Steve Estill, APSA, EPSA
About the Image(s)
I've been playing with matchsticks again and produced Stephenson's Rocket (took about 6 months). I wanted to use it to make something like Turner's Rain Steam and Speed - Great Western Railway.
Starting with a road over the moors during stormy weather, I blended in an image of smoke during the heather burning season, using Multiply mode and added the rail track (masked and skewed to fit the road and adjusted when Rocket was introduced).
Using Rocket as a Smart Object, it was selected using Topaz Mask AI, flipped then adjusted using Camera Raw, and saved back to the psd.
I then stamped up and treated it with Topaz Studio 2 > Gothic Glean preset, duplicated this layer and treated it with Topaz Studio > Impression > Turner Storms II.
Rocket was then dragged to the top of the stack and placed in Pin Light Blending Mode to bring back some detail in the engine.
Stamped up again and duplicated the new layer. On the top layer I used motion blur then masked out much of the background so that only the engine had the blur. Rocket was again dragged to the top of the stack at reduced opacity, to bring back some detail. Stamped up and used Nik Viveza 3 to brighten and increase structure / saturation.
And there you have it - not quite the Great Western Railway, but more the North York Moors Railway. Lots of fun for me!
This round’s discussion is now closed!
7 comments posted
It seems that Turner had it right - his train was very small in the painting. I was tempted to include the viaduct at awhitby, but getting the photo angle would have needed a drone, so I gave up on that. As it was, I think the rocket would have been lost at the smaller size, but I think you're right about giving it more headroom.
Thanks for your suggestion. Here's the Turner painting which was the inspiration - the result was far from it!   Posted: 11/07/2021 16:52:25
My suggestion for consideration is to darken the engine considerably to blend it into the mist and to match (pun!) the darkness of the train line cutting it is emerging from. I think you may be still attached to the model and subconsciously want it to stand out from the background, whereas your Turner inspiration source has obscured the engine more. (My head is in a motion blur from reading all the modifications you made to reach that end product!!!)   Posted: 11/08/2021 21:44:02
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