Flower Crown. Elrond is just as comfortable in a flower crown as he is one made of metal. But who made him this one? Was the keeper of his passion, his wife? A hobbit he considers a dear friend? Or perhaps Galadriel is visiting and she made it for him; a whimsical gift that reminds her of her daughter and amuses her grandchildren?
Or perhaps this is a younger Elrond, still Gil-Galad’s herald, who was gifted this flower crown by a talented Silvan elf, Thranduil son of Oropher who wished to give a token to the young half-elf he’d met briefly in Doriath before its fall?
Or maybe Elrond made it himself because it pleased him to do so and he enjoys seeing Rivendell’s residents smile when they see him and hurry off to make crowns of their own.
This started off as a sketch, pencil on paper. I scanned it and inked it in photoshop. At first, it was only his head and a bit of his collar that I’d drawn. Then I decided to get brave and I digitally drew his robes and flower crown! I’m really more of an illustrator than a painter but I had fun blooping colours then refining the bloops into flowers and clothes!
BONUS CONTENT! I realized I had screenshots of my progress on this pic because I was spamming a friend with them in chat… so I made a gif!
Nwalin week! I wanted to draw more ocean AU stuff then I saw it is #nwalinweek so I had to draw something for that! I do not know why Nori is a starfish and not a crab… magic? He still has a cutie-booty and he still loves his big crabby Dwalin! (And he still loves surprising the heck out of him and ruffling his calm!) Dwalin was just surprised by Nori’s sudden glomp! They will not allow magic to keep them apart! I can see Nori riding around on Dwalin’s shell, or stuck to his side ready to whip a teeny starfish knife out to stab people who mess with them!
I have a terrible habit of drawing as big as the paper I’m working on. This is a problem when limbs get too close to the edges of the paper! Hrm. Once again, I failed to put all of Dwalin’s tattoos on him! But I am getting more comfortable drawing him. Drawn with 0.3mm Pentel mechanical pencil on Paris Bleedproof paper. I’ll have to draw a proper Nori. XD
Grump! Someone is a grumpy little blob of sunshine! Pencils and explanation here. He looks like he’s gonna ink on the next crab-dwarf that pinches his fat little tentacles!
My new little Wacom tablet is amazing! I haven’t used one for 5 years or so and the technology has gotten SO. GOOD! This was such a delight to ink and paint! Shoutout to @kyletwebster for the brushes I used! I bought a pack ages ago but haven’t really had a chance to appreciate them until now! I inked with a nib pen brush (behaves very similar to the real thing without me having to guesstimate the amount of ink I have loaded up! Amazing!) and a dry acrylic brush of some sort for the colours.
If you don't draw garden-slut glorfindel, I'm gonna be so disappointed
I’d hate to disappoint you!!!
Elves consider long hair to be sexy and seeing as Glorfindel is supposed to be such a beauty I gave him stupid long hair! And a sword! Cuz he’s a badass warrior! If you are confused, check out the original post. XD
Drawn on paper with a pencil. Scanned and inked in Photoshop using a tablet. Coloured in Photoshop.
Hmmph. Look. Sometimes a lady orc just wants to be pretty, okay? I was reading up on different theories about orc reproduction and it seems to be generally thought that orcs reproduce like any other creature which means there are female orcs. (The evidence behind this is that only Eru Ilúvatar can create life and Melkor simply corrupted some of Eru Ilúvatar’s creations to make orcs.)
Anyhow, I just wanted to draw an orc wearing a flower crown. Given that it’s an orc, I decided to make it out of black-eyed Susans because the name is reminiscent of the violence inherent to orc society. Also, black-eyed Susans stand for encouragement which seemed appropriate. XD You go be the most evilest orc you can be! You got this! Gnarrr! Death to light! :D
Why do I even keep posting what materials I used? I just use the same thing! 0.1mm and 0.3mm Staedtler pigment liners on Paris Bleedproof paper. Coloured in Photoshop. Interesting fact? I am doing cell shading because I don’t have a tablet (BUT ONE IS WAITING FOR ME TO PICK IT UP EDIT: Picked it up last night!) and I’m not dexterous enough to manipulate the touch pad on my laptop to paint properly. XD
Ermagherrrd! My teeny weeny Intuous arrived and I’m already attempting to ink stuff with Photoshop! Boy have tablets ever improved since I last used one a few years back!
