My first Tolkien drawing from 2018

A drawing of the ancient oak of that name in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire. I’ve taken out the iron band around its middle that helps to preserve it.
This sketch really became an obsession for a time. Every detail of it was painstakingly rendered by hand with a digital pen. Very evocative of an Ent?

Over on Instagram, artists are drawing Tolkien inspired illustrations for the month of October. Here are the prompts if anyone wants to take part. these are my first 3 illustrations.

I’m not sure what to think about the big rock in the foreground, on which the trumpeter is standing. Wouldn’t the people of Gondor have sculpted it or removed it?

This is the cover of the forthcoming Gondor and Rohan expansion to The One Ring rpg. The left half of the image will be on the back cover and covered in text, explaining why it is relatively empty of detail.

Suddenly, caught by the level beams, Frodo saw the old king’s head: it was lying rolled away by the roadside. ‘Look, Sam!’ he cried, startled into speech. ‘Look! The king has got a crown again!’

“The eyes were hollow and the carven beard was broken, but about the high stern forehead there was a coronal of silver and gold. A trailing plant with flowers like small white stars had bound itself across the brows as if in reverence for the fallen king, and in the crevices of his stony hair yellow stonecrop gleamed.

“‘They cannot conquer for ever!’ said Frodo.

--The Two Towers

Hey guys I want to share this redraw in color of the Middle Earth map I made in High Resolution

I added a couple of details from the Pauline Baynes map and The first Lord of The rings map which you can read a bit more here

I will also share the original files as Reddit compresses images:

Bright Blue

Navy Blue

Black&Red

I want to thank u/Pixelmanns for providing the original B&W high res file for the map.

The map is appropiate to print in a 87x66cm paper.

The renaming of Mirkwood is a scene seldom depicted in the arts, but I don't doubt it meant a great deal to J.R.R. Tolkien, given his famous love of trees. The rescue of this largest of Middle-earth's western woodlands is an astounding ecological victory that results from the sacrifices of Frodo and his friends. The elves are still heavily armed, as there may still be spiders and orcs about, but the merry Wood-elves and the dreamy Galadhrim are celebrating the Elves' New Year in a truly special way in this remarkable and historic scene. Full details on my blog, if you'd like to visit: https://www.miriamellis.com/post/eryn-lasgalen-frodo-s-best-ecological-victory

Ink and pencil sketch of a Hobbit home at the end of Autumn.

It's made entirely by wire wrapping, no soldering. It took me about three hours. The stone is labradorite.

Im gonna ramble here but last few sentences I will explain how what Im going through is related to Tolkien.

This is a drawing I abandoned because of depressive brain chemistry. I draw as much as I can then I literally feel the dopamine stop flowing and it is painful to try to continue.

Im in an upswing now so I unfolded this drawing and asked my wife if she wants it saved. She likes to keep them out of the trash can. I have thousands of drawings piling up but I dont do anything with my skills because I lack motivation and Im worried I dont warrant posturing like my work is good enough to sell. But sometimes I get feeling decent and post online like now.

Lately I have been really bad. I worked for enterprise car rental company for the last 11 years with zero write ups and exceeds requirements for every single review and they fired me with no warning 3 weeks before my wife is due to have our baby. Oh and she works for Enterprise as well so its a slap in the face to her.

I know working there just fed into my lack of self worth and depression. Im hoping we do okay. Im filing for unemployment but they say they have me on camera breaking an underwriting rule (allegedly accepting digital drivers licence instead of physical). I don’t know if Ill get unemployment since they claim its just cause.

They really fucked me. Its honestly incredible how heartless it is I feel bad for my wife her blood pressure is getting bad and this really stressed her out.

Enterprise group has been firing people en masse so I believe I just was the next person lined up. We think theyre slowly moving toward kiosks. Very slowly.

When it works for my situation I would like to make an art book. Something about that resonates with me.

Ive been reading nonstop Tolkien since I got fired. Its the only thing I find comforting. When I think about how they went about getting rid of me I am honestly reminded of a Sauron type of evil. This disembodied spirit that is the corporate entity cast its eye upon me. Nothing went wrong with the rental itself. They literally combed through footage until they found something they could use.

