18 replies to this topic

[Brendan Powell Smith]

The Brick Testament has been updated today with seven new illustrated Bible stories that bring a close to the King Solomon section of the website:

Asa the Intolerant, One Million Africans Killed, Executing Unbelievers Brings Peace, Jeroboam’s Family  Slaughtered, Baasha’s Family Slaughtered, King for a Week, and Asa’s Foot Disease.

Here’s a couple of preview images:





Enjoy,

-Brendan Powell Smith
The Brick Testament - The world’s largest, most comprehensive illustrated Bible

[Skinny Boy]

Your work is amazing . Not only are you recreating scenes from an extremely well known book, but you do it so well. There is quite a lot of work put into these, and for that I thank you. Well done, and keep it up... till the end.

[Guss]

really nice , I like how you made the burning king, then the burnt king^^

[Bonaparte]

Your work is amazing as always!

Can you share with us what your plans are now the King Solomon section is finished?

[Guss]

I am looking all the thing you did on your website.. wow , there is some great work !

[Skipper 24]

I love just looking at the stories even though I am not religious. Great work keep it up   .

[Brendan Powell Smith]

Bonaparte, on Oct 22 2008, 12:41 PM, said:

Your work is amazing as always!

Thanks!

Quote

Can you share with us what your plans are now the King Solomon section is finished?

Moving forward, I am next planning to tackle the Book of Job.  I was a little disappointed it took me this long to finally finish off the King Solomon section, but certain life events (some happy, some sad) kept me away from the bricks for longer than I would have liked.  I did get the chance to completely script out Job though, so I look forward to getting started on that soon.  I'm also rereading Revelation and starting to work out scripts for that book too.  That should be a huge challenge in terms of building, and I don't think I'll start that until 2009.

Thanks to everyone else for the kind comments.

-Brendan

[Zepher]

This si a great idea, and very well done!  Keep it up!

[Pickerel]

Skinny Boy, on Oct 22 2008, 01:45 PM, said:

Your work is amazing . Not only are you recreating scenes from an extremely well known book, but you do it so well. There is quite a lot of work put into these, and for that I thank you. Well done, and keep it up... till the end.

It's more than well known, it's the second most popular book in the world!

I'm currently reading your works. It's very nicely done, I'm a Christian and have read the bible and it's neat seeing your creations with each story!

Can't wait to finish what you've made so far! (there's certainly a lot to read!)

Pickerel

[Marcus Aurelius Antoninus]

I have seen your creations for a year or two.  Great work.  I am always pleased to see more Bricktestiment illustrations.   The book of Job should be a fun one to do.

[Guss]

I read everything and I have a question ... how did Noah choosed the two horses ? I mean:


they seemed to understand what's going on ! did they fought ? ^^

[Brendan Powell Smith]

Guss, on Oct 23 2008, 01:13 AM, said:

I read everything and I have a question

Wow, you read everything?  The entire Brick Testament website?  Just now?  That's quite a feat!

I'm also surprised you only have one question.

Quote

how did Noah choosed the two horses ? they seemed to understand what's going on ! did they fought ?

The Bible does not say what criteria Noah used to make his decision about which animals to take aboard the ark and which to let drown to death, but it would seem safe to say that Noah did not choose to save those horses who could understand human language, so I guess none of those three horses in that photo survived The Flood.  

It's interesting to look back on those parts of The Brick Testament I built seven years ago.  I can't help but focus on what I would do differently nowadays.  Perhaps one day I'll go back and redo some of the early Genesis stuff that looks so rough to my eyes.  But for now, it's onward to illustrate ever more parts of the Bible I haven't gotten to yet.

Best regards,

-Brendan

[Guss]

Quote

Wow, you read everything? The entire Brick Testament website? Just now? That's quite a feat!

just now is not really the good term^^ I started yesterday and I finished this morning ( I live in Switzerland, at Geneva )  but I'm stupid, I didn't read everything, I stopped at "David vs Saul" .. I didn't noticed that I missed the right column.. I think I'll continue tomorrow^^ ( well, I don't believe in god, but I like to read, and I never read the bible before, I even never touched this book, my father and mother were atheist, and my mother's parents were atheist too.

But I visited church and cathedral ! to photography it  

[Brendan Powell Smith]

Guss, on Oct 23 2008, 04:39 AM, said:

just now is not really the good term^^ I started yesterday and I finished this morning ( I live in Switzerland, at Geneva )  but I'm stupid, I didn't read everything, I stopped at "David vs Saul" .. I didn't noticed that I missed the right column..

