December 31, 2006

Star Crossed Elf

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Filed under: 2. Middle Earth fanworks,Pencil — Tags: — Illinia @ 11:26 am
Amazing what Cassiopeia can do to a person

Amazing what Cassiopeia can do to a person

Star Crossed Elf
drawn about Nov 13, ’03
posted for Dec 31, 2006
(31)

hylianavatarAn elf at Cuivienen, carrying on from the last picture, glancing around at someone who disturbed him from staring at Cassiopeia, also known as Wilwarin, the Butterfly. Isn’t he beautiful? The stars are still glittering in his eyes… And I shaded it. Isn’t that special?

We watched Mom’s Christmas movie on Sunday, and it was called Cars. I enjoyed it very much, even if I found it a bit predictable at times. For example, in the climactic race, Lightening pulls out of a near-fatal turn… and he still has two more to go. Well, they’re not going to have two more bland turns and have him win… there’s going to be some sort of drama mixed in! And I was right! I do love the lines they put in the trailer, though…
Lightening: “I can’t be doing this. I’m a precision instrument of speed and aerodynamics!”
Mater: “Ya hert yer whaaat??”
I don’t know if the predictability is a good thing or a bad thing… a good thing because it means I’m thinking like a storyteller, or a bad thing because it’s a predictable movie (poorly written). Anyway, it was entertaining, especially the “A Toy Cars Story” during the credits. That was good.

Hey, and I forgot to say that Glorfindel, I think, is my first picture of a male elf with long hair. I finally got my styles straightened out! Now elves with short hair look funny! And I used to think of Legolas with short black hair… o_O7

December 30, 2006

Cuivienen

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Filed under: 2. Middle Earth fanworks,Pencil — Tags: — Illinia @ 11:25 am
Waters of Awakening

Waters of Awakening

Cuivienen
drawn Nov 13, ’03
posted for Dec 30, 2006
(30)

portrait3This is Cuivienen, the lake beside which Tolkien’s elves first woke and gazed up at the stars. It was so beautiful… and when I heard Enya’s song Shepherd Moons, I knew it was the perfect descriptor. The parts with the singing are the elves singing in wonder and the echoes of their song coming from deep within the forest… the instrumental parts are their silent contemplation of the stars. It was so gorgeous… It made me cry a couple times, it was so beautiful. This picture doesn’t nearly do it justice. I should do a new one with the new art markers I was given.

I went to a concert by Hexaphone yesterday, and they were very good! I liked it a lot, but I didn’t like Karel Roessingh, the jazz pianist, so much. His music is jerky and not smooth. I guess that’s just his style, but I don’t like that style.

And yesterday I spent some time in teeth-grinding, fist-clenching rage. Too bad I don’t know how to give a ‘cold shoulder’; everyone just thinks I’m sulking about nothing. I drew a picture about it, and coloured it with the new markers. I’m not very good yet, because it was a bit blotchy, and I need a real inking pen, but the markers are very good. That’s why I got the idea to do a new picture of Cuivienen.

Just now I finally finished the Wallace and Gromit movie, and it’s actually good, now that I got past the worst part. My brother had to reassure me several times that “no one gets found out”, my worst fear ever. (I hated reading Freaky Friday, in case you’re wondering) I liked all the little allusions, such as “Dogwarts” and the whole thing at the end where Wallace rescues Lady Tottie (coughkingkongcough). Although the bit where Gromit and Percy stop fighting to recharge their mini-plane was stupid, I enjoyed it anyway.

December 29, 2006

North Wall of Moon City Palace

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Filed under: 1. The Adhemlenei (The Four Kingdoms),Pencil — Tags: , — Illinia @ 10:49 am
Pillars of trees

Pillars of trees

North Wall of Moon City Palace
drawn about Nov 11, ’03
posted for Dec 29, 2006
(29)

zelaavatarsm2Another Zela picture! This time, I went for setting rather than character, and this is a terrific picture. Much better than I expected.

This picture was inspired, as began to happen more and more frequently, by music: La cathedral engloutie, par Debussy. Someone I knew played it at a masterclass, and I was enthralled… so pretty……..

Anyway, so, as well as imagining a weed-draped stone structure with light filtering down from above, and water gushing out as it rises, I also imagined a great hall of glass and stone trees for pillars, and as the sun sets, it falls full on two thrones at one end (in this picture, out of sight on the right), illuminating two figures sitting there: Flar and Stria! Stria is one incarnation, at least, of Flair’s mother (remember, Flair is Zela’s husband).

Above the hall proper are five holes in the exact spot of Casseopiea at midsummer, which somehow contrives to be directly overhead. I was pretty innocent of astronomy, and just thought of the vision it would generate, rather than actual physics, so I don’t know if this is possible. The little words and the arrow pointing to the girl say ‘scale figure’. My brother says he thinks it’s a good picture!

