Christmas comes to Middle-earth

Pin It Now! Well, here's a fun one I just did. I had an idea about creating a Lord of the Rings themed Christmas image for a card. I mean, good excuse to draw some Lord of the Rings stuff, you know? LOTR is kind of the ultimate fantasy subject matter, so when I thought about creating some sort of fantasy-themed Christmas image it seemed like a good idea:)

I thought it would be nice to feature some of the "lesser" characters of Lord of the Rings. Boromir has his dark side, so to speak, but it's nice to seem him just having a good time with those fun guys, Merry & Pippin.

Is there a Lord of the Rings character that you can envision having a Christmas moment? Do tell... Or perhaps you'd rather think about who you'd like to cozy up next to at the fireplace. Gosh, this is turning into tawdry fan fiction. Sorry!

Anyway, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I had a good time at some friends' house, though I did end up being seated at the "kid's table." I'll take it as a compliment;) Now Christmas is hurtling toward us! Where does the year go?

Or how about a kelp forest?

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Hey all,

I've still been mulling and sketching ideas for the background of the merfolk scene this week. I think I want to move in a different direction and go for a kelp forest kind of look. I'm still thinking of making this an undersea spin on Midsummer Night's Dream, so I wanted to try mirroring a forest setting.

What do you think? Should there be some sort of architecture in the design as well?

In other news, I was in Burbank over the weekend for the CTN Animation Expo. It's kind of like a smaller, more intimate version of the massive Comic Con of San Diego. I saw lots of awesome work, had quite a few great conversations, and got to show my work around a little bit.

Well, I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving:) I hope you are surrounded by good friends and find lots to be thankful for. I know I have so much to be thankful for in my own life.

:)

Hmmm, backgrounds.

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This week I was doing some sketching trying to figure out a background for the merfolk scene I posted before. You would just need to imagine those three merfolk figures in one of these backgrounds. I don't know if I am quite feeling like any of these really nails it. What do you all think?

Minotaur!

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Oops, I'm a bit late on my post for this week. Please forgive me because, hey, wasn't the merbaby cute??

So this time it's some Minotaur sketches. I'd love to turn one of these into something with a background of the Labrynth...

What do you think would be the right weapon for the Minotaur to use? A sword doesn't seem right. An axe? Tell me your thoughts, please.

:)

Now THAT'S a hot merman.

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Okay, I will put up a "normal" post with some new drawings tomorrow, but in the meantime... I went ahead and drew the version of my merman that you were all waiting for. See, now he's really hot. To (mis)quote Dorothy L. Sayers in Gaudy Night, now "He's not a merman, but a mer-miracle."

But now that I've drawn a baby mermaid/merman, just don't ask me exactly where merbabies come from ;)

More Mermaids... I mean, Merfolk!

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Okay, so I'm a little late on this week's post. Had a trip out of town over the weekend.

As you can see, I'm still working on the merfolk stuff. I say merfolk, because I've got a merman there. You don't see those so often so I thought I would draw one. I showed the right side of this drawing last week, since that mermaid was more finished. I didn't originally intend to make a little scene, but it seems to have turned out that way:) To me, it comes off as kind of an under-the-sea version of Midsummer Night's Dream. Merfolk versions of Oberon, Titania, and Puck. Of course, a friend suggested that it looked more like some sort of love triangle stand-off ("I'm done with you, Donald!!) :) Hey, however you'd like to interpret it.

Oh, and I want to say a thank you to "Sparks" for answering my burning question of last week, about the proper plural of Pegasus. The answer apparently being that Pegasi is not correct because Pegasus is indeed the proper name of a particular flying horse from Greek mythology. So there is no proper plural other than just saying "flying horses." Finally, I don't have to stay awake at night wondering!