john howe – Graeme Skinner

Stamping

Graeme Skinner — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 13:59:56 +0000

When I saw that Post CH were going to issue a range of Tolkien themed stamps with illustrations by John Howe it wasn’t much of a quandary as to whether I’d buy a set or not they arrived this morning and they do look good.

Windows 21…

Graeme Skinner — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 11:30:52 +0000

This month’s theme over on John Howe’s website is ‘A Room with a View’…

After all the many months of confinement, semi-confinement and other lockdowns, have you ever found yourself staring out the window and imagining a different vista? (Not that there is necessarily wrong with that familiar view, mind you, but a little variety would be nice.)
So, this is your chance. Imagine where you are, imagine a window, then imagine the view.
Perhaps it’s a view on the past, or the future, or another world… You’ll see…

For some reason I decided on Shire inspired views

I started with a view from a cozy Hobbit hole looking across the shire….

I then drew the living room doors/windows with an imagined landscape beyond….

Isildur and Anárion

Graeme Skinner — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 17:05:23 +0000

For some reason the image of Isildur and Anárion looming above the Anduin was niggling me so I decided to put paint to paper it worked out well as the theme for November over on John Howe’s website is water

Niggle would approve.

Graeme Skinner — Sat, 11 Aug 2018 05:39:48 +0000

I started sketching a tree for the theme of the month over on John Howe’s website, it was supposed to be a quick simple sketch, then I got too the branches. The good intentions of a quick doodle to get in the right frame of mind went out the window and I started to become a little obsessive over the branches, I ended up doodling away at each little branch ignoring pretty much everything else. However, I get the feeling I need to obsess over the branches of the next tree just a little more maybe I’ll hide in a corner, turn off my phone, and just release that inner Niggle that resides somewhere in all of us – or maybe he just exists in my confused little brain

Oh, if you don’t know who Niggle is I’m shocked and horrified but it can easily be remedied …

The Grey Towers

Graeme Skinner — Thu, 31 May 2018 05:34:56 +0000

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.

Yet Dawn….

Graeme Skinner — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 13:59:07 +0000

I have a for a while been tinkering with a digital piece for the theme of the month ‘competition’ over on John Howe‘s website, the them Dawn’s Early Light was one that appealed to me but the digital piece really wasn’t working out as I wanted it to. For some reason the line from Lord of the Rings kept going through my head “Yet dawn is ever the hope of men,” so I decided to play with type instead of banging my head against the wall with the failing digital doodle.

To the memory of Celebrían

Graeme Skinner — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 14:25:02 +0000

Many moons ago I started work on an illustration, it was a simple idea, however the execution of the piece took a little longer than anticipated The theme I was working towards was Statuesque over on John Howe’s website – so I decided to illustrate the statue placed high above Rivendell to the memory of Celebrían, though the scene shown is many years after the last of the Elves had left for the West so the statue was in a poor state of repair….

Sceohsapiens

Graeme Skinner — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 16:17:52 +0000

One of the front pages from an old book I found many moons ago, the book is pure gibberish but it has some nice illustrations hiden amongst the text.

Meanwhile in Moria….

Graeme Skinner — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 11:59:13 +0000

The theme of the month over on John Howe’s website was Fiat Lux “Light should be the focus of the theme, whether it’s shadows, flames, rising or setting suns or distant stars. Lots of possibilities, from Prometheus bringing fire to mankind to the lovely shadow cast by an object from the lamp on your table…” So, I wondered how little light was required to illustrate a scene – more specifically if I could get away with using as little light as possible. Turns out it is quite difficult at times and I ended up painting areas far too light anyway… this is Gandalf as he sits through the ‘nights’ watch in the guard room during the Fellowships journey through Moria.

Acrylic on board 16 x 12 inch then some photoshop work to get the levels and tint I wanted but could not quite achieve with the brush.

Away with the fairies

Graeme Skinner — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 07:15:45 +0000

I’ve been away with the fairies for the last couple of weeks, well, I’ve been reading about some of the myths surrounding fairies, fay, fae, fair folk…. I started with Tolkien’s On Fairy Stories, which felt like a natural starting point, I then went on to read Tolkien’s Smith of Wootton Major for obvious reasons and delved into Celtic Twilight by Yeats. They all pointed me in different directions but all had a common them in many respects, if time allows this week I’d say another reading of Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist is in order

Whilst reading about the wee folk is interesting (and fun), I did get the urge to paint something before I’d finished even the basic amount of research, so I started painting Castlerigg Stone Circle at night, added a Moon shot I’d taken recently then dropped a fairy or two into the mix

There have been many theories put forward as to why our ancestors built stone circles, the truth is that they didn’t. Stone circles we built for and used by the fair folk as a meeting place, even today if you hide near a stone circle on a clear night you can just make out fair folk gathering around the stones (though some sit on the stones much to the disgust of the elders, that however is another story).

And the reason I’ve been away with the fairies so much recently, blame John, he set it as the theme of the month for October over on his website “The realm of faerie is all yours to explore in October. Victorians were very fond of fairies, there is some astonishing reference material out there, as well as the work of illustrators like Ida Rental Outhwaite. Just be careful of mushroom circles.”

Now I need to see if Smith has returned to Wootton Major, as he keeps popping off making it difficult to get a good sketch of him.