Middle-earth Journeys

Thanks, Merry! everything I paint is something of an experiment, as I'm still trying to find my own style. Perhaps 'strength & simplicity' is it!!

Well, I've had such a lot of trouble with this painting:


Gollum

© Iolanthe

I have to say that I've got to the point where I really don't like it . I've overworked a lot of it (always a sign of a painting gone badly wrong ) and would have ripped it up and started again except for the fact that I didn't want to start again. Mainly because I've decided that somehow it just doesn't work.

But anyway..... I've put the Eye inside the Ring as a sinister hidden (from Gollum) presence, and tried to get the feeling that the Ring has a life of it's own by creating the effect of movement or spinning. As for Gollum - I think I prefer my drawing . You can see the Ring reflected in his eyes.

Wow!! Iolanthe, you may feel you have overworked it but the effect is eye popping! The use of color is your signature and you do not fail to impress. Your actual Gollum is both horrifying and pitiful at the same time.

Very well done. The "spinning" also works for me.

Really nice Iolanthe! I hope I see it for sale in the V-W Marketplace. Will you be offering any other prints there besides the two I already have? My living room/office wall is waiting for the complete Iolanthe collection!

I like it, Iolanthe - I think it symbolises Gollum's predicament perfectly, spinning and all, whereas your sketch of Gollum is less symbolic and more of a portrait. So you shouldn't really compare the two!

First pass at this one...


Click on image to enlarge.

© Riv Res

Riv, this is my favourite so far - I love the colours and the bullrushes and the river and the clouds and the bamboo Ring - all of it really! it's beautiful!!

Lovely, Riv! I keep expecting Goldberry to rise laughing from the water any minute!

That's a pretty impressive Riv ! I love the colours too and it fits the verse so well. I really like the circular 'windows' you use in each picture to lead us deeper into the painting. It's really effective and it ties all the paintings together beautifully. I also really like the way the reeds by the water in the vignette are done.

Um. One thing's struck me - did they have bamboo in northern Middle-earth?

Lindariel wrote:Really nice Iolanthe! I hope I see it for sale in the V-W Marketplace. Will you be offering any other prints there besides the two I already have? My living room/office wall is waiting for the complete Iolanthe collection!

Yep - there will be more going in the Marketplace .

I'm redoing my Isenguard painting as the style has shifted a bit since I did it and I want to 'bring it in line' with the others. There were a few annoying niggles in the earlier version that I also want to correct (aren't there always ).

Iolanthe wrote:Um. One thing's struck me - did they have bamboo in northern Middle-earth?

LOL...I wondered the same thing. May try to use 2 stylized pheasant feathers instead.

Iolanthe I'm liking the gollum image. at first I didn't see the ring ... one of those blink twice illusions perhaps.

I'm waiting for something elf like to be presented.

Riv I just can't get over how far you've come with those watercolors. Damn good thing you're unemployed and you tied your mother to the couch.

Is it better with the bamboo or with the pheasant feathers?


Click on image to enlarge.

© Riv Res

I love the third artwork in the series Riv! Personally I prefer the one with bamboo, but both represent the poem very well.

Iolanthe, excellent work once again! Adding the eye was genius! It's as if Gollum is hypnotized or in some kind of trance while reaching for the ring. It made me wonder how Frodo would look reflected in the ring as he falls under its spell...

I prefer the bamboo version too, Riv. Tolkien changed night to day in his painting "Bilbo comes to the huts of the raft-elves" for artistic purposes, so I'm sure you're allowed a little artistic licence too!!

Airwin, your idea of Frodo reflected in the Ring is a great one and sounds just the kind of thing for Iolanthe to interpret for us some time!!!

Riv, I prefer the bamboo too because it's thinner and less distracting. It's still great, bamboo or no bamboo in M-e .

Philipa wrote:I'm waiting for something elf like to be presented.

Well, I've attempted Lothlorien but I suppose I ought to try Legolas soon! At the moment I seem to have gone over to the Dark Side .

Frodo in the Ring is an idea - though he would probably look rather like my Frodo in the Mirror of Galadriel, where he is also mesmerised by the Eye!