.:)
Gray, I will post a photo when I get the right mat and frame... Too cold to work in the shop at the moment.