Silver Queen. Day two of Tolkien Week is Immortal Race | Race/Different Cultures of Elves | Race Ainur and I chose to draw Celebrían, daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn, mother to Elladan, Elrohir, and Arwen, and the wife of Elrond.
I usually see her depicted as traumatized but I see Celebrían as a cheerful, social person who loves the world around her. Unlike her mother, she’s not concerned with power or war. She’s the sort who’d rarely be without company, laughs easily, and would dance naked in the rain. She and Elrond balance each other out and each delight in the differences between them.
Whether you follow the story of her being slain by orcs or tortured by orcs the event resulted in her leaving Middle-Earth and when that happened Rivendell became a quieter, more sombre place. Still peaceful… but no longer as full of light and laughter.
I like to imagine that when she and Elrond were reunited they hugged and never really let go; holding hands or hovering near each other, inseparable. Celebrían would have regained her bubbly nature; her spirit having been soothed and healed by her time in Valinor.
I also like to imagine Celebrían having prepared accommodations for Bilbo and Frodo and being very excited to meet them and hear their songs and stories. After all, Elrond and Bilbo were friends and that means there’s something wonderful about Bilbo because she knows her Elrond is a bit fussy about the company he keeps.
This was sketched with a 0.3mm Pentel mechanical pencil with HB lead on Paris Bleedproof paper. I tried to get her decorative head-gear to be reminiscent of butterflies. Check out those Record of the Lodoss war ears! I’m always back and forth with how I want to draw elf and hobbit ears.
Fallohides. There used to be three, distinct, types of hobbits; the Harfoots, the Stoors, and the Fallohides. The Fallohides were bold and adventurous! They didn’t live on farms or dig holes in riverbanks to live in. They preferred the forest and were skilled hunters.
They were described as being ‘fair of skin and hair’ and ‘never growing a beard’ and for some reason it sticks out in my mind that they were the tallest of the hobbits.
Both Bilbo and Frodo are part Fallohide through their mothers. Frodo is described as being a “stout fellow with red cheeks, taller than some (hobbits), and fairer than most”. His height and fairness come from his Fallohide blood, most likely.
In this picture, we have a Fallohide couple travelling to the West. She didn’t start the journey with child but she’s not fazed by it, either. It’s early spring and there is a chill in the air. She is wearing a long, knitted wool dress with poofed sleeves and little crocheted flowers on the sleeves. Underneath her dress she has a practical pair of pants on (she’s had to adjust them and take to wearing suspenders!) and a warm shirt and vest. She’s braided a lot of her hair into a sort of crown to keep it out of her face but she has so much hair still! XD
You can see that she’s carrying a small hunting horn. In my mind, most Fallohide hobbits would carry small horns so they can call to one another in the woods. Each one sounds different and they can tell who tooted by the sound.
They’re wearing matching scarves he made. XD
He’s wearing a thick jumper and beneath it a pair of pants and a sturdy shirt and vest. He pants and both of their packs have folksy embroidery with a heart theme. These newlyweds are still very much in luuuurve and it shows in how they’ve embroidered their belongings. Everything they own they carry with them.
They could have had a nice life in the forests of the Vale of Anduin but they chose to join the others who were following the Harfoot migration west. Who knows? Maybe these two were Bilbo’s ancestors?
0.3mm Pentel mechanical pencil with HB lead on Paris Bleedproof paper. I have a tablet waiting for me to pick up at the depot. Prepare yourself for terrible digital drawings! Frankly, I don’t think digital will ever replace my love of drawing directly on paper.
Puff Puff Puff. Different styles of pipes. Different types of leaf? Maybe they’re all trying a new hobbit strain? Really, this was just me doodling and trying to figure out the height differences between elves, dwarves, and hobbits according to the books and not the movies.
Sizes are hard, okay? XD Also, I have no sense of direction.
Doodled on a scrap piece of paper with some random pencil then inked with Staedtler pigment liners.
