Bloemfontein, 3rd of January 1892, J. R. R. Tolkien is born, fast forward one hundred and twenty two years and I’m photographing a button 🙂 The connection between Tolkien being born and the button? Well….. ….if Tolkien hadn’t been born he’d not have started writing, if he’d not started writing he could never have written the Hobbit, if he’d not written the Hobbit they’d not have made the films, if they’d not made the films they’d never have made the acorn buttons for Bilbo’s waistcoat, and if they’d not made…
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Death of Smaug
I was sketching dragons again recently, well I often sketch dragons but this time there was a purpose, the theme of the month over at john-howe.com for December was Dragons. As a certain dragon was on my mind with the Desolation of Smaug hitting the silver screen* I ended up wondering how Smaug would look after the black arrow had done its job 😉 This was a fun dragon to work on, well any character from Tolkien is fun to attempt – rather than use traditional medium I worked in…
Read MoreUnder the stars
I’ve had a few ideas for star filled paintings recently, mainly they’ve been science fiction with sleek space ships zooming around. However the other day I returned to a Tolkien theme of Hobbits wandering under a star filled sky. The main aim was to make the Hobbits just visible enough to be in the painting yet make it believable that they were wandering under the stars with little to no Moon to illuminate the scene. Another aim was to use real star positions rather than just splatter the painting with…
Read MoreMr Hobbit
I was playing around with digital pen and ink (on Painter 12) and started a sketch of J. R. R. Tolkien, it quickly developed into a tinted version with some text 😉 I think I may enjoy playing with digital ink & paints 🙂
Read MoreAn unexpected review
I’ll be honest, just over six years ago when Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh posted the letter online that their services would not be required by New Line I never really imagined that a film would be made in the end. It appeared at the time we’d see nothing but legal arguments and inter-studio-squabbling. It’s 2219 days since that letter appeared online, and during that time there have been strikes, director changes, and of course the two films becames three, in three dimension, with extra frames per second…. Yes, we’re…
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