Treasures of Middle Earth Design Contest-- EEEP!

From the Dragon's Hoard by Shaylynn Rackers. Winner of Weapons category.

Most people use the phrase "bouncing off walls" in an entirely figurative manner, but I honestly did bounce off walls the day I got the news. Specifically, I couldn't stop jumping up and down and squealing with my siblings, and while lifting my five year old brother into the air to spin and jump with him, I promptly banged my shoulder into the wall!

I am... speechless, honored, overwhelmed, blessed, exuberant, proud, humbled, excited, surprised, and any number of other things.

I'm going to say this with an attempt to not sound boastful or anything, but my parents and I were joking that instead of doing all the dubious things that you are legally allowed to do when you turn 18 (such as buying cigarettes, legally eloping, getting a permit to own a monkey, and bungee jumping-- okay, the bungee jumping sounds really cool--) I won an honest-to-goodness art contest.

The judges were Alan Lee and John Howe and Richard Taylor, you know? Artists and creative geniuses I really admire... It's weird to think that they judged my art, ohmygoodnessgracious!!! Geeking out here!

And yes, there are some epic prizes and when they arrive I'll have some epic photoshoots up here on my blog. :)

I think my brothers and Dad are much more excited about prop weapon replicas than the artwork (Okay, Dad was more excited about the artwork but with my brothers it's a full out tie between "Shaylynn won a LotR art contest!" and "OMG we are getting weapons!). They keep calling dibs on who gets to keep which sword in which bedroom when I leave for college!

If you want to see behind-the-scenes for "From the Dragon's Hoard"that blog post is here.

I also wanted to share some of what I personally consider the coolest pieces in the entire contest:

The Unexpected Party by dstoreystudio. Winner of Characters category.

Graphite Pencil & Photoshop CS5. Thorin Oakenshield elaborating on "our plans, our ways, means, policy and devices" before the long journey to reclaim Erebor.

Without a doubt, this is my favorite entry in the entire contest... THE DETAIL. THE COLOR. THE AWESOME.

Also, the artist's name looked google-able, so I searched her and found her website and blog, which have some seriously impressive pieces.

And a sketch and a larger version of the digital painting!

(both images from danielle storey illustration)

Ok. This is where I sort of freak out. Something I made won a prize in the same contest as THIS ASTONISHING ARTWORK? AND THE AMAZING ARTWORK BELOW, TOO?!

The Great Debate by Glaib, Winner of Creatures category.

William, Tom, and Bert are trying to decide what to do with this wayward Hobbit. Rest assured, however... it won't be pleasant.

This is just so beautiful... I especially love the colors and layout and shadows... I just can't think of a word to describe it except for beautiful, even though beautiful isn't a word you'd normally use to describe Trolls...

The Hall of Durin by GlaibY. Winner of Location category.

A king he was on carven throne In many-pillared halls of stone With golden roof and silver floor, And runes of power upon the door. This poem inspired me to show Durin's Hall before darkness fell.

Again, beautiful stunning colors and obsessive detail! I've only ever thought of Durin's Hall as a gloomy, mammoth relic of older years, filled with musty air and echoes of memories. But "The world was fair in Durin's day..."

Be sure that you are clicking on the pictures to see them full size on the contest website.

Esgaroth "Laketown" by Tina Marie. A Runner-Up in Location Category.

Bilbo's first time seeing Esgaroth. The town constructed entirely of wood and stands upon wooden pillars sunk into the bed of the Long Lake. How large and tall a human town would look to a Hobbit.

There were so many good entries that I'm sure the judges had a very hard time picking the winners, but I imagine the choice between this and "Durin's Hall" was very tough. Personally I would have tied them. :) This is just such a lovely imagining of Laketown and I aspire to be able to paint like this some day.

Wait, this one is bigger, too! (The contest called for a square picture, guess most of the artwork was not drawn specifically for the contest.) I love Google Image search. Lookie lookie lookie at the brilliance!

(image from Alanise at DeviantArt. Her full gallery is here.)

An Unexpected Party by J. Storms. A Runner-up in Locations category.

This is my interpretation of Bag End, how I pictured it as a child. It focuses more on imagination and less on detail, similar to how I felt the first time I read the story.

I really like this one because it's so creative and different.

Tools of Radagast by V. Giordano. A Runner-up in Weapons category.

