An illustration on the theme video piracy for a media industry magazine. You can tell it’s got a few years on it from the pic of the video tape. I don’t think anyone uses those any more!

Watercolors.

I recall this is one of the first images I had to send to a client via email, and I didn’t have the equipment. I hired someone else to scan and send it, and they botched it badly. This helped convince me that I had to learn computer skills for myself.

A drawing from The Silmarillion. This was a personal work.

Maeglin is one of the few bad elves in the Tolkien saga. He fell in love with his cousin Idril, but she spurned him. He was captured by Orcs and in order to save himself, he agreed to betray the elves to Morgoth. For this betrayal, he was promised dominion over Gondolin and the hand of Idril.

Things went downhill from there.

Some of my favorite Lord of the Rings sketch cards. These are drawn directly in pencil on the original card. They are inserted in packs of trading cards as prizes.

Some artists have time to do elaborate paintings, but most just do quick sketches. It takes roughly the same time to do a tight sketch like these as it does to do a little color piece, but most fans are dazzled by color and would prefer a color sketch.

I don’t do many cards anymore because I am too busy. But when I am a big fan of the project, I try to carve out some time.

Not sure who the copyright holder is on this license. Tolkien Estate? Whatever. © 2010.

This was created for a comic called Warrior Nun Areala. I’ve never actually read it, but I recall being on a radio show, and the person interviewing me sort of ambushed me over the content of an issue of the series. I think I did a pretty good job defending the rights of cartoonists on the program, but I have no idea what this book is about. I think I did this pinup later just to annoy the radio host.

This picture was inspired solely by the title of the book and main character design.

Watercolor and colored pencil. The original art is long gone. This was scanned from a fifteen-year-old-copy, which is why the skin tones look particularly blotchy.

Funky anatomy aside, one thing I really like about this piece is the feathers. Each one is drawn by hand, with each feather composed of 4-6 different strokes of colored pencil, one on top of the other. This is a very tedious process, but the result is glossy and iridescent. It’s worth the effort.

A sketch of Thranduil, the King of Mirkwood and father of Legolas from The Hobbit.

I’ll be on Blog Talk Radio talking Lord of the Rings today. Please see blog post below for details. Also, click the tab or peruse the galleries for more sketches.

This portrait of Legolas from The Lord of the Rings is entitled Gimli’s Gift. Movie fans don’t understand the title, but book fans do. In the book, Gimli’s gift to Legolas is an introduction to the beautiful crystal caves of the dwarf realms, and a greater understanding of dwarf culture.

This piece was created to be a print for Ringcon, an officially licensed, annual Lord of the Rings-themed convention in Germany.

The original watercolor was not available for scanning, so this was shot from the print.

This is one of my earliest pieces, a drawing of the Knights of the Holy Grail, published in a fanzine when I was still in high school. I’m sorry, I don’t recall the name of the ‘zine.

Artists Aubrey Beardsley and Harry Clarke had a hold on me when I was a kid. I still love this type of line work and would gladly do an entire book in this style.

I suppose it’s a bit dotty to post such old work. I do not have a clean copy of it, and had to restore this from a very dusty slide!