The Silmarillion: Glorfindel and the Balrog

The Silmarillion: Glaurung

To see more from the Silmarillion project, check out the rest of the show at Gallery Nucleus.

The Silmarillion: Fingon and Gothmog

"Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, high-captain of Angband, was come; and he drove a dark wedge between the Elvenhosts, surrounding King Fingon, and thrusting Turgon and Hurin aside towards the Fen of Serech. Then he turned upon Fingon. That was a grim meeting. At last Fingon stood with his guard dead about him..."

-From The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

More imagery from the The Silmarillion show on display at Gallery Nucleus.

Show Opening: The Silmarillion

On April 14, I will be having a show at Gallery Nucleus. The show is based around J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion.

This piece is from the fall of Glorfindel, which is a precursor to a similar event that takes place in the Lord of the Rings, when Gandalf confronts the Balrog in Moria. 

Not much is written about this particular scene in the Silmarillion.  In fact, it lasts only 2 lines, which end in: "...And both fell to ruin in the abyss."  But it is one of the things I love a great deal about Tolkien, that he creates such a rich world, that even really brief passages are loaded with possibilities.

The show will feature watercolor paintings as well as studies and developmental drawings. I will be posting more of these in the weeks to come.  For more information on it check out the post on Gallery Nucleus's website.

TLC Workshop Weekend

The TLC Workshop in Seattle.

The class was a success. I was able to share much of my great wisdom with the students. I drew from my vast stores of knowledge which has been gained over years and years of deep study and thoughtful consideration. Moments like this were the norm:

Justin: ...Guys, if in doubt; add a Lens Flare.  

This pencil stuff is all just smoke in mirrors. 

The filters are where it's at.  

Class: ....

Justin: I vote no pants.

Misael: But isn't that an overly simplistic solu...

Justin: Listen, no pants. And let's get some Lens Flares in there stat.  

After these, and other equally earth-shattering revelations, the students were understandably shocked.  My mind is a great and powerful machine which often awes those who encounter it.  

Over the course of the weekend, we developed drawings and character designs, and did studies from life.  We focused on drawing for the most part, but we were also able to cover other subjects of which I have a deep store of knowledge. Topics such as: watercoloring, digital painting, space flight, stock-market manipulation and robots who might be trained to add our lens flares for us automatically, (which will take art to heights never before dreamed of.)  

I was really excited to see the progress everyone made and where all the drawings ended up.  Great work to all of you who were there. I expect big things out of you guys in the future.

To check out more from the weekend, check out Tara's blog here.