Ink on Pipe Tobacco stained paper. His tools include a small dagger, a briar pipe, a belt holding herbs, Old Toby & birdseed, & his animal-friendly staff, complete with plenty of perches and nooks!

This one is really clever!

Wargs on the Prowl by Kate Pfeilschiefter. A Runner-up in Creatures category.

What is that Lamp Which Lights up Men, But Flame Engulfs it, And Wargs Grasp after is Always? My idea of Wargs has always been inspired by the Norse mythological wolves of the same name.

Creepy Wargs are creepy but also hauntingly beautiful...

The Greedy Rage of Smaug by Jonathan Moore. Entry in Creatures category.

When one of Smaug's treasures is pilfered by the invisible hobbit burglar, the ancient dragon erupts in a jealous fury, exits the Lonely Mountain, and alights upon its summit.

Shadow of Mirkwood by Kevin Keele. Finalist in Locations category.

I love this part in the book. Bilbo and the dwarves come to rely on Gandalf so much, yet when they're entering the most sinister and dangerous place so far, he abandons the group.

Several of the drawings are very purple-and-yellow, which is interesting because the colors I primarily think of when I consider The Hobbit are cheerful gold and green and a creepy dark brown. But I'm really loving these pieces... And this cartoony style is really neat.



I could go on and on sharing the amazing artwork that was entered but I'm running out of time here. Go visit Treasures of Middle Earth Design Contest and feast your eyes. :)

Justin Gerard: Illustrations and Interview

Glorfindel and the Balrog by Justin Gerard

I'm not sure how I found Justin Gerard's blog-- no doubt I just happened upon it during one of those must-click-every-link-on-every-blog days-- but I fell in love with his artwork straight away. His sketches and paintings feature monsters, warriors, vast landscapes, and beautiful colors. The style is really neat-- a mix of unleashed imagination coupled with realism-- Best of all, he drew pictures of some of my all-time favorite stories, including Tolkien's works!

The Forest Troll by Justin Gerard. Some very neat in-progress shots are at his blog.

He was kind enough to do an interview with me, so I'll go ahead and be quiet and let the artist speak for himself! My questions are in bold.

______________________

I love reading the behind-the-scenes posts at your blog, with peeks at the thumbnails, sketches, paintings, and digital pieces. Can you give a quick overview of your typical process?

thumbnails for Smaug

My typical process is to first take a hike and think about the idea a bit. Then I do dozens and dozens of thumbnails that are never much more than a square inch a piece. After this I pick the best of them and will do larger drawings that are around 4 inches tall or so. I then scan this in to the computer and adjust, correct and edit it until I am happy with the design. From there I will do a few more drawings until I really nail down the characters and expressions. Then I print it all out and transfer it to some kind of traditional media, usually either bristol paper or gessoed panel. After that I do a traditional painting (watercolor, acrylic or oil). After that I often scan this in and adjust and finish it digitally in Photoshop.         

You usually finish your pieces digitally, using Photoshop as a tool integral to your art rather than something used for just touching up bad scans. It's a pretty unique approach. When did you start doing this? What is it about the combination of traditional and digital art that appeals to you? Do you find yourself overly dependent on the all-powerful magic of that shiny "UNDO" button?

I've been doing this for a long time. Before I started using watercolor as the base for my digital work, I had been using pencil or ink, so it wasn't too big a jump actually. I have always preferred drawing on physical paper to every other kind of mark making. So no matter what there was always a traditional component to the work. But I don't think it really started to work until I started taking the traditional parts a lot farther.

The best part about the combination is that it allows you to minimize the inherent weaknesses in both and maximize their strengths. For instance, keeping your lines, and also going darker in watercolor is very difficult and often yields weak results. But by laying in with watercolor and then pulling up the values digitally, you can get the range you are after without sacrificing your linework. There are many many other examples as well. They just seem to work really well together.

I almost never use the undo button. However, I do tend to throw out layers…. which might amount to the same thing. So I won't cast any stones at those who do like their ctrl+z.



Is it hard to do commissioned artwork? Do you find that illustrating something for someone else helps or inhibits your artistic vision?

It can be. Much of it depends on the abilities of the art director. A really good art director who knows what they want and how to get what they are looking for is such a relief. Sometimes it can be a nightmare when the art director just doesn't quite know what they want, or doesn't know what the editor wants and you end up in a long series of revisions. But this is part of the job. Dealing with the difficulties of sharing the artistic vision is a large part of what they are paying you for.