That's still an impressive amount to get through.

I'm not religious at all either, but I do consider it important for all people to know what's in the Bible since there are so many people who do accept it as the word of God and as a supreme moral authority.

I haven't yet had the chance to visit Geneva, but last year I had the opportunity to display some work from The Brick Testament at a gallery in Bratislava, Slovakia, and afterward, I took the chance to see several other European cities (including Zurich, Switzerland) and managed to visit 30 cathedrals in 21 days.

Hope you enjoy the right hand column of stories!

Best regards,

-Brendan

[Tanotrooper]

Pickerel, on Oct 23 2008, 01:38 AM, said:

It's more than well known, it's the second most popular book in the world!

I'm currently reading your works. It's very nicely done, I'm a Christian and have read the bible and it's neat seeing your creations with each story!

Can't wait to finish what you've made so far! (there's certainly a lot to read!)

Pickerel

What book would be the most popular then? To my knowledge the bible is made in the most languages and most numbers.

Your biblical stories are magnificent, and it's always a pleasure looking at new chapters :-)

TT

[Bonaparte]

Brendan Powell Smith, on Oct 23 2008, 02:22 PM, said:

... last year I had the opportunity to display some work from The Brick Testament at a gallery in Bratislava, Slovakia, ...

Does that mean you are keeping all the buildings and scenes intact? Or do you destroy them once pictures are taken and posted online? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm very much intrigued by your work. Earlier today I was re-reading several of the older stories and I've been taking a look at the long list of press articles.

[Brendan Powell Smith]

Bonaparte, on Oct 24 2008, 07:44 AM, said:

Does that mean you are keeping all the buildings and scenes intact? Or do you destroy them once pictures are taken and posted online? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm very much intrigued by your work. Earlier today I was re-reading several of the older stories and I've been taking a look at the long list of press articles.

Unfortunately I do have to deconstruct just about everything I build for The Brick Testament within a week or two of final photography.  As you might guess, this is required to have enough raw material to keep constructing the buildings, characters, and props for each set of new stories.  Not to mention that if I kept everything intact, I'd quickly out of room to store everything.

There have been a few exceptions.  I kept the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel around for a few years as display pieces.  But one day I accidentally knocked over the Tower, and over time I kept pulling pieces off of the Garden whenever I was running low on flora or green baseplates.  Also, for example, I've been keeping the sets for Solomon's palace and the Temple of Yahweh around for months now since I knew I'd have to keep returning to them for many different stories.  And yet I still can't resist pulling off parts from when I need them for something else, so right now these sets are in pretty rough shape.

When I got invited to display some work from The Brick Testament at an art gallery I had to build the display pieces over again from scratch.  The Garden of Eden I rebuilt at home to figure out what pieces I'd need, then deconstructed it into boxes and built it once again on site at the gallery.  The Last Supper scene traveled a little better.

It's weird because unlike a lot of my fellow LEGO builders, I generally don't think of the actual LEGO dioramas as my finished product.  It's the photos of the LEGO scenes I consider the actual works of art (if I can use that phrase without sounding too pretentious).  I almost always build my sets "for the camera".  This allows me to take shortcuts (like not building all four walls of a room if only two will be seen, etc) and work faster, but it also means my actual LEGO scenes are not really suitable for display on a pedestal.  I had to explain this to the curator of the gallery, and so we compromised and had a few large blow-ups of photos from the website as well as a 50-foot banner showing an entire 17-photo story that was displayed on the outside of the gallery.

Thanks for the interest.  Glad you're enjoying the project, and I never mind getting questions about it.

-Brendan

[Phred]

Bonaparte, on Oct 24 2008, 09:44 AM, said:

Does that mean you are keeping all the buildings and scenes intact? Or do you destroy them once pictures are taken and posted online?

I've been wondering this too.

Thanx for the reply Brendan.

[Pickerel]

Tanotrooper, on Oct 23 2008, 12:32 PM, said:

What book would be the most popular then? To my knowledge the bible is made in the most languages and most numbers.

I believe that the most copies of a book ever made are the Bible, but more Harry Potter books are currently being currently produced.
It really depends on your interpretation of "popular". (I read this in a newspaper article and am not sure if it is currently accurate!)

Pickerel

P.S. I don't think anybody knew that a children's fantasy book series would be the most printed book in the world.