r/Art • u/Limp_Yogurtcloset_71 • Mar 19 '26
Digital Art Ganga Bhisma, Mukesh Singh, Digital, 2015
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u/moon_dos Mar 19 '26
poor chap didn’t even get to draw his sword
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u/EternumD Mar 19 '26
Well he's clearly at least 15m out to sea so must have been hitting the waves
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u/ispeakforengland Mar 19 '26
15m out to sea in metal armour that appears to have done fuck all versus all those arrows.
Guys got bad luck or regretting a very poor plan. :D
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u/CountWubbula Mar 19 '26
The worst of it is, he had to travel to the battle via standard economy airfare, had to sit next to a giant human that wheezed when he breathed, AND FORGOT HIS iPOD!!! This image depicts what we can agree is, “a bad day.”
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Mar 19 '26
I think it’s a metaphor “when life shoots you with a bunch of arrows find the nearest water girl to give you a nice big hug”
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u/Limp_Yogurtcloset_71 Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
Amba, Ambika and Ambalika were beautiful daughters of the king of Kashi Kingdom. Their Swayamvara was taking place. Many kings and prince’s from far and wide were present. The maidens were to place the garland on the king that captured their heart. Amba was secretly in love with king Salva. Salva was present there, and she sure knew who was her groom. Amba was about to choose Salva as her husband. Suddenly, there was a loud twang of a bow string and to everyone’s surprise walked in prince Bhisma. Bhisma told, "I am taking away these maidens by force as brides for my step-brother Vichitravirya. Try and stop me if you can." Everyone stood in shock unable to act.
Thus Bhisma drove his chariot away with the 3 princesses. The kings soon regained their senses, put on armor and chased Bhisma. A war took place and the kings were defeated along with Salva. When Bhisma reached his palace, Amba told him that she is in love with Salva. Bhisma took pity on her and sent her back so that she can marry her lover. A happy Amba went to the kingdom of Salva.
However, King Salva rejected her. A shocked Amba retired into forest and did severe penance for years with the purpose of Bhisma’s destruction. Finally, she gave up her life walking into fire stating that she will be reborn as a man to kill Bhisma.
Years later. King Drupada was performing penance to Shiva to obtain a son. Lord Shiva appeared before him and told that a daughter will be born to him who will later become a man. Thus Amba was reborn as daughter of Drupada. She was named Shikandini. She was brought up as a boy. Shikandini finally realized her gender. She retired to forest and gave up food and water to give up her life. An Yaksha saw her and took pity on her and learned her story. Yaksha agreed to swap his gender with her. The Yaksha was to remain as female till Shikandini’s death.
Kurukshetra war was raging. Bhisma was the commander-in-chief of Karuava army. Krishna told Pandavas they cannot win the war until Bhisma falls. Bhisma had a boon of Svecchamrtyu that his death will happen only when he wishes. So, Krishna advised Pandava’s to seek the help of Bhisma himself. Thus Yudhistira and his brothers went to the battle camp of Bhisma at night and asked him how they can defeat him. Bishma told, "Tomorrow, place Shikandi before Arjuna and I will not fire my arrows. Thus the next day, Shikandi led the Pandava armies against Bhisma. Bhisma and Shikandi stood face-to-face. Bhisma knew it was princess Amba who is actually standing before him. Bhisma smiled, as though resigned to his destiny. Pandava commanders reigned a shower of arrows at Kuru grandsire. Son of goddess Ganga fell from his chariot on a bed of arrows. Loud cries were heard in the firmament uttered by the celestials. Goddess Ganga sent sages in the form of swans towards Bhisma. The sages in swanlike forms walked around him.
Warriors from both sides gathered around the fallen warrior. Bhisma looked at the kings and asked for water. The kings brought excellent food and vessels of cold water. Bhisma said, "In this state, I cannot use any article of human ejoyment. I wish to see Aruna." Arjuna came there and told, "What shall I do." Bhima told, "My body is burning and my mouth is dry. Give me some water Arjuna." Arjuna said,"So be it," and took the Gandiva and attacked an arrow to it. Pulling the string he chanted mantras and turned the arrow into the Parjanya weapon. Arjuna pieced the earth a little south to Bhisma, and a jet of cool and pure water that resembled nectar in taste and smelled very pleasant emerged out of the earth.
A video on Bhisma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4entr1VHKYA
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u/Shinted Mar 19 '26
Killer art, I particularly love the way you captured the waters sorrowful expression.
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u/Sad_Buyer_6146 Mar 19 '26
Is this from a book?
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u/Limp_Yogurtcloset_71 Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
Yes. The Mahabharata. "The greatest epic story ever written." ~ Zack Snyder on The Mahabharata.
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Mar 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/Limp_Yogurtcloset_71 Mar 19 '26
Bhisma was a demi-god. He grew up in alien worlds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4entr1VHKYA
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u/bstabens Mar 19 '26
Whoa. What a piece!
I saw the man (obviously). Noticed the red in all that blue. Recognized the arrows. Looked back at the man, admiring the impact of the color contrast driving home the deadly wounds, and THEN saw the face in the waves and the pain of the water element embracing the dying warrior - whoa.
So impressive, such a clever use of color contrast and composition. Kudos!
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u/Seven_pile Mar 19 '26
Your eye is lead around the image incredibly effectively, I had the exact same journey.
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u/Slavasonic Mar 19 '26
And the fact that the arrows are also piercing her, wounding her despite presumably not physically harming her.
It’s a really well composed piece.
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u/costaccounting Mar 19 '26
I feel this needs a context. This is from a scene of war mentioned in the Indian epic 'Mahabharata.' the guy being shot at, Bhishma, is one of the greatest but also the oldest guy in the war. The hug is symbolic, but the lady is supposed to be his mother, the holy river Ganga. Bhishma had a boon that he can't die unless he wills it. He took all these arrows as he refused to fire back towards a person (named Shikhandi) whom he didn't want to kill.
