Glorfindel, a pencil drawing

Glorfindel and Asphalot

35x50 cm

My Glorfindel (I do admit that he might do just as well as Lady Oscar). Bit of a porn-for-little-girls kind of picture, My Little Pony and all. Oh well, so sue me. Must we really be grown-up all the time?

Glorfindel is a minor character in the Lord of the Rings (in the movie he doesn't appear at all, because he was replaced by Liv Tyler, that giggling strumpet), but he has by far the most astounding back-story of any character in the whole book. Please note that he was out and about already in the Silmarillion, where he single-handedly *killed a Balrog* , getting himself killed in the process, admittedly, reincarnated, and came back to Middle Earth again on a mission from the Valar.

Remember when Gandalf challenged the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-Dum, fell in the abyss, and came back again? Well, Glorfindel was like, been there, done that, got the t-shirt, yawn.
He was one of the very few who could ride openly against the Nine. Frodo saw him as a "white figure that shone and did not grow dim" and Gandalf said, "yes, you saw him for a moment as he is upon the other side: one of the mighty of the Firstborn.". Plus, he was pretty hot. "Glorfindel was tall and straight; his hair was of shining gold, is face fair and young and fearless and full of joy; his eyes were bright and keen, and his voice like music; on his brow sat wisdom and in his hand was strength".
As far as I know he's the only re-embodied elf in the whole of the Lord of the Rings.

It was Glorfindel who prophesied that the Witch King of Angmar, chief of the Nazgul, would not be killed by the hand of mortal man.

His white horse, Asphalot (but Glorfindel already had a white horse ages before... was it the same horse?) was very fast, and very clever. It should never be forgotten, that it was the horse alone who saved Frodo at the Fords of Bruinen. There was no elf-chick on the saddle.

Back in Gondolin, Glorfindel was the head of the House of the Golden lower, hence the tapestry. When I started this, pretty much the only thing I knew was that I wanted Glorfindel's pale hair (Glorfindel=golden-haired) to mingle with the horse's white mane. Everything else was pretty random.




Model is of course the wondrously beautiful and ever-kind Danila Kovalev (an elf sloppily disguised as a human, if I ever saw one).

 

Faber Castell Graphite-Pure B to 9B

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 :)

Haldir - a sketch

 

"Haldir" 

©Katherine Wyvern 2017

A new sketch I did a few days ago, still inspired and copied froma  picture of my arch-muse, Danila Kovalev (and I still don't think that I am done drawing this model and his incredible eyes... I have already a different thing in mind, way stranger... stay tuned).

The quote is from the Lord of the Rings, my favourite book ever (it sits on my bedside table at all times, where in other houses a bible might be found) and says: "“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

These words, spoken by an elf called Haldir, a minor character in the book, often come to me at times of sadness... 

In the book (unlike the movie) Haldir is always seen in the vicinity of the watery boundaries of Lorien, of which he is one of the wardens, and I thought that Aeshna cyanea, the Sounthern Hawker dragonfly, would be a good totem animal for him. They appear in my garden each summer (they fly in from large distances, and stay, because of the pond) and it is a thing of wonder to see them tirelessly guarding their watery realm, fiercely fighting off any intruder that chances by. They are also magically beautiful animals, the closest thing to a winged fairy you can get in this world (but not a fairy to be trifled with... these creatures can fight like dragons, indeed!). When the first Aeshna shows up, each summer, it's a time for celebration...

This drawing was supposed to be midnight dark and faintly moonlit, but it did not pan out that way, so this is the third attempt. Still, the way it came together in the end, as the simplest pencil sketch, no colour, no fancy effects, was deeply satisfactory. There are rare golden moments, as an artist, when something clicks into place, and you feel a sort of golden certainty that 'this is the right way to do it'. This drawing gave me one such moment...