HOME | DD
jflaxman β The Sightless Guide
Published: 2015-03-09 10:15:33 +0000 UTC; Views: 18834; Favourites: 761; Downloads: 183
Redirect to original
Description
In 2009 a friend had a dream of a bowed misshapen figure, swathed in tattered dirty cloth, with a rotting horse head tied to its back. I drew it on returning to Sydney after a long road trip. After years of living interstate this new take on the image marks another bittersweet return.
Related content
Comments: 55
π: 0 β©: 0
π: 0 β©: 0
holy ...your shit just keeps getting better ...this is crazy
π: 0 β©: 1
π: 0 β©: 0
A fine gallery, this is a really nice image. The figure, the textures, the lonely mood are all great.Β
π: 0 β©: 0
My take on this creature....
In the Old world, poachers were a constant threat to the already dying world. In this harsh wasteland, the few creatures that survived the End Days were prized among anything else. Pigs, Goats, Dogs, Horses, anything that lived through the hell the old world brought was more valuable than gold, food or even water. The power to carry, provide food, or even create fertile grounds was what decided ones status, especially in the early days. Noble lords, Rich businessmen and former politicians were cast aside and forgotten in favor of the local pig farmer. Some villages and survivor tribes resorting instead to cannibalism to keep their animals alive, or stretch the meat as far as it could go. In one tribal village on the outskirts of a ruined city whose name had since been long forgotten, they prize animals above all else.
These poor creatures are the Punished Ones, people from other tribes, lone wanderers or raider gangs that happened across the tribes game and made the poor choice of killing an animal for food or trade in meat. These 'Poachers' as the villagers call them, are punished in the most vicious way possible. They are stripped, tortured and kept on a potent toxic concoction of drugs for weeks on end until their bodies break. Village Elders perform rituals bounding the poor sods soul to his soon to be rotting corpse, then begin the process of ensuring his corpse is bound to the elders wills. They are bound in a cloth sack lined on the interior with painful nails, hooks or spines, their eyes removed, their mouths sewn shut, fingers removed and hands permanently bound together.
The final insult to the so called 'poachers' is to have the skull of the animal they murdered tied to their backs, the skull serving as a conduit to its masters orders, to spend the remainder of it's existence as a perpetual guardian of animal breeding grounds, grazing areas or simply to roam punishing other poachers. They make no sounds when they move, and are surprisingly agile, charging at any target they come across.
π: 3 β©: 1
That was an inspiring read! I'll never know what thought processes we'll have to thank for this picture, but I've also imagined the subject as some kind of torture victim. I like your explanation - the punishment reserved for poachers reminds me of other cruel but fitting ones in Dante's Inferno, which is filled with examples of punishments that fit the crime, at least from a medieval Christian perspective. The supernatural elements add an extra scare factor, though I imagine being crippled, blinded, and bound to a large piece of rotting meat, then left to wander, afraid and alone, would be bad enough in itself. I also like the way your story turns poachers into guardians as their appearances alone would make them very effective deterrents!
π: 0 β©: 1
im wandering through all the images in your gallery and seeing what i can come up with
ive been in a rather dark mood these last few weeks and your work is the perfect catalyst for the spark of inspiration behind these stories
π: 0 β©: 0
Creepy.You should design the Silent Hill games.
π: 0 β©: 0
Damn, that must have been a hell of a dream.
π: 0 β©: 0
I think i would check up on this friend if i were you though, that doesnt sound good.
π: 0 β©: 0
Dude your work its awesome!
Β im asking if i can transform some of your monsters into a 3D models, only for educational pourposes.
giving credits of course!
π: 0 β©: 1
Thanks! You're welcome to use this and any others that you like.
π: 0 β©: 0
What did your friend think when you showed this to him?
π: 0 β©: 1
She didn't mind the original drawing but said my title (Nightmare) was wrong as the dream was more strange than frightening.
π: 0 β©: 1
Ah, so her dream wasn't as nightmarish as your depiction of it? Still though, a rotten horse's head tied to someone's back sounds pretty creepy... Even if it wasn't a nightmare.
π: 0 β©: 0
It's a tough one, trying to interpret what it could mean. I think it may mean that the false group personality is constantly starring backwards (with the mind), rather than using your own eyes and looking at the present moment and whats around you right now. Unless a person can get to the present moment and truly be in it, then he is constantly chasing those dead eyes - the opinions of others.
π: 0 β©: 0
featured hereΒ features of the week! and my new artΒ Β
π: 0 β©: 1
I found your stuff because of the parody images...but this is the stuff that really draws me in. The quality in the rendering, and the horror of the subject matter is amazing.
π: 0 β©: 1
Thanks! I prefer this stuff as well and tend to put more time into it.
π: 0 β©: 0
Great style of that pic., just perfect. Am I the only one who feels SO alone? Cant wait for more
π: 0 β©: 0
It reminds me a little of the Goose Girl fairy tale, where she got advice from the head of her dead horse.
π: 0 β©: 1
I hadn't heard of that one. Thanks for the lead!
π: 0 β©: 0
Ok, Β that belongs on the cover of a metal album. /,,/
π: 0 β©: 1
Thanks! "The Sightless Guide" could be a good album/track name too.
π: 0 β©: 1
fuck yes, and it has to be Black Metal.
π: 0 β©: 0
Reminds me of the famous "Snippy the Horse". (google images with quotes)
π: 0 β©: 1
This pic's provided lots of leads to stories I'd never heard of before. I've just read a good article on Snippy that covers many different theories but lets readers form their own opinions. It's a disturbing case, whatever the truth! Thanks for putting me on to it.
π: 0 β©: 0
I hadn't heard of Wise Oleg before, but your comment was intriguing - the dreamer was a Russian expat so there could be a connection.
π: 0 β©: 0
The horses head seems to be looking back on, on where it's been the marks on the ground of it's own passing? I do not know but the head of the figure has no face therefore no eyes to look on to where it is going, it's destination, it's future. A wonderful analogy for these uncertain times, I think.
π: 0 β©: 1
The head facing backwards was one of the aspects that really grabbed me. I've taken a few liberties - the dream had this creature wandering through an abandoned mansion and the hem of its shroud was smoking - but it's definitely a good metaphor for fear and uncertainty.
π: 0 β©: 1
I like the smoking hem. If I may ask why didn't you include it?
π: 0 β©: 0
I wish I had more dreams like that. It's always excellent fuel for surrealist creativity!
π: 0 β©: 1
Thanks! I wish I had more like this too - I either don't dream much at all or forget everything when I wake up, and the dreams I do remember tend to be more bizarre than anything (the Consulting the Oracle story draws loosely from one of them). I heard Dali used some tricks to wake himself while drifting off and might have to try them some time!
π: 0 β©: 0
Thinking of all the vermin, attracted to the horsehead and the smell. Maybe itΒ΄s just a clean white bone now though completely useless. Nevertheless a truly dark and sad view to a destiny... Unbelievable nice effectuated concept I believe.
π: 0 β©: 1
You've raised some good points! I'd thought about adding clouds of flies as I did with the Vermiculator butΒ went for ash and smoke instead.
π: 0 β©: 1
Yeah good decision, to make it not too nasty. Wonderful character ...again. Is about that burden, but leaving very much space for thoughts....inspiration. Β
π: 0 β©: 0
| Next =>