Posts Tagged ‘john howe’
A long expected sculpture
Back in 2009 we excitedly placed an order for a sculpture from Weta. Now, we don’t normally go in for large sculptures, but this one was to be of Smaug™ the Golden and was the first piece in John Howe’s and Weta’s range of sculptures from Middle-earth™ The illustration of Smaug™ the Golden by John Howe is probably known by everyone who has read The Hobbit.
Now, when I look at an illustration like this, I must admit I didn’t think it would be possible to recreate it in 3 dimensions and that it would still have the same visual impact. Then I saw the images on Weta’s webpage for the sculpture link and I realized it was something we really needed to buy. As it was only a few months until Christmas (in 2009 this is) we decided to treat ourselves and call it a combined present to us both. So, we ordered and sat back expectantly. This is where the technical issues crept in, there were, it appears, issues with the base which meant people who had already received their dragon were not happy with the piece. At this point Weta put the product on hold and scratched their heads and came up with a solution which to my eyes has improved the piece – I’m not a fan of simulated wood finishes and would have been tempted to replace it with real wood, yet the solution turned out to be replacing the simulated wood base with a polystone base which gives it a marbled appearance something I find more in keeping with the piece anyway. So, the deadline changed a few times for delivery, which given the production issues isn’t all that surprising really, then a week or so ago I received an email from Weta saying the shipment had arrived in the UK and was ready to wing its way to our address.
This morning, the van arrived and the doors opened to reveal a huge, and I mean HUGE box. I returned to the house – very carefully, and prepared to open it.
Upon opening the box we were greeted by unpacking instructions, not something I’d seen before, but then, this is the first dragon we’ve received by courier 
We carefully removed the outer box and opened the inner box, inside this was a spanner and a huge cube of polystyrene. The three bolts which kept the sculpture in position for shipping were quickly removed and we removed the polystyrene layer by layer.
Once all this was removed we stood back, and our jaws dropped to the ground, it is a stunning piece, really one you have to see in real life to get the full impact of. There are so many little details that you miss first time round that jump out at you when you look from another angle. It’s one of those pieces that we’ll spend quite some time looking at and slowly discovering new parts and details on.
So, what are you waiting for? there’s a limited number available Now, I just need to work out which body parts I need to sell in order to get the next sculpture.
Wandering Wizard
This painting is something of a departure from what I had intended to paint, but then when you are painting something for a wandering theme a slight departure is to be expected. Anyway, the other day I was sitting reading a few pages of Lord of the Rings – the section where Gandalf leads Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli into Meduseld, and I had a clear idea what I had to paint. It’s strange really, whenever I paint something from Tolkien I want to include all the details I see in my head, this time I really just wanted to feature the wandering wizard who annoys Wormtongue so much.
So, this is a quick A4 watercolour of Gandalf, his old grey cloak in rags covering his new white garb as he shuffles and stoops his way to the presence of Theoden. Now I really want to paint the full hall, with shafts of light picking out different details, and the other characters in place.
Station 3
This is going to look a little odd, but stay with me a moment I had a random idea for an illustration to submit to the Wanderers theme over at john-howe.com – Now the idea was fairly simple in my little head, but needed a little bit of an explanation. I tried a couple of times to write a simple piece to go with it and ended up more frustrated than satisfied with the outcome, and so I decided to write a short story to accompany the illustration. I decided to post the short story after the first draft, mainly because it was more of a release from writers block and frustration than an attempt to write anything polished and finished. So if there are any errors, I’m sorry
Guardian
Okay, a little background first, some time ago on the evil that is Facebook (which I obviously visit most days ) John Howe posted a photograph 
with the comment “Speaking of dragons… it wouldn’t take a lot to transform those rocks on the left into something with scales, heading back into the sea.” A few comments later and it became “What if we all use this image as reference and see what we come up with?” After reading these and other comments I decided I’d give it a go with the intention of just transforming the rocks using photoshop into something resembling a dragon – not to hard really, a tint of colour here, a bit of shade there and the you go a nice fluffy dragon looking out over the water. This simple plan went wrong as I realized that I really don’t like drawing dragons in photoshop, well, I’m happier drawing on paper with a pencil than using the wacom but for this quick edit it would have been handy to just once work completely in photoshop
So, the obvious solution was to print out the image and sketch over it, which I tried but did not enjoy much. A few sheets of paper and a lot of scribbles later and I’d decided that the rounded mound of trees in the distance was really crying out for a castle upon it, so that was added to the sketch and I marked up a nice clean sheet of watercolour paper. The sky was added quickly and I started on the towers for the castle, as I painted away I thought the island/mound on the left would probably feel left out if there was no castle upon it so I added a few more towers. That only left the tiny island in the middle, which was starting to look lonely… you get the idea. The castle on the very left of the page replacing the trees was a very late decision, but not as late an addition as the little guy in the doorway.
