Keeper of the Silmaril

Next in the series, we have Luthien, the most beautiful of the Children of Iluvatar:

These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.

Queen of Doriath

I warned you I had started a series :)

I wanted these digital paints to not only reflect character, but also look as though they really had been hidden away for ages. That's the feeling Tolkien's myths always gave me: that they were real history buried beneath myth and story until no one could remember whether they had once been real...

So first up is another one of my favorite characters: Melian

These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.

The Beginning of Days I

The first set of pages from my personal adaptation of Tolkien's, The Silmarillion:

The Beginning of Days II

Pages six through ten:

These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.

The Beginning of Days III

Pages eleven through fifteen:

These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.

The Beginning of Days IV

The last set of pages from my adaptation of The Silmarillion:

These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.

Uinen

Varda and Uinen were always my favorites (if I had to choose). This sketch was done as part of an exercise in sketching with ink

These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.

Thumbnails

These are a few of my thumbnails, showing the initial conception of the finished pages. These are not all of them...the others are probably floating around Savannah, GA, on a scrap of paper.

These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.

The First Dark Lord

It had to happen eventually...

Morgoth is the one part of the epic I am most worried about portraying. Not only does his character deteriorate and change exceedingly fast, but he is supposed to be the most fearsome and terrifying character in all the world. How does one draw pure evil?

What I decided to focus on is the transformation from a Valar of power to a vapid and soulless being obsessed with keeping his power. I feel that it is how we change that says most about who we are. In Morgoth's case, he loses sight of true power and so I covered his face, more and more, so that in the end he is no longer anything like his Valar brethren.

I also gave him reverse eyes (light pupils surrounded by black) because nothing weirds me out more than something wrong with someone's eyes.

These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.

Of Dwarves and Trees

These are my initial concepts for both the Dwarf Lords and the Two Trees.

I cannot begin to describe how much I love the story of the Dwarves' creation. In trying to conceptualize these early, primitive attempts at creating life, I wanted the seven fathers no to be Dwarves already, but more like playthings, which is is basically what Aule intended them to be at first. It is interesting to me that despite this naive beginning, the early Dwarves retained much of their creator's personality, including his faults. I'd like to think that all parties involved, Aule, Yavanna, and Iluvatar, knew the dangers of these early beings...and yet they chose to keep them within the circles of world...food for thought.

Anyway, the trees changed for the actual pages...but I find myself still drawn to these initial concepts. I like that they are essentially normal trees. I like to think of the power of the Valar as organic--natural, whereas the dark forces are supernatural and contrived. In changing the trees, I think I lost sight of what I originally intended them to represent. I think I'll change them back one magical day when Time graces me with its presence.

These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.

Conceptual lords

These are the original designs for the lords of the Valar. More of their designs changed over the course of drawing the pages than did the ladies...

And at the bottom of the second page, you'll see an interesting exercise in which I tried to give each Valar a distinct shape. This is just one of many ways to help distinguish character.

These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.

Conceptual ladies

Here are my initial concept sketches for the Valier, the queens of the Valar, as well as the ladies of the Maiar

These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.

Ladies of the Silmarillion part one

These sketches are part of an illustration series I like to work on in my spare time.

First, we have Luthien and Beren, the stars of my all-time favorite love story:

Next we have Melian, the wise queen of Doriath:

Here we have Luthien again, in her role as a keeper of the Silmaril:

And here is Nimloth, doomed wife of Dior:

And last, for now, is Elwing, the second keeper of the Silmaril:

Slowly but surely, I'm turning these into finished illustrations :)



These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate

Valaquenta

This poster was a final project for class and features the most prominent Valar and Maiar, save for Morgoth, who is no longer counted among them.

For a few close-up details, go here!



These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.

A Game of Hearts

These cards were designed for a class. Whatever the theme was...I was determined to use Silmarillion characters.

The King card features Manwe and Ulmo, of course:

The Queens are Yavanna and Varda:

For the Jack I used the heralds, Eonwe and Ilmare:

And the Eight features Vana and Nessa:

These characters do not belong to me. They are (c) the Tolkien Estate.