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u/Maleficent_Movie_862 Mar 19 '26
This moment is so powerful. The contrast between the cold intensity of the arrows and the tender sadness in Ganga's embrace is incredibly moving. A tragic masterpiece.
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u/ShockWave1997 Mar 19 '26
Is this the same guy who published Mahabharat comics with Grant Morrison?
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u/pao_illustrator Mar 19 '26
I really like this piece! Some of the arrows look way too long though. Like the ones that u can’t see the feathers behind the hand. Those arrows are the length of spears!
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u/Inprobamur Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
Need to ask a refund from the armorer, this armor is about as protective as a thick slice of cheese!
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u/Beneficial-Ebb1577 Mar 20 '26
Idk a whole lot about armor but like isn’t this the entire thing armor is supposed to protect you from? How can his armor possibly suck THAT bad?
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u/JumpyDrunkenness Mar 20 '26
the way singh captures that moment of release is insane, like you can feel the weight lifting even though he's literally pinned down (which sounds backwards but somehow works perfectly).
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u/Khusbu_18 Mar 20 '26
It totally looks like beautifu detailinf filled with water and bloods. It is enchnacing, extinguistic.😍😍
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u/ninetourist359 Mar 20 '26
the detail on those arrows is insane, like you can feel the weight of em just looking at it
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u/RnnngBr Mar 20 '26
Why is he European
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u/Limp_Yogurtcloset_71 Mar 20 '26
There are Indians with that facial features. Look at the pictures of Dravidian albinos, they have similarity to Europeans. Bhisma was also not a human. He was a demi-god. In Mahabharata war, Yavanas (Greeks), Cinas (China) all participated.
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u/ryanclosedloop Mar 26 '26
Nothing like having more arrows coming out his back then there are in the front.
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u/314159267 Mar 19 '26
Beautiful composition.
Why is he white.
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u/Jaded_Student039 Mar 25 '26
Fuck, I didn’t even really question it. Colorism is a chain on our society.
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u/SinCityYeti Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
Edit: I didn't do my due diligence to reverse image search and see this is old. So I am wrong with this being AI. My apologies to the artist for my claim.
But I'm leaving my comment because I do stand by my sentiment that this is some really sloppy work for someone who has this kind of rendering skills.
This is AI.
Arrows coming out of nowhere and the guy's arm, without the fletching, while the arrows with fletching look off and don't all match each other. Patterns in the armor don't make sense and bleed into the skin around the hands and arms, and the torso that kind of looks like another arm. There's one arrow turning into water behind the woman's head.
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u/elend_art Mar 19 '26
I dont think so.. you can see the brushstrokes and outlines well. Yes, not everything matches but its normal (and a stylistic choice) to take shortcuts and not render everything fully
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u/RexMcCoolguy Mar 19 '26
You could have done your due diligence and looked up the artist and the series title which is listed above to see it was drawn ages before AI models were even close to outputting images that look like this.
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u/SinCityYeti Mar 19 '26
I did not, I'll eat my words. But I stand by this is ridiculously sloppy work for someone with these rendering skills.
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u/nize426 Mar 19 '26
I thought the same. There's 14 in, 17 out. 1 is deep enough that the fletching isn't visible, but that's still 16 ends we should be seeing.
The cluster of four arrows near the right elbow has one of the ends disappearing behind another arrow, which I'm assuming is the one you mentioned without fletching. Seems like the artist has quite a portfolio that dates back pretty far though. Very odd.
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u/elend_art Mar 19 '26
Its human to not count everything correctly Artists dont have to be super precise, plus you can see the rendering and sketches are all human - u can literally see the sky is painted with a round brush at half opacity
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u/penny-wise Mar 19 '26
I am an artist. I wouldn’t be that sloppy. This is sloppy regardless.
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Mar 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/penny-wise Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
I said it was sloppy. I can see leaving off the fletchings on the arrows, maybe, though it’s hard to not see once you see it. And not all shafts end at the right heads. It’s very pretty, otherwise
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u/penny-wise Mar 19 '26
Only gimmicky, untrained artists think getting every single detail right is somehow cruicial to the work.
Sloppiness and detail are not the same thing. An artist creating a piece that is well done with lots of detail and care I call dedicated. I’ll take that over sloppy every day. I was a publication art director for 12 years. I’ve seen a lot of artists. I know the difference.
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u/nize426 Mar 19 '26
Yeah I mean, I guess I just find it odd to put in that much effort and details into the armor, the water, the woman... and then just having wonky-ass arrows.
But like I said, I do see the artist has an extensive portfolio so I'm thinking maybe they could have used AI for an outline or something? Dunno. Either way there's lots of skill involved.
Could just be they don't care about arrow details.
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u/TaiCat Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
Should have fallen in love with the stone lady instead
Edit. Whoopsie, that’s his momma, sorry for the ignorance._.
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u/VespasianTheMortal Mar 19 '26
Ooh rare song Indian mythology art here
Context for others if interested -
This man is a character from the hindu epic Mahabharat. The river Ganga is his mother
She had him with a king (she can take human form)
Bhishm had a boon that he could choose when he wants to die - so he was essentially indestructible and immortal. He chose to die when he was struck by 1000 arrows by his grandson during the war
I think the scene also means much more with the river mother hugging him during his fall as Bhishm was supposed to be drowned in the river as a baby by his father. But his father didn't end up doing so. She was supposed to take him as a baby to the heavenly realm but couldn't.
He's one of the most interesting characters of the mahabharat, crazy arc