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. :)

From the Dragon's Hoard

From the Dragon's Hoard by Shaylynn Rackers. 18x18 inches, charcoal and graphite.

This drawing was inspired by The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. In the book, Bilbo Baggins discovers that the dragon Smaug is mysteriously missing from his cavern hall and fetches Thorin and Company. The dwarves were at first hesitant, then delved eagerly into the piles of gold and jewels. They find beautiful weapons and gird themselves with armor. I imagine this taking place just before Thorin gives Bilbo the mithril coat.


A few weeks ago, Mom sent me a link to the Hobbit Design Contest. I love art and I love The Lord of the Rings and I'm completely hyped for the Hobbit movies, so several friends encouraged me to enter. Technically I wasn't even old enough to enter when the contest began, but I turned 18 before the deadline so it's all good. :) This is a worldwide contest and there are some SPECTACULAR entries, especially in the Characters and Creatures categories. Go check it out. I hope to be able to paint like those artists someday! Anyway, that is what inspired this crazy venture.

At first I wasn't sure what to draw-- and even now I'm surprised I didn't do a drawing of one of the characters! But I love intricate detail and I love designing jewelry, so I had decided to try my hand drawing a sword and putting in as much crazy detail as I could.

The drawing took a week of my free time (and then some! I wasn't very productive that week...). I listened to the entire unabridged Fellowship of the Ring, so I guess it took around twenty hours.


And now, some behind-the-scenes stuff...

When I first told my teacher that I was going to draw a sword and started getting very animated about weapons, she disappeared upstairs and came back with this beauty! She let me bring it home to use as reference for a week.

(A friend just told me that this dagger is a replica of the one that Harry tries to kill Peter Parker with in Spiderman II!)

A katana, sparring staffs, and a couple of awesome swords made their way downstairs, too, and we giggled over them for awhile. She was a black belt in Taekwando and did weapons training, although she doesn't remember any of the weapons' forms. (It was pretty epic watching her do a couple of basics, though). Then we talked for a long time, comparing my taekwando lessons with hers, and I wasn't super productive that class. :D

I did a concept drawing of my sword, which wound up looking nothing like the Spiderman dagger. I did use the filigree design on the scabbard, but turned it into proper knotwork by adjusting the over-under pattern.

My brother Will was my "studio" guinea pig and stood like a statue in the back room while I played with camera settings. Dad's awesome-strong hands became the dwarf's hands, and Mom posed for me so I could get the tunic's wrinkles right. My football-player brother was supposed to help, too, but he went and got his hands stuck in casts after a game and couldn't pose as a dwarf.

I still wonder if I should have tried harder to get that drastic lighting you see in the photographs.

By the way, yes, it IS very possible for veins to be this big in real life, and for fingers to be so muscular. People keep asking if it's all super exaggerated-- it's not, just look at the pictures of my dad's hands above!

Dad surprised me by buying me a thick pad of my favorite paper ever-- Bristol board. And a nice giant size, too! Thanks for saving me a long drive to the art store. :)

(Note the Dwarven runes on the ring! It says "treasure.")

Everything was going fine, until:

THIS.

I'd put the drawing in the securest corner of my bedroom (a two-foot square space by my desk). My littlest brother decided to play with some of my sister's toys. Which would have been okay, except that he got bored and apparently started spinning around on my desk chair. Which somehow fit into the two-foot space. And somehow, he fell over with the chair and the chair went SQEEEEEEK across my drawing. (I felt so bad for him, he was so sorry).

I wasn't too worried until I saw that the permanent gray color and the deep dent wasn't just on the blank space. It was on the already drawn sword guard.

The funny thing is that the dent was easy to disguise on the guard. It took less than an hour! However, the dent across the blank space was very difficult to deal with because my charcoal would not fill it in! I was able to darken up most of the streak (and make the tunic less detailed) but in certain lighting you can still see the shimmer from the compressed paper. It turned out OK, though.

Taking the photo of the finished piece.

A friend asked me to film myself the next time I did a drawing, so I did. If you feel like spending ten minutes of your life watching clips of me drawing, you are welcome to.

UPDATE:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! HOLY COW!

Check out the blog post about it here!