100 Shades of Grey

I had a small piece of watercolour board left over from the last project so I decided to practice mixing greys, as you do πŸ˜‰ Needing a subject I opted to paint one of Tolkien’s illustrations of the Lonely Mountain. Grey has never been an easy colour to mix for me so the rubble strewn and scorched landscape surround the front gate  was an ideal subject.

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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 πŸ˜‰ Next time I’ll go a bit darker, with a bit more cloud, for now…

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The Grey Towers

I was reading through the Riftwar Cycle by Raymond E. Feist when the Theme of the Month for May popped up on John Howe’s website. So my mind turned to The Grey Towers which is a mountain range in Feist’s world, I did start painting them, and will return to it when time allows. As I was out and about rather than at the easel I ended up sketching The Grey Towers instead.  

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