Never Too Old

“You’re too old to ……” No I’m not, you’re never too old for some things, that applies to Lego, especially when you’re a bit of a geek and you’ve just seen the Lego Hobbit: Unexpected Gathering set 😉 Seeing this was well timed, as I’d just received a couple of Amazon vouchers from my brother & sister in law, I had planned on buying a couple of books but couldn’t resist being a big kid again.   Lego & Hobbit characters are copyright to their respective owners not me 😉…

Read More

Byrddæg Wyscan

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…

Read More

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 More

Under 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 More

Eyes of Tol in Gaurhoth

When I first saw the ‘wolves’ theme over at john-howe.com this scene sprang to mind, from Tolkien’s tale of Beren and Lúthien… “Then Sauron stripped from the their disguise, and they stood before him naked and afraid. But though their kinds were revealed, Sauron could not discover their names or their purposes. He cast them therefore into a deep pit, dark and silent, and threatened to slay them cruel, unless one would betray the truth to him. From time to time they saw two eyes kindled in the dark, and…

Read More