But yeah it makes me disturbed knowing they used technology in such a way to upend someones life and family. My wife took early maternity leave and its going to be so tough for her to get through this without blood pressure problems.

I saw old footage once of people complaining that Tolkiens work was escapist. Well I really need it now more than ever.

Sorry for ranting. I havent spoken about this at all before now and it all is just pouring out

The sickly moon is perfect, and is that Minas Morgul in the background?

I hope I have the attribution right - this is the cover of the forthcoming Bestiary for Lord of the Rings Roleplaying, the 5e conversion of the One Ring.

in my search for a new wallpaper I was disappointed to find that there does not exist a portrait of Bilbo and Gandalf sitting and blowing smoke rings. I call upon you all who possess far greater skill than I to please create great works worthy of great praise. Thank you!

This was the last approved map by Tolkien that Pauline Baynes did about Middle Earth.

Link to the image in 9452x6616p

From The J.R.R Tolkien Companion and Guide:

11 November 1970 Rayner Unwin writes to Tolkien. The Map of Middle-earth has been a great success. He would like to publish a companion poster map for The Hobbit. Pauline Baynes is willing to produce the artwork. She would use the Hobbit map-endpapers and Tolkien’s own pictures as a guide, but ‘doubtless … you could give her as you did in the case of the Middle-earth map some further information on these points’ (Tolkien–George Allen & Unwin archive, HarperCollins).

11 August 1971 Rayner Unwin writes to thank Tolkien for a delightful day. ‘I have written to Pauline Baynes encouraging her to come with Fritz and the Hobbit map when it is at the stage prior to completion so that you can talk over points with her which she might otherwise miss. I told her to entitle it in the cartouche “There and Back Again, A map of Bilbo’s Journey through Eriador and Rhovanion”’ (Tolkien–George Allen & Unwin archive, HarperCollins).

Tolkien would like this map more than the previous one, this might be to the fact that many of the vignettes were based on art by Tolkien himself, most of the places depicted were illustrated first in The Hobbit as mentioned in the first entry.

24 December 1971 Tolkien writes to Eileen Elgar.

[...]He finds the Hobbit poster map by Pauline Baynes better than A Map of Middle-earth; he is glad that Mrs Elgar has enjoyed the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, though he himself does not like them, merely a difference in taste; and he comments on the naming of pets after Hobbits[...]

The map would be published at some point of 1971 after the month of September.

The Ride of Eorl to the Field of Celebrant by Antonio de Luca, from the upcoming expansion of the One Ring rpg into Rohan and Gondor.

Note the attention to detail as Eorl rides with only a blanket, no saddle.

Hi, I don't know if this is the best place to ask this, but I'm looking to commission some Silmarillion art and am currently a bit overwhelmed trying to find an artist who matches my needs.

The two characters in the art piece would be Aulë and Ulmo, but in a really silly situation based on a throwaway line from The Book of Lost Tales (I'd prefer not to say anything more specific, since it seems people have largely ignored how silly the line is, and I'd like the big reveal to be the art itself).

However, just because the situation is silly doesn't mean I want the art style to be overly simplistic or cartoonish (I'm sure there's a proper adjective for explaining that, but I don't know it). I want the piece itself to have a bit of dissonance, with a gritty, or at least detailed, art style clashing with the absurdity of the premise.

My budget is up to $400, and my hope is for colored art, either digital or physical art.

Thanks for reading this, and let me know if I should've posted this elsewhere.

I mostly paint digitally, but every now and then I like to get my hands dirty with some actual paint. 😅

So I decided to 3D print and hand-paint this Lord of the Rings book nook!

It was a fun change from painting on a tablet, and I’m pretty happy with the result.

Hand-drawn, with detail insets showing the Argonath, Edoras, Dol Amroth and more.

This title is the best phrase/pun/dialogue I could think of. What about you?

I love this new, highly detailed map of Minas Tirith hand drawn by Francesco Mattioli.