Jenny Dolfen

Let's do this again...

I wasn't happy with the colour scheme in the last attempt - too dull - so I gave it another start. You probably know how much I dislike doing scenes in the dark, which is a pity, as about 60% of my favourite scenes take place between the Darkening of Valinor and the first rising of the Sun, haha. I've often been accused of doing these scenes too light, and I've long noticed that those accusations don't come as often when I employ a red colour scheme. (And then, of course, he's just been in a ...

First colour washes

I'm trying out my new toy: a glass pen! It's fantastic for very thin lines, even with masking fluid, so I hope this'll come in handy here. 

Lineart!

Still got some tweaking to do, but... yay. 

I'll get to my backlog of messages tomorrow, I promise!... And now to bed! And now to bed! 

Crawling across the image

... and sharpening my pencil literally every minute. 

... and questioning my decision to put them all in plate armour. Artistically and historically. But I can't pass over the opportunity to show off the sort of craftsmanship that shortened  Fëanor's twelve-year exile. XD 

This is going to be my most involved piece...

... probably ever. Certainly since Hannibal's crossing the Alps. Still only on the third figure! 

And that's only the lineart. Though I think I may just pick out the patterns in places where the light hits - there's a huge chance of overworking this, certainly.

The Death of Fëanor - digital sketch

"Then his sons raised up their father and bore him back towards Mithrim. But as they drew near to Eithel Sirion and were upon the upward path to the pass over the mountains, Fëanor bade them halt; for his wounds were mortal, and he knew that his hour was come. And looking out from the slopes of Ered Wethrin with his last sight he beheld far off the peaks of Thangorodrim, mightiest of the towers of Middle-earth, and knew with the foreknowledge of death that no power of the Noldor would ever o...

What did I get myself into?

Four hours in, I'm still at this stage of the sketch! O_o

BUT it was a great idea to get the groundwork right. The humourous photo I showed earlier ended up not making it in, as I hadn't bothered to take all those ref photos from the same angle, so the first sketch was scrapped before it took off (after about two hours or work, cough). Then I put Fëanor and Maedhros on a piece of paper, did CSI-esque markings of where they'd been, positioned the next two sons and took a photo from the ...

How to use reference and alienate people

*Husband enters room" "Have you seen my-"
Pause.
*Husband slowly backs from the room* 

Poll results

I asked the Union of Maedhros tiers and up to help me choose my next piece - and it seems that the Prophecy of the North, the death of Fëanor, and “Utúlië’n Aurë" are hot on the list!  I had some fun with my body-kun figurines yesterday again. My daughter fell about laughing at the dramatic death scenes playing out on my desk. This, by the way is THE best use for those dummies - figures interacting! You can quickly get one person to pose for you, but for several to pose, and get ...

He sang a song of Valinor

 "Then in defiance of the Orcs, who cowered still in the dark vaults beneath the earth, he took his harp and sang a song of Valinor that the Noldor made of old, before strife was born among the sons of Finwë; and his voice rang in the mournful hollows that had never heard before aught save cries of fear and woe." 

Watercolour and white gel pen (eyes... XD) on Fabriano No. 5, 23x31 cm.

I've just put up the prints in my 2020-01-31 07:50:44 +0000 UTC View Post

Getting there...

Not much time to draw today, but I hope to finish this tomorrow!

Visible music

Something I've never really tried before, but I really like where this is going. Heck, after twenty-five years of considering it, I might at some point paint the Music of the Ainur. =O

Song of Valinor - first wash

Here's the beginnings of the painting! I want to make Fingon's surroundings extra bleak, and have his song visualised as the only bright thing in the scene, casting some light on his face. I'm really happy with the first stage here and hope I don't botch it.

Also, trying new paper AGAIN. Fabriano this time. ;) Hence the botch-worry. (I had something like an "eternal paper search" hashtag but can't remember it...) 

He sang a song of Valinor - lineart

Now I hope I can pull off the swirly stuff in the background. I actually started doing a little colour study in between conferences today. 

Fingon <3 <3 

Fingon update

I love drawing this guy so much. 

"He sang a song of Valinor", first messy scribble + Friends in Need update

Fingon upon Thangorodrim, being badass. He carried that harp for miles and miles, and he's going to use it. 

The swirls will hold some veeeery faint Valinor scenes, in a warmer and lighter colour than the rest. 

