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Traditional Painting

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Submitted: January 3
Image Size: 4.1 MB
Resolution: 5118×2696

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Comments: 18
Favourites: 31 [who?]
Views: 529 (2 today)

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Make:Canon
Model:Canon EOS REBEL T3i
Shutter Speed:1/3 second
Aperture:F/5.6
Focal Length:55 mm
ISO Speed:400
Date Taken:Jan 3, 2013, 1:38:03 PM
Lens:EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II
Sensor Size:22mm

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Four Horsemenby ~DouglasRamsey

Traditional Art / Paintings / Macabre & Horror

From Revelation 6:1-8
Oil on board, 16.5” x 30”

I have to confess to taking some artistic license with this piece by having the horsemen ride out together. In the text of Revelation they ride sequentially, which makes sense because the thirst for conquest of political rulers (white horse) inevitably leads to war (red horse) which creates scarcity (black horse) and leaves in its wake famine, pestilence, and death (pale horse).

Still, this is a little difficult to capture in a single image, so I decided to have them ride as a posse like pretty much every artist has done since Albrecht Durer. I tried to compensate for it a little though, by indicating the white horse had ridden farther than the red, which is farther ahead of the black, and so on.

Incidentally, the Death rider is not armed with his usual scythe, as that is a later addition to the imagery of the Grim Reaper, not something in the text itself. You could make a case for giving him a sword, since one is mentioned in verse 8, but I wanted to distinguish him from the red rider by having him spread pestilence with his right hand instead.

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~jesusmarvelite3 May 6, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

Wow, this is incredible!

!neverthirst Jan 10, 2013

Always hard-pressed to find a piece like this that isn't trying to be hollywood, much like the Hobbit tried to be LOTR there is often an element in the artistic impressions of apocalyptic events that completely distracts from the "story" behind it, this piece seems more vision like, honoring John's writing as such. I know we cannot reach into the minds of the prophets but through reading but I like your interpretations quite a bit. They aren't too iconic, and they aren't trying to be "epic" but simply mirror in your own way what has been written.

wonderful work.

~DouglasRamsey Jan 11, 2013

My starting point for most of my historical pieces is just to imagine what these events would have actually looked like, so that if you had a camera that could look back in time, that’s more or less what it would see. To do that I try to ground things in reality as much as possible with archaeological data and by paying attention to the details of the text. For prophetic visions like this one, I think there’s more room for creative interpretation but I still wanted it to have a believable feel. Thus the first rider here is dressed like a Parthian king because the Parthians rode white horses as their trademark and were the only Empire in the first century with horse-mounted archers. Thanks very much for you comment!

!neverthirst Jan 12, 2013

love the little snippet of history <3 thank you! and yes, I base my drawings on reference pictures but I need to consider the atmosphere too..... also, thank you for responding to my comments and questions

~AndySimmons Jan 9, 2013 Student Photographer

Powerful! Well done, not an easy task!

~DouglasRamsey Jan 14, 2013

Thanks very much!

~kakerate Jan 9, 2013

Great work! I love the fiery background.

~DouglasRamsey Jan 14, 2013

Thanks, the background seems like it still needs some work to me but I'm not sure what more to do with it for now.

~BlameThe1st Jan 8, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

And yet somehow this pales in comparison to the epicness of Apocalypse Pony: [link]

~DouglasRamsey Jan 14, 2013

You know, come to think of it now, this piece hasn’t gotten the usual requests from the equestrian-lover galleries. Maybe these horses just aren’t lovable enough. Too bad I didn’t see this video before I started work on this one, it might’ve helped.

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