I also do a lot of personal projects, and that helps me cure the need for doing work that is more in line with my artistic vision.


So many of your pieces feature grand adventures, magical vistas, and creepy monsters. When did you fall in love with mythology/legends/fantasy/fairytales/awesomeness? What are some of the stories that most influenced you?

Ahhh well, artistically, my childhood was filled with disney films and video games. So at a basic level, these largely fantasy works were what provides a base for this love in all of my work. Tolkien's works have helped give it a more specific focus. The Hobbit in particular ended up being one that influenced me the most. To this day it is still my favorite work of fantasy fiction. Nothing has even come close for me in terms of adventure, magic, mystery and charm.
The Chronicles of Narnia, The Once and Future King, the old boys adventure novels (treasure island, robin hood etc) also provided a lot of inspiration for me.

Riddles in the Dark

When did you first read The Lord of the Rings?

Late high school. I couldn't put it down, and read all 3 in a week. I did a lot of really poor thumbnails for the story too. One day I hope to actually go back and see if I can't actually paint them as finished pieces.


Most of your Tolkien-inspired pictures are from the Hobbit or the Silmarillion. You haven't done much based on the LotR trilogy. Do you find that the movies affect your imagination too much?

Yes. In fact the reason I did the Hobbit was largely to do with a sad realization that after I watched Peter Jackson's version of the LorR, my own ideas about Boromir, Shelob, Orthanc etc. all got replaced. Now I saw them in my imagination as I had seen them in the movie, and this was really disappointing. It's not that I didn't like them, they were all great, it's just that I was sad to lose my own ideas.

So I decided to get down a lot of my own ideas about the Hobbit before it was too late. It turned out to be one of the most rewarding projects I have ever worked on.
I may actually go back someday and try to do some scenes from the LotR, but not until the films have somewhat receeded in my mind and I can get back to my own take on the scenes again. So I can get to a place where I can actually contribute something unique to the story and not just be redundant with what Peter Jackson and Alan Lee and John Howe and Weta and all the rest have already done so well.

a sketch of Fingorn and Glothmog from The Silmarillion

You did an entire project of The Hobbit-inspired illustrations. I know from experience that illustrating makes you study the vision-- and sometimes genius-- of the author very closely. Did you learn anything in particular about the story while doing the illustrations?

Oh definitely. For one I learned that the Hobbit is an evaluation of society as seen through the eyes of a quite country gentlemen who is forced to go through and engage with all the various strata. The interesting culmination being the interview with Smaug, where we essentially have an aristocracy which has lost any form of ideals outside of abject selfishness, and is content to sit on the wealth of the nation. You begin to get a sense for how Tolkien himself saw issues like governmental or corporate systems of control, how he felt about man's proper relation to the environment, about when war is appropriate, and how a riddle game is meant to be played. There is just so much in there and the more you really dig in, the more you can't help but be interested in the man himself and what he was truly after.

Which piece of art are you the most proud of, and why?

Probably Smaug. I think of all of the work it is probably the most original and fun to work on. Most of my work I don't really like all that much. I always love doing the work, but am not always pleased with it when I am finished. Smaug though, was just a wonderful experience through and through.

"There He Lay"
(you can see the behind-the-scenes and some thoughts from the artist here)

And which do you hate the most, or did you struggle the most with?

Most of the rest.

I would say that while I liked the Battle of Five Armies, it was the longest struggle of any piece I have ever done. It took me a month to finish and I remember being so burned out on drawing little hair men and goblins that I didn't draw anything for a few weeks and when I did finally draw something again it was only elven princesses. That one took a lot out of me, but now that it is over I am really pleased with it and enjoy showing it at conventions.

Battle of Five Armies

Lembas bread or ent-draught?

Lembas bread while I am backpacking, ent-draught for when I get back.

I love hiking actually. I am going to be doing a week long backpacking trip up in the Cascades in Washington later this month and we will be packing food that is as close to Lembas as we can find for the trip... and then when we get back to Seattle we will be off in search of the nearest Entmoot to see what we can find.

image by Justin Gerard, from his blog

It's a little strange, but my love of hiking, while partially rooted in wandering around in the forests of my childhood, is largely the result of Tolkien's own descriptions of an adventure. Of Frodo and Sam or of Bilbo's walking out their door and off into the wilderness, the possibilities of which, were endless. Tolkien instilled a desire in me to actually get out and do this. And it turned out to be so rewarding. You not only come back detoxed and feeling more clean and alive than ever before, but you also come back knowing more about yourself, heart and body. You never can truly appreciate a warm bed, or a hot shower, or clean clothes or a big greasy cheeseburger until you spend a week in the wilderness with nothing. You come back thankful for everything and I think it makes you a better human being. I think Tolkien knew what he was talking about.

