Middle-earth Journeys

Merry, you're right about the orange...and it gets a little complicated so bear with me while I explain.

On the painting itself, I decided to get fancy and embellish the the edges and the accents of the gold trees with an iridescent (gold sparkle) paint, and while the result is delicate and lovely, it definitely does not translate well when it is scanned...it looks orange.

I will be working with my printer guy to see if we can correct it as much as possible. He works with other painters who use iridescent paints and has good experience in replicating as much of the iridescence as possible. He also photographs the piece rather than scanning and that helps as well. If someone purchased a print of that piece I would do a touch up with the iridescent paint so they get the full effect.

Wish me luck! This is a first for me.

I think it's lovely Riv! But I can see that the irridescent paint might give a heavier line than you'd want when scanned. Without the light on them you only see the dark base that carries the 'sparkle'. Wow - you're getting pretty adventurous . Kewl.

I'm now wondering what shade Tolkien thought 'fallow' was . Is it a soft yellowy brown? A faded yellow? Maybe he just meant 'resting' not fruitful like in the spring season. I can't find any definition of the word as a colour or shade. That Tolkien - he likes to tease us with deeper meanings . There's nothing he writes that doesn't merit a second look or an interesting tangent, is there?

Riv, this is a lovely painting and such a difficult landscape to attempt, given its special elven qualities and the vibrancy and otherworldliness provided by the Power of Nenya. The colors are GORGEOUS! The only thing I miss is the elanor and niphredil, the "winter flowers in the unfading grass."

Like Merry, there is something about the trees that seems off to me, but I don't think it is the orange. I think it is the shape. Somehow, I think the canopies of the mallorns would not be so rounded because of the long, flat oval leaves (like the beech), which would tend to hang downwards, producing more openings within the canopy and overall create more of a tiered shape. Right now, they look a bit like yellow cotton candy to me, and I don't think that's what you're going for.

Does any of that make sense? It's hard to describe!

BTW...I tried leafy white trees at the base...wrong move. Looked like the whole thing was floating on a billowing cloud. Thus the rather stark white trees with a few specks of tiny leaves.

This particular scene that is SO detailed in Tolkien's descriptions...is a HUGE problem to conceptualize visually. LOLOL...no wonder he never painted it himself.

BTW #2... you should have seen the first three attempts!!

As much as I like Tolkien's art, I never liked his painting of Lothlorien. I'm not good enough about art to explain why, except that it just doesn't have the sense I get when I read about it. So you're right, this is a very tough scene.

I think of fallow gold as deep and rich, but not aggressively so. It has something to do with the quiet winter light that Tolkien loves so much. I know these are lame descriptions.

Merry wrote: I know these are lame descriptions.

Well they work for me. Tolkien's art was never 'grand' so to speak. Some illustrations even seemed cartoonish too but I love them.

I think Lothlorien is one of the most difficult things of all to capture - even for Tolkien - because it is such a magical, timeless place. I can imagine a Lothlorien that I can't paint because it's as much about atmosphere as it is about how it looks.

I love Tolkien's delicate colour drawing of Lothlorien in Spring [162] of Hammond and Scull's Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator, but it isn't Lothlorien to me. Or if it is, it has to be the very outskirts before you get to the big Mallorns. The trunks look too thin (look at the scale of the leaves to the trunk on the foreground tree on the left), the trees are too far apart. The scale is far too small even for Tolkien's own description, although you can see the start of a steeper and denser hill to the right.

But it's a lovely drawing and I wonder if he was doodling trees and decided on the caption later.

Cerin Amroth is the most difficult thing of all to capture. It's almost like the Holy of Holies of Elvendom on Earth and is a bit like a tree cathedral! I always think that central tree has to be really awsome in scale, like the one in your picture, Riv.

Iolanthe wrote:
Cerin Amroth is the most difficult thing of all to capture. It's almost like the Holy of Holies of Elvendom on Earth and is a bit like a tree cathedral! I always think that central tree has to be really awsome in scale, like the one in your picture, Riv.

I think you are quite right Iolanthe. Especially after seeing different renditions of the place from other artists. I tried once to do my own Cerin Amroth and it was difficult to not imitate anyone else. But the central tree is key I think and needs to be quote grand indeed.

I've just completed another painting and only realised now, looking at the timeline above, how timely it is. You'll notice a little artistic licence in the topography, however I've stuck with its working title, although now it's finished I've realised that 's the one thing you can't see :

It's wonderfully evocative, marbretherese! Your way of doing figures in these paintings is getting better and better and the colors give it the right chilling feel. Funny about the pool not really being there, but it works!

It's wonderful . I love the colours, especially the green of the waterfall and the mountains just appearing in the background. Merry's right, they just get better and better and you've now got a really distinctive and original style going. The colours and the way they run and blend gives it a really magical quality.

Do you have it a bit bigger for the gallery? It's just got to go in!

That's not two hobbits I see on the ledge is it?

I agree with Iolanthe the colors are wonderful and you do have a unique flair.

It should be two - in the book Sam wakes up and follows Frodo and Faramir and Faramir points out that he wasn't invited .

That's right - and Sam hangs back because he doesn't want to step onto the ledge. I'm re-reading LOTR at the moment and got to this chapter while I was doing the painting.

Once I'd got the design right, this painting just seemed to click into place - that's never happened to me before. Compared to the struggle I had with my picture of Cerin Amroth, it was extremely straightforward. Must admit, I like it best of anything I've done!

Thanks everyone for your comments - Iolanthe, if you let me know the ideal size for the Gallery I will re-size and re-post the image.

Iolanthe wrote:It should be two - in the book Sam wakes up and follows Frodo and Faramir and Faramir points out that he wasn't invited .

I guess reading the book three times isn't enough.