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jflaxman β Under Black Sails
#album #ancient #apocalypse #champion #civilisation #classical #crete #death #doom #dusk #galley #greek #hoplite #human #illustration #james #labour #labyrinth #legend #maze #mediterranean #metal #minoan #minotaur #myth #ocean #odyssey #sacrifice #sea #song #sunset #theseus #track #trial #tribute #trireme #volcano #voyage #war #warship #flaxman #jflaxman #fleshgod #art
Published: 2016-04-21 08:33:16 +0000 UTC; Views: 13177; Favourites: 262; Downloads: 121
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Description
Inspired by a track of the same name from Fleshgod Apocalypse.Related content
Comments: 23
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Serious gamers and history buffs will have probably noticed this ship owes more to Roman than Greek triremes, even though the Labyrinth album's based on Greek mythology.
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Awesome work! I love the little villages in the background and the way the water works.
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wow, thats... amazing!
and since i love triremes, this makes me even happier than usual! what a great drawing of a trireme!
all of the linework in the ship is excellent and very detailed(as always), while the lighting/shading effects are very good as well (as always).
i am impressed by the detailed design of the ship, and by the fact that you drew all of its oars perfectly, (and triremes always had many oars!) wow!
i also liked how you drew the hoplites that are on the ship, the gloomy, strong soldiers that are on this ship, on a trip to save their homeland, or to perhaps escape from it.
(i've noticed the smoking volcano in the background, right on top of the city... is this a hint about the ancient eruption of santorini's volcano, which exploded so violently, that the blast/quake of the explosion reached the island of crete, thus damaging the powerful minoan civilisation?)
one other impressive thing in your drawing, is the fact that the ship has black sails.
in ancient greece, that was a sign of bad things, a bad omen.
one major story about black sails, is the story of Β theseus, a young greek hero, who wanted to slay the minotaur in order to help the minoans to get rid of that monster(because the minoan king was offering young people to the minotaur, as sacrifices, and he always left them at the minotaurs lair, in the labyrinth.)
so, as theseus goes on to start his journey to crete, his father, aegeus, asks him for a sign, in order to know whether theseus will kill the minotaur, or if he will die in the battle.
then theseus said: ''father, if i will kill the minotaur, i will return with white sails on my ship. and if i die, my ship will have black sails.''
theseus goes in crete, he fights with the minotaur and he kills the beast, he gets out of the labyrinth(with the help of ariadne) and he goes on his ship, to return back home.
everything goes well, but on the middle of the trip, a big storm hits the ship, and the white sails get torn apart. in order to survive the trip and to get back home, they are forced to use the only remaining sails, the black sails.
so, they returned back home, but sadly theseus had forgotten that the black sails meant death, and when his father, aegeus, saw the black sails, he got so sad, and so striken with grief, that he jumped from a cliff, onto the sea and died.
so, it was a pyrrhic victory; theseus managed to kill the minotaur, and he was victorious, but he lost his father.
so, from that point on, the greek sea was named ''aegean pelagos'' (the aegean sea), in order to remember poor aegeus sacrifice, for he loved his son more than anything in the world.
its a great tale of mythology, and i love it.
your drawing reminded me of that great story.
you draw great drawings, my friend.
its so beautiful, so detailed, and yet; so melancholic and dark....
great elements of your great drawings.
i also like the evening sky, with the orange colour on it, while the clouds are once again a sign of darkness.
oh, and i really like that you drew a red iris on the trireme's ''eye''. along with the cat-like pupil, it makes a dark and creepy eye for the trireme, which is anotther cool detail in your works. you always add a nice, dark tone of mystery/creepiness in everything.
im impressed and happy, as always.Β
you do good drawings man, keep up the great work!
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It must be expensive, dyeing the entire sail like that.
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There's a reason for it, but chris-the-sword has already explained it so well I don't need to add anything.
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This looks awesome! I love the sky, the whole mood and atmosphere looks quite calm and tranquil. Great illustration!
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Your mastery of line is apparent here. You are also a master of mechanical and inorganic shapes.
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Funnily enough... I am actually watching the movie 300 right now 
Nice job!
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