In the quiet of the world

Tangents are quite interesting at times, and also quite frustrating. A while ago I started to think what the view would be from Bilbo’s front door if you reversed the Shire map (by Tolkien)… This of course led me to the illustration by Tolkien of the Hill… Which of course meant I needed to know how those buildings would look from the other side, the easiest solution of course is to do a quick mock up in 3D… In the end, sitting doodling was an easier solution to getting the…

Read More

Starting Again

A while ago I started a painting which was supposed to be Gandalf leading Bilbo and the Dwarves through the mountains. The background went fine which is unusual for me, then the rock faces didn’t work out too badly. Then I added Gandalf and I didn’t like it, I added more rain, more clouds, tints, hints… nothing worked for me, so there’s only one things for it. I’ll have to go back to drawing board 😉 Next time I’ll go a bit darker, with a bit more cloud, for now…

Read More

It’s strange….

It’s strange how things develop and change when you’re playing with ideas for a painting. I’ve been wondering for a while how I’d paint Bilbo meeting Gandalf for the first time at Bag End, so I sat down with a couple of pencils and a large sketch book and pondered. Nothing came to me, I stared at a blank piece of paper and wondered if it was like they say about carving, the piece is already there you just have to chip away the waste. Well, I tried looking at…

Read More