Fëanor - a pencil sketch

Been doodling a bit with my pencils.

I love this dark, dark, rebellious, scowling, gloomy Fëanor, brooding and selfcontained within his own storm.

"Fëanor - Spirit of Fire"

Graphite Pencil,

35x50 cm 

© Katherine Wyvern 2018

"For Fëanor was made the mightiest in all parts of body and mind: in valour, in endurance, in beauty, in understanding, in skill, in strength and subtlety alike: of all the Children of Ilúvatar, and a bright flame was in him."

― The Silmarillion, Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor

I always thought that if there was ever an elf who could sport a mohawk, that would be Fëanor, for sure, the Noldor's very own enfant terrible. Plagued with insufferable pride and a rebellious spirit, but the most talented and creative of all the elves ever spawned, I feel a more than a little fondness for him.

There are many illustrations of Fëanor, but they all seemed pretty bland to me. When I saw this dark, brooding selfportrait of Danila Kovalev, I knew it was the Fëanor I was looking for.

 Faber Castell - Graphite Pure HB to 9B

 I had this idea that between the his "Spirit of Fire", and the fact that the first elves were born in a dark world before the Sun and the Moon were created, Fëanor could perhaps have shiny eyes, like a cat.

It was my husband who mentioned the likeness with Riddick. Well, "You are not afraid of the dark, are you?"


I can claim very little credit for this picture. All the beauty, intensity and elegance were already in the original photo of (and by) this amazingly gorgeous, talented and kind model.

Gildor, a pencil drawing

 

It’s been raining non-stop ALL day, a rather depressing business, but at least by working my eyes blind in the watery gloom, I managed to finish my new Tolkien illustration, starring the stunningly beautiful Paul Boche as Gildor Inglorion.

Gildor plays only a small part in the book and none at all in the movie (bah!), but he is the first elf that you encounter in the ‘real’ story, and not even meeting La Grande Dame Galadriel in the heart of the Golden Wood packs anywhere near as much magic as Gildor appearing out of the blue dusk in the homely woods of the Shire (chasing off a snuffling Black Rider in the process, I might add, so there!).

 

When Gildor and his companions take the hobbits on their nightly walk into the forest and a late banquet, “Sam walked along at Frodo’s side, as if in a dream, with an expression on his face half of fear and half of astonished joy… Pippin afterwards recalled little of either food or drink, for his mind was filled with the light upon the elf-faces, and the sound of voices so various and so beautiful that he felt in a waking dream…”

I always loved this, and hope I have captured some of the magic… The background is very freely copied from an ivy-overgrown tree in the forest just outside my garden. The moths are Smerinthus ocellatus, the eyed hawk-moth, a good totem I think for a far-wandering nocturnal elf.

 

 

“Elen sila lumen omentielvo” is the High Elven line that Frodo speaks to Gildor, “A star shines on the hour of our meeting.” 

With many thanks to Paul Boche for allowing me to use his picture(s) (three different photos went into this... he has a a challenging face!). 

 

Faber Castell Graphite Pure, from B to 9B

(it was COLD at my table these last couple of days)

In other news, I'll be posting book related stuff tomorrow :)