Many moons ago (okay, three decades maybe) I remember sitting at my desk trying to recreate Thror’s* Map, several hours later I’d created a crumpled piece of paper covered in ink which looked, if you squinted quite a bit something like a map. It was quickly filed in the relevant section of the waste paper basket. A few years later and I was at a different desk but my task was the same, to recreate the map so that it looked just as I imagined it to be when reading…
Read MoreTag: hobbit
Arriving at Bag End
Four dwarves arriving at Bag End, straight from the book 😉 I may paint them differently in twelve months of course 🙂 This was a large watercolour which I stopped and started too many times, lost my way, forgot what I was doing, but I got there in the end 😉 (The majority is watercolour, but there’s a touch of gouache, some coloured pencil, and a bit of Photoshop included for good measure).
Read MoreA 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…
Read MoreWandering Mind
I’ve been trying to get some ideas together for a painting, I know the basic idea of what I want to achieve at the end, it’s the bits that go into it that are causing the problems. So rather than try and sketch out the full scene I’ve been playing with different elements of it. Naturally this led to my mind wandering and I ended up with a couple of Tolkien related sketches 🙂 First one of the Three-Farthings Stone in the Shire – Then there was one of…
Read MoreWhat 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…
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