I watched Princess Mononoke yesterday, on DVD, in Japanese, and it was just as beautiful as I thought it would be. Moro, the wolf goddess, sounds almost like a man’s voice, though. San does lose a bit of ferocity with her Japanese voice in comparison with the english dub, but she sounds much more feminine and beautiful. I haven’t watched it in English since I saw the taped version Dad taped once, but I saw the very short documentary thingie that they made of the actor’s opinions, and of course they put in short clips from the movie, so I noticed that the script is different. I wonder what’s going on. I also noticed that at the end, Eboshi’s lepers are cured! I didn’t notice that before, and I think it’s because one of them gives a gasp as she looks at her healed hands. I thought the wind blew in the other direction and Ashitaka was the only one healed of his curse, but now there’s more happy endings all around. Yay.

December 28, 2006

Wood Elves

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Filed under: 2. Middle Earth fanworks,Esgalwen,Legolas,Pencil — Tags: , , , — Illinia @ 10:45 am
How to crash an elf party: a tutorial by Thorin Oakenshield

How to crash an elf party: a tutorial by Thorin Oakenshield

Woodelves
drawn about Nov 2-3, ’03
posted for Dec 28, 2006
(28)

zeladanceiiavatarThis is a picture of more of those Mirkwoodian elves, the tree elves, I suppose. I had trouble drawing in scale, so that’s why the ones in the back are bigger than the ones in front. At least the ones who are biggest are the most important.

Thranduil, King of Mirkwood, is the big guy on the left, and Legolas his son is on the right of him. There are random people all over, including a harpist, and a dark-haired, dark-eyed cutie hiding smiling behind a tree over on the far left. Esgalwen is the girl with dark shiny hair leaning against the log in front, chatting with someone… her sister? Oh, and that’s Thorin, hiding in plain view, so this is from The Hobbit. Who guessed before I said?

I shaded this one, because I figured it would be too hard to show that it was night time by the light of a ‘bonfire’ if it wasn’t. I shaded it, I remember, at all the parts of a Campbell River Friends of Music concert, I think it was, that it wasn’t impolite: before, intermission, and after. I was just finishing up, and that’s why I think I took it with me. I’m pleased with how it came out, although, even though I got Dad to spray it with protective stuff so it wouldn’t smudge, it still smudged. It’s smudged even worse now than this scan, since I did the scan at least two years ago. Blah. I can tell because you can’t see the harpist’s strings on the original, now, and there’s a lot of graphite on the back of the previous page, which is the beginning of a new sketchbook. (I’m very proud of that picture, too, but you don’t get to see it yet. I’ve even taped it shut to keep the curious and the nutty out of it, heh heh)

Before I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, my brother talked me into watching his Christmas movie (that he got at Christmas, not Christmas themed): The Curse of the Wererabbit. I was freaked out, and he says I’ve only gotten a third of the way through the movie. Ack. Out of the two, Wallace and Gromit, Gromit rules.

December 27, 2006

Esgalwen

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Filed under: 2. Middle Earth fanworks,Esgalwen,Pencil — Tags: — Illinia @ 10:42 am
Black-haired elf-child

Black-haired elf-child

Esgalwen
drawn about July 7, ’03
posted for Dec 27, 2006
(27)

esgalwenavatarThis is Esgalwen, a young elf-maiden living in Mirkwood, or as they call it, I believe the name is Taur-nu-Fuin: Forest under Shadow. I think they changed the name after Sauron got booted, though, back to its old name Greenwood the Great. She has black hair and brown eyes, and likes running and dancing through the forest: she’s one of the ‘childlike’ elves. I made her up. She also likes singing, and I imagine most of the songs on Enya’s Shepherd Moons CD as being sung by her… not the first one; that one will be described on the page for the 29th. One or two on the A Day Without Rain CD I also imagine being sung by her, such as Only Time, which she sings with her older sister, sitting in a glade with one playing a harp and one playing a cello.

I drew this sitting on a blanket on the lawn outside in the backyard, vaguely in the same position as Esgalwen herself. I don’t think this is a great picture, at least, not anymore.

Also on this page was a picture of her house – not very good – and an experiment drawing an eye and some hair.

I saw The Nightmare Before Christmas a couple of days ago, during that unexpected hiatus, and I liked it a lot. It’s clever, and funny, and touching… Jack is really handsome, but sometimes he looks just like a great big spider, and I know that’s the effect they wanted to make, so I think it’s really cool! The climax I found exciting, and I’m not annoyed at the amazing number of songs in it: I enjoy the Boogie Woogie Man song (my music teachers will probably now faint, as I have displayed a distinct prejudice against many styles of popular music in the past) and the pretty song that Sally sings, and the “What’s This?” song that Jack sings in Christmas Town. Also, Jack’s voice is Chris Sarandon, who has also done Prince Humperdinck in The Princess Bride, and Kuratowa in Nausicäa of the Valley of the Wind: English dub. I think he sounds good in all those roles, although I never guessed at him being Kuratowa! :D Kuratowa’s kind of cute, too. I think it’s because he acts tougher than he is, and seems clueless at times. ^_^7

Anyhow, I thought The Nightmare Before Christmas was very good, and Dad said that we might get it for next Christmas. He fell asleep pretty early in it, though.

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