I'm not sure that I would ever have had this desire without catching the bug from Tolkien's writing.


Would you rather live in the Shire or in one of the kingdoms like Gondor or Rohan?

Ahhhh…. I don't know. I love doing art, and I love traveling. I would want to be someplace that would allow for those things. But I think if you dropped me in any one of those 3 places, I would enjoy it and then want to take trips to the other places, and also go in search of Lothlorien and Mirkwood every now and again.

But I would say that I do like the countryside, and am not as much a big-city person, so if you pressed me on it, I would probably say the Shire.

Thanks so much for doing this interview, Mr. Gerard!

______________________

Here's just a few of my favorite paintings that are not related to Lord of the Rings.

St. George and the Dragon No. 8

AWOL No. 1

Lancelot du Lac

I'd really encourage you to check out his gallery and blog (which has some neat behind-the-scenes and many more paintings than his gallery).  

All images in this post are from The Blog and Gallery of Justin Gerard and belong to the artist.

Alan Lee, Illustrator of Middle-Earth

When I first read The Lord of the Rings, it was a worn-out, waterstained paperback that was thoroughly read by my parents previously and one of my brothers simultaneously. I'm sure you've seen these paperbacks; they have pictures from the movies on the cover, no other illustration or decoration, and ink that smudges when you touch it.

A couple of years ago, we got beautiful hardcover copies of the trilogy and I was enchanted by the beautiful illustrations by Alan Lee. His imaginings of Middle-Earth are very different from mine, but I love them all the same.

Alan Lee works primarily in watercolors and pencil. He clearly loves landscapes with vast expanses of space and color. I've noticed that a lot of the people in his paintings are small figures. In a way, this fits in really well with the epic tone of Tolkien's stories. The characters are all at once so important and so small, set against a backdrop that they influence. If that makes sense. :)

With the Elves. From The Fellowship of the Ring, illustrated by Alan Lee.  image via

In addition to creating illustrations for the books, Lee worked with John Howe as a conceptual artist for the movies! He's in New Zealand working on the Hobbit films at the moment.

Bag End. From FotR illustrated by Alan Lee. image via.

Random fact: Alan Lee has several cameos in the movies. He was one of the Nine Kings of Men in the opening scene, and was a Rohan soldier in the scene where Aragorn and Legolas are talking to each other in Elvish!

image via. 
But honestly, I couldn't tell you which one of these soon-to-be-Nazgul is said awesome illustrator...

image via
Alan Lee is the farthest to the left.

All of his drawings are insanely complex and detailed, right down to thousands of tree branches and leaves, each drawn with great precision.

Bilbo's Trolls. I'm pretty sure this is from FotR, illustrated by Alan Lee. Image via.

Frodo looking into Galadriel's mirror. Artwork by Alan Lee. image via.

In the above picture you can see his eye for design, too. Just look at that tree-like table! (I wonder why it's Hobbit sized?) Apparently he and a few other concept artists helped to design much of the architecture, weaponry, and other pieces of craftsmanship for the films.

Edoras. Also, celtic knotwork and horse tessellations. By Alan Lee. image via.

Lee's color palettes tend to be muted and pale, with lots of white (rather than black) left as outlines. When I first saw this style when we got the hardback books, I wasn't very fond of it, but it's grown on me-- a lot. I think his style is reminiscent of Edmund Duclac's illustrations.

Unfortunately, I've been unable to find any comprehensive gallery, portfolio, or even fan-curated collection of artwork by Alan Lee. It's a pity, I wanted to find more... I know he's done thousands of illustrations, and for many many more things than Tolkien's works.

I love so many things about The Lord of the Rings movies, so it is hard to single out favorite parts, but one unusual thing that I love from The Return of the King is the credits-- the haunting song Into the West by Frank Walsh, Howard Shore, and Annie Lennox coupled with pencil sketches of all the main characters. I always tear up at that part, it's silly, I know, but the story is just SO. GOOD. and I can never believe it's over!

image via

My dad was convinced that the drawings were somehow photoshopped pictures of photographs (argh, everyone believes that photoshop is some kind of omnipotent magic!) because they are so realistic. In fact, they are actually drawings by Alan Lee! According to Wikipedia, the idea was suggested by Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf, which only makes the credits even awesomer.

