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.

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