Anyway, the painting was done and I was about to upload it when I decided I did not like the colour of the dragon much, and so I changed the colour in photoshop 
What if…
I was trying to think of a painting for the theme of the month which is Airships over on the John Howe website. And I was thinking (if you can call it that), what if Tolkien before he wrote the Council of Elrond scene had watched a few hot air balloons fly by, perhaps he’d have sent the ring South by balloon instead of with the fellowship on foot.
Elrond looked annoyed and the other members of the council shuffled in their seats.
“Look,” said Frodo, “I’m not saying I won’t go to Mordor, it’s just walking all that way…”
“No one is saying you have to cover the distance in one day.” Interrupted Elrond, “Think of it more of an extended wander.”
“I already have bunions on both feet, and an ingrown toenail.” Complained Frodo, “please don’t forget the condition of my feet.”
“And my back,” put in Gimli.
“And my legs,” chirped Legolas.
“Okay, I get it.” Elrond said slamming the table in frustration. “So you’re all too lazy to walk to Mordor.”
“How many horses do we have?” Asked Gandalf.
“Not enough I’ll warrant,” Aragorn replied. “Rivendell lost far too many for the great feast.”
“Eagles?” Suggested Bilbo.
No one answered, though Elrond threw a half eaten roll at Bilbo.
Time passed and no one spoke, clouds drifted in front of the Sun and the council chamber fell dark. From the back of the council chamber a Elf from the distant realm of Golfier stood and cleared his throat. “Could I make a suggestion?”
“At this point I’ll listen to Bill the Pony,” said Elrond.
“My Lord, I am Étienne from the realm of Golfier,” he said bowing towards the other members of the council. “We have for many years now been designing vessels that fly in the air and are moved by nothing more than the winds.”
Elrond, and most of the other council members looked doubtful.
“This is true my Lords,” said another Elf standing next to Étienne. “I am Findaráto brother of Étienne, these vessels of the air are a wonder to behold.”
“Hang on,” Gandalf said standing up. “I’ve seen those airships, they’re nothing more than little baskets suspended beneath bags of air.”
“We’ve refined the design a bit,” Étienne said smiling. “Now we suspend small rowing boats beneath the balloons.”
“How far can one of these airships go?” Elrond asked curiously.
“We’ve never flown more than 40 miles in one go,” replied Findaráto. “That’s not to say they won’t fly further, just that we’ve never seen the need to travel further than that.”
“There’s no way you’ll get me up in one of those things.” Gandalf said shaking his head.
“Hmmmm, let’s not be hasty,” said Elrond holding up a hand to silence Gandalf.
“Are you halfentish?” Legolas asked Elrond with a smirk.
The council chamber erupted with laughter and Bilbo called for ale which he’d done every fifteen minutes since they started.
“If you’re all quite finished,” Elrond said, he was looking mightily cheesed off and everyone fell silent. “That’s better. I like this idea of flying silently into Mordor, it’s the one thing that Sauron won’t consider.”
“Is that because it’s a stupid idea?” Asked Gandalf.
“Well, we can’t walk, ride or Eagle it there,” Elrond replied sharply. “We have little choice left to us. How long will it take to build these airships for the trip to Mordor?”
“Three weeks should be enough,” said Findaráto.
“You can count me out of this scheme.” Gandalf said to no one in particular.
For three weeks the Golfier brothers worked on their airships until three were ready to fly, the fellowship sans Gandalf assembled and climbed aboard their ships. Gandalf shook his head and wandered down into the valley of Rivendell, he couldn’t watch them crash into the ground and die. As he stepped onto the bridge Gandalf looked up and saw the three airships floating off into the distance, slamming his staff down onto the bridge he called out to the fellowship “Fly you fools!”
Of course the text and Gandalf of the bridge is the result of Julie saying to my suggestion of the fellowship in airships was “yes, and Gandalf could be shouting ‘fly you fools’ at them”