Here's an interesting interview with Alan Lee. It's mostly about his illustrations of The Children of Hurin, but there are other little artsy and stylistic details that I love hearing about...

And in the Hobbit movie vlog #4 (at around 8 minutes) he talks about 3D work for the upcoming films! Does anyone else think that the hand-drawn 3D concept art is CRAZY cool?

And in another vlog (at around 6:30), we learn that he and John Howe have done a couple thousand drawings each. Wow!

update: I found this blue version
which I like even more!

I wonder which is more like
the original...

If you'd like to see more of Alan Lee's work, I found a neat Tumblr blog that features artwork by him and John Howe, many of which I'd never seen before, and I also found a Pinterest board dedicated to Lee's illustrations!

There is also a Lord of the Rings Sketchbook featuring his art for the films. I really, really want to get my hands on a copy of that...

I have to close with one of my favorite illustrations, The Grey Havens. I'm not sure why I love it so much. I normally don't even like lavender! But the starlit, bittersweet elegance of the Elves is nicely portrayed in this monochormatic ship sailing for Valinor...

image via.

 This post is a part of my Inspirational Artists series and the 2012 Tolkien Month blog party!

Inspirational Artist: Arthur Rackham

This week I am working on a fairly large piece of art that actually has a deadline, so I don't have any new craft projects to blog about. However, I've been pouring over the artwork of several astounding illustrators and painters lately... I thought I'd share some with you (and this might become an ongoing thread here at the Faerie Blog).




Coming straight from the Golden Days of Illustration is Arthur Rackham, a famous English illustrator of fairytales, myths, and legends.

Anyone who illustrates the Brothers Grimm, Peter Pan, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Arthur, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Valkyrie, Aesop's Fables, The Wind in the Willows, assorted Greek, Roman, and Norse myths, and other miscellaneous stories has got to be awesome, right?

Combine the subject matter with a dark and mysterious watercolor, sinusoidal sepia pen, an eye for magical lighting, and elegant lines... it's not hard to see why Rackham is one of my favorite artists of all time. I think I was first captured when I saw his illustrations in a very musty, crinkly book of fairytales that I got at the library in grade school.

Plus, his work is now in the public domain! You'll see several of his illustrations grace the February issue of Ink and Fairydust.

Here's just a few of his pieces-- not necessarily my favorite ones, but the ones that I like that are easy to find. :)

You might recognize this painting of a tree dude talking or capturing a girl (I can't tell which)-- it's certainly one of Rackham's works that I've seen all over the place. However, I have no idea what the name of this piece is or what it is from.

At first I thought it might be a drawing of the myth of Daphne, who was chased by Apollo and turned into a laurel tree... but then I realized that this the girl in this drawing is not the tree. No idea what I was thinking!

I'm not sure what this piece is called, but I'm interested in it mostly for the technicalities of that watercolor wash in the background. (I've been trying to learn watercolors and the array of techniques is so overwhelming!)

Pandora. I'm sure you are all well aware of the Greek myth of the first woman Pandora who opens the forbidden box out of curiosity and unleashes horrible things into the world. Frightened, she tried and tried to close the lid on the evils, but succeeds only in trapping Hope.

This is from Undine, which I have never read. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and now I really need to read it, because apparently George MacDonald (an awesome author) considered it one of the best fairy stories ever. It's an old German tale of a water nymph who marries a knight, and my understanding is that the storyline is similar to The Little Mermaid. 


I love the magic and swirl lines in this photo... along with the desaturation except for the blues and greens.

This is such a funny picture... my favorite awkward scene from A Midsummers Night's Dream: when Titania falls in love with Bottom.

A dancing fairy from Peter Pan. I love how she is walking tightrope on a spiderweb.

Aside from his recognizable watercolors, Arthur Rackham did some pretty cool marginalia:

from Peter Pan

a Valkyrie-- one of the warrior maidens of the sky from Norse lore

If you like these works, I'll direct you towards this wonderful website called Art Passions. I just found it today; I believe they have the most comprehensive gallery of Rackham's work. It's a bit hard to navigate-- especially considering the huge amount of artwork that Rackham produced during his prolific career-- but I can guarantee that it's a black hole you'll happily get lost in.