Middle-earth Journeys

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:50 pm**

Just wonderful! I love the well-laden grape arbor. Although the poem talks about beer, it looks like the inn should also have a good wine-pressing season.

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:08 pm**

Lindariel wrote:Just wonderful! I love the well-laden grape arbor. Although the poem talks about beer, it looks like the inn should also have a good wine-pressing season.

Actually, when I get it painted, it is supposed to be wisteria.

Posted: **Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:09 am**

I'm looking foward to seeing the colour combinations you use with the wisteria

. And I love the 'Man in the Moon' poem so it's nice to see it picked for illustration!

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:36 am**

'Then, if you please, Mr Baggins, I should like a quiet word with you.' LOTR Book I Ch IX

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 3:47 pm**

Good to see it finished. mabreterese

! I now know what Strider must have looked like at first meeting from a Hobbit viewpoint. I love the fact that we are looking slightly up at him, even though he is sitting down and I like the disconcerting look in his eyes too. No wonder he made them all nervous. It's easy to forget how big and intimidating he must have seemed to such little folk before they knew they could trust him.

I like his face and expression - you've very deftly taken us away from a certain unforgettable actor who I won't even mention

.

Posted: **Mon Apr 30, 2007 1:09 pm**

thanks, Iolanthe, I'm pleased with the result even if the proportions and perspective are a bit random. I took my inspiration from a passage I found while researching my essay. Strider is definitely unimpressed at this point and I wanted to put that across - Tolkien makes a lot of his piercing gaze and the observer is supposed to feel as uncomfortable as Frodo does. It's the first time I've painted a man's face trying to make it look realistic (I don't count Gandalf in my last effort because he was rather stylised). I wish I hadn't used Hooker's Green on the cloak, though, it's a bit too vivid!

Posted: **Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:56 pm**

I like the slightly-raised, doubtful eyebrow and the choppy, shaggy hair. Definitely looks like he's spent a lot of time in the wild, probably hacking at his hair with a knife to keep it out of his face.

After PJ's movies, we tend to forget that Book-Aragorn was as doubtful of the hobbits as they were of him. He didn't think they'd last very long in the wild, and he wasn't sure initially whether he could trust them with his true identity.

"In any case, I did not intend to tell you all about myself at once. I had to study you first, and make sure of you. The Enemy has set traps for me before now. As soon as I had made up my mind, I was ready to tell you whatever you asked. But I must admit that I hoped you would take to me for my own sake. A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship. But there, I believe my looks are against me . . . . It would take more than a few days, or weeks, or years, of wandering in the Wild to make you look like Strider, and you would die first, unless you are made of sterner stuff than you look to be."

A nice evocation of "doubtful" Strider!

Posted: **Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:12 pm**

That doubtful look is captured very well, it's clear how he feels and which moment you were trying to picture - it takes a lot to capture an expression 'just right', especially from someone who's never tried to realistically paint a man's face before!

Posted: **Tue May 01, 2007 12:59 pm**

Thanks, both of you, for your kind comments!

Lindariel, I'm glad you mentioned the word 'shaggy' - Tolkien uses it specifically. It made me think of a mane of hair - the lion being King of the jungle.

I love your quote, too. I've never imagined Book-Aragorn as conventionally good-looking. More a case of 'beauty coming from within' as his true character becomes apparent!

But I have to admit that capturing that expression was sheer good luck - I had no idea, while I was actually painting it, how it would turn out . . .

Posted: **Thu May 03, 2007 8:27 pm**

marbretherese, I love your piece on Frodo. The figure is far more the Frodo of Tolkien than the Frodo of the films and I believe it to be much truer to form. I hope we can expect many more portraits from you.

Posted: **Tue May 08, 2007 12:21 pm**

there certainly will be more portraits - at least I hope so - although the last one I posted is actually supposed to be Aragorn . . . or rather Strider!! still, I regard the fact that it resembles anyone as something of a coup . . .

Posted: **Tue May 08, 2007 1:35 pm**

I think it is the green cape that threw me

and the lack of beard, and the air of innocence on his face. See...I am too influenced by a certain movie.

LOLOLOL...but the boots should have been the dead give away, n'est pas?

Aragorn it is.

Posted: **Tue May 08, 2007 6:52 pm**

This one was tough. There has been SO much done on Rivendell. I found myself going back to the first impressions I had as I read The Hobbit.

Farewell we call to hearth and hall!
Though wind may blow and rain may fall,
We must away ere break of day
Far over wood and mountain tall.

To Rivendell, where Elves yet dwell
In glades beneath the misty fell
Through moor and waste we ride in haste,
And wither then we cannot tell.

Posted: **Tue May 08, 2007 8:47 pm**

It IS hard to see past PJ's Rivendell, but I think you've done a great job here! Lovely as PJ's house is, it is not a Homely House, which is a quality I think you have captured. I don't know much about English architectural styles, but I do remember Tolkien describing it as having rich wooden beams in the ceiling--is that Tudor?--and your house captures that feeling. And I love the trees!

Posted: **Wed May 09, 2007 3:44 pm**

Riv, I can almost smell those pine cones! looking forward to seeing the finished version . . .

Middle-earth Journeys

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