Teenaged Bofur in a somber moment. I was having fun trying to imagine what the dwarves’ facial hair looked like when they were teenagers! Bofur was first because I thought he’d have a cute little Musketeer-like moustache! I wasn’t sure I’d be colouring this in the future so I tried to convey just how hideous his nana-made sweater is through the use of pom-poms and huge diamond patterns.
I’m a tad infatuated with dwarven knit-wear.
Their wool would come from goats, most likely, right? Well, Cashmere and Angora wool both comes from goats and it’s light and soft and warm. Maybe in this picture this is Bofur’s first encounter with a sheep’s wool sweater and it is itchy as all get out!? It might explain why he has a scarf on underneath of his sweater.
0.3mm Pentel mechanical pencil with an HB lead on photocopy paper.
Bilbo Baggochips setting off on an adventure! He is mildly optimistic about his chances.
The pic that started this. An AU where Thorin is a personal trainer and Bilbo is… a potato!
Bilbotater getting all sneaky in a dragon hoard!
Hobbits playing field hockey! It's a Potato/HockeyAU crossover!
What if hobbits were potato people? I was doodling this pic of Thorin and… well. What about a modern AU where Thorin is a personal trainer and Bilbo is a potato person? So I drew Bilbo as a potato person. And laughed and laughed and laughed.
Then I was thinking, no wait, this could work.
Yavanna is wise and caring and powerful but… she’s a little hard of hearing! When she caught wind that the race of Man would, eventually, rule Middle Earth she heard the race of Yam and so… she made hobbits out of yams.
These quiet, gentle folk live underground (omg just like tubers!) for the most part. Sometimes they build above ground houses with straw insulation (omg! you can grow tubers buried in straw above ground!). They’re excellent gardeners and are very good at hiding (omg! Just like… no wait, I got nothing here). They also have hairy little foot-poofs. JUST LIKE POTA– okay, i’ll stop.
FOOT-POOFS!
I could see other PotatoAU story-lines such as:
Thorin is an architect and Bilbo is a potato person
Thorin survives the Battle of Five Armies and Bilbo is a potato person
Thorin marries Bilbo and Bilbo becomes the royal potato consort
Bofur is a renowned stone whisperer and Bilbo is a potato person
Hobbits are potato people and dwarves are cabbage people and elves are asparagus people and humans are ears of corn. I dunno. I like the imagery of the Riders of Rohan being these ears of corn with flowing silky cornsilk ponytails.
IT WORKS IN SO MANY SITUATIONS!
From my PotatoAu notes, written late one night:
Bilbo: *stealing a bit of treasure* Smaug: o_o Why is a potato stealing my treasure?
Why is a potato stealing my treasure? XD This is the most fun I’ve had drawing in a long time!
These were the first things I doodled on my new pad of Paris Bleedproof paper! Omg. If you meatspace ink your work you need to try this paper! When you ink the pens gliiiiiide across the paper. It’s so lovely! 0.3mm Pentel mechanical pencil with HB lead. Inked with 0.3mm and 0.1mm Staedtler pigment liners. Coloured in Photoshop These were all drawn on the same sheet of paper.
Hairless feet! Frodo’s first time seeing naked dwarf feet! Dwalin remembered Bilbo’s reaction and is amused to see Frodo is just as shocked! DWARF SOCKS HIDE SO MANY SECRETS! Well, just one, and that is they don’t have floofy foot hair like a hobbit does! Frodo has soooo many questions but would it be rude to ask? What if Dwalin’s feet don’t have hair because the top of his head doesn’t? Other dwarves have hair on the tops of their heads… so maybe their feet are hairy like a hobbit’s? Maybe Dwalin isn’t well and that’s why he hasn’t got hair on his head or his feet? Or he was in a battle that made his top-hair fall out! Do other dwarves have hairy feet? Do dwarves wear socks and boots to keep their naked feet warm?
Photocopy paper and a 0.3mm mechanical pencil. Wooo! XD
Warm Hobbit. Someone gave Bilbo a dwarf sweater and he’s very pleased with it! He must have been cold. Maybe he if he washes it in warm water it will shrink a little bit? Maybe Dis made it for him?I like to think it’s one of Thorin’s old sweaters that he doesn’t like to wear much.
Inked with pigment liners on photocopy paper. XD Coloured in Photoshop.
