A long time ago, all we had to travel around on were animals; notably horses. Then we discovered the wheel and quickly after all that creativity came the car. In it's early days the car was slow and reminiscent of a horse drawn carriage. The term we use today to gauge a cars performance, was derived from the power such a vehicle would achieve drawn by "x" number of horse. Hence the term 'horse power'.
This was the starting point for this image. The idea that the horse being the most important aspect of the transportation system, and then being swapped out by a system that used their power and dedication as a means of power conversion. The idea of a carriage that had the same capacity, as this is how it must start, of one horse. How would the horse feel, about such a contraption? Would it ride it? Connect with it? Or simply find it's a case of putting the carriage before the horse? Anyway, this image is a dedication to this history, of both animal and machine. The carriage car in the image is one of the oldest recorded vehicles (not the oldest), and I used it for aesthetic reasons more than historical.
The car detailing was relatively hard, with the brass work and fine elements on the wheels, etc. However, it was completed and am quite happy with it. All in all, the process I use is pencil work for shading became negated on the car, as it is mostly, if not all, shiny, and so there is no need for real shaded elements with texture.
All images are now protected with Digimarc Guardian technology | copyright © Rob Snow 2011 - 2015
File size: 936Mbs/2.4Gbs (open)
Layers: 108 uncompressed
Dimensions: 12896x10000px
Hours (Pencil): 7hrs
Digital rendering: 68 hrs
Series of sketches used to generate the final artwork. You will note on the first image a sligh change in the head size of the horse. This was done in photoshop, and reprinted out so the rest of the body could be completed.
The drawing done of the original old car. A reference image was used to sketch out the vehicle, even though some part were missing. These were added later, as to complete the car structure.
The car and the horse are brought together for the final pre-render image. This is the final stage of checking and adding any details that are required. it is then set at the correct size (see above) and then printed on a plotter. Which is then used to tace the image onto Bristol paper on a drawing board. Then this is pencil rendered, as seen below.
A small, short animated gif to show the process and path of the painting. As with all my artwork, this begins with the head of the character and moves down.
Clsoe up of the brasswork used in the car body elements.
