The Hobbit: Dwalin
Here is the first in what I hope to be a long series of illustrations inspired by The Hobbit. Dwalin was the first of thirteen dwarves to appear on Bilbo’s doorstep. Their arrival at his quiet home would change his life forever, and of course set in motion the events that lead into The Lord of the Rings. Anyway, I’m not quite sure if he fits with children’s books or with a more adult collectors genre. Certainly he is for the true LOTR fans out there.
Dwalin can of course be found in my Fantasy Illustration gallery.
Be sure to scroll down when you view the full-size illustration. I have a second version below this one that you might otherwise miss.
Medieval Mouse Archer
No doubt many people would not have know or would not have cared, but my original version of this mouse archer was drawing the arrow in a most impossible way. Only days after I posted this did it dawn on me.
You can find the revised version of this mouse in my Fantasy Illustration gallery.
Mind you, I like to shoot arrows whenever I can, but I just didn’t think it through when I positioned his hands. Now I can rest easy knowing that the little guy his a better chance of hitting his mark. And hopefully I’m not the only one who can picture him in a children’s storybook.
Jenn (work-in-progress)
I took advantage of the beautiful weather and got my portrait of Jenn outside for some photos. Though the lighting was great I think my camera settings were not. I color adjusted as best I could and think this image is as close as I’ll get with a JPG.
You will find Jenn in my Portraits Gallery.
My hope is to have the portrait completed and framed by mid-June. There’s a show at the Howard County Arts Center I hope to get it in. If it does get in I’ll blog about it of course and post the address so that you locals can swing by for a look.
Gotta go. There’s an everything bagel calling my name.
Anyway… about this illustration… lately I’ve been having fun working digitally and this fox is my latest creation. Well, actually the dragon sketch which is the background image of this website is my latest… but anyway?
You will find this fox in my Fantasy Gallery.
Fox Thief in Forest
So when I sat down to draw all I really knew was that I wanted to draw a fox. What he would look like or be doing was, at best, vague in my mind. In the end I was quite pleased. Not only did I like the scene, but also the style. I tried to work a little more loosely than when I use pastel. I’m not very loose with the pastels, to say the least. These digital experiments have been great in that respect because I always know that I can completely rework something without the loss of much time. Not so with pastels.
Don’t get me wrong. I love pastels. Staring over my shoulder even as a type is a pastel portrait that I’m very anxious to get back to. There’s a show in June for which I need to complete it.
Medieval Mouse Archer
With the launch of the newly designed site I have sorted my work into six galleries, including: Fantasy, Fables, Classic Tales, Animals, Portraits and Sketchbook.
Naturally I want to add to each gallery, but the Fantasy gallery is likely to get the most attention. After that maybe Fables as I’ve always liked Aesop’s fables if not simply because the so often feature animals. Anyway, the separate galleries seemed like a good step toward clarity. I like clarity.
