World of Roman Coyne

Author notes

Galley slave cleaning

Romancoyne

on Dec. 9, 2010

Like the Drummer, the Cleaning Team are taken out of the rowers' thwarts to do supporting work. But where being the drummer is arguably a promotion, cleaning up after slaves who sit chained to the oars all day is not. It sucks as much as rowing, though in different ways. The job is usually given to slaves who cannot row at peak performance level, such as this 9 months pregnant woman. It can also go to slaves who are a bit sickly or otherwise too weak to row. Not that any of this is a guarantee that you will be given a break from rowing; ship life being what it is, there are usually more pregnant slaves than there are positions on the cleaning team.

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This artwork looked like it was going to be a big failure, but with some elbow grease, it turned out pretty good. The original is already sold; the buyer gets bonus work in the form of a sketch of the same concept on the back. That sketch was abandoned because I could not make it work; but after I flipped over the paper and tried again, I eventually got this version.

Next up: the Kitchen Team, and an overview of the entire rowing crew.
One thing I have learned is that switching to a smaller(A4) paper doesn't save me any time and gives me less breathing room for the composition. I will work on larger sizes for works of this complexity from now on; it's much more comfortable and increases the value of the finished work.