The harp I actually built from clay, because lap harps are some of the most evil things to do without reference. Their shape eludes me in perspective, and the position -...

Atonement - finished

I haven't posted as much as I ought to have - I had to start over (from the lineart) yesterday after ruining it Thursday afternoon after many hours of work. (Word to the wise: Don't try painting 1mm tack ornaments while teenagers are standing beside you bellowing about their phone games not doing what they should. His charging station has now been removed from my study.)

I've uploaded a few of the steps in between! They were from the first attempt, on different paper, but I was pretty m...

"Atonement" in progress

It's my day off, and that means aaaaaart!

And printing. And post office. And grocery shopping. :) 

"Atonement" - lineart

I'm so much in love with this! <3 

A gift afternoon

I was in bed sick all last week, and things had just piled up on my desk - twenty-five exams on my desk, mostly - and I somehow tore through them all in a such daze yesterday that I somehow failed to process that I had actually finished them, so today I sat down at my desk gloomily resigning myself to more marking - and realised that I had finished all of it and, indeed, handed it all back already!

So, from gift afternoon to gift horse! I spent a lot of time on refining the sketch (and ...

Watercoloured sketches

I told you I was getting a ton of art ideas from the Prancing Pony Podcast - here's some of them! I spent the day with my daughter and her friends celebrating her birthday (very late; it was in September) at a farm. While the girls played in the hay barn, I sat in the warm party room drinking tea and drawing. Definitely a good way to do birthdays. 

The first image is Maedhros giving the horses to Fingolfin in atonement for the desertion in Araman. (Incidentally, has anyone ever not...

Prints (and the original) of "Stand together" in my Etsy shop!

Just to let you know that the original as well as prints are available! The image is pretty small, so it's printed smaller than other prints you know from me. I'm also printing it on smoother paper, as the rough paper I usually use makes it look unrefined and ugly. Not just the top, I mean. ;) 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/JennyDolfen

"Stand together - die together"

Watercolour and white gouache on Bockingford cold-pressed paper, 16x21 cm.

I love these weird watercolour lightsabres. I tried for a long time to do lightsabres in watercolour, but when I did Kylo Ren's for the first time, I realised that irregular was the way to go for me - just go for a totally different visual language. 

There are apparently a lot of deeply frustrated Star Wars /Reylo fans in the world - since the end of December, I have sold some twenty or thirty Star War...

Palpatine is fun

Seriously? I don't know how I feel about Palpatine being back for Episode 9. But as he is absolutely devious fun to draw and paint, I'm fine with him. XD

Lightsabres and force lightning, oh my

Is it all right to post Star Wars stuff without spoiler warnings now? I assume that hasn't seen the movie yet is probably not worried about spoilers. 

I do plan to finish this one today (it's my day off today, so I was able to do the lineart this morning). Because OH BOY is giving the Prancing Pony Podcast giving me picture ideas! I've started writing them down, haha. There's at least two that I've already completely thought through, too. 

"The Prophecy of the North". Th...

*Star Wars spoilers*

"Stand together"... die together. 

And interestingly, they did both die in that encounter. ;_; 

Veeeery rough digital sketch, about 20 minutes. I hope this piece will be fun and quick. One day of holidays left! =O 

Maybe you remember the very first pieces I did of the SW sequels, four years ago. This one will echo that in composition.

And with colour!

Edit: Final colours and nicer background. And look! Birdie! 

I'll probably keep fiddling with these a bit more, but on the whole, I think this is what I'd like to do with these! 

The rings them...

The six new pins getting ready!

I've been carrying these around mentally for months, and finally got round to finishing up the designs! I'm really proud of the Rings, and will echo some of the Silmaril colour schemes for their interiors. 

Top is Narya, which passed from Círdan to Gandalf. I chose the Sun as a major element in it, being a more benign fiery power, but tied it to the "fire" Silmaril by rock and stone.

Middle is Nenya, Galadriel's ring, which never had another master; the centre depicts Lothlo...

Happy New Year!

A lot of stuff on my workbench, and on my mind, starting with a visit to the optician on Monday and telling him that my new glasses aren't really good for reading or for drawing; and him replying, "With your eyes, you shouldn't really be doing either of these two."

That was a shock all right. It doesn't change anything though. If my personal worst case scenario is never being able to draw again, but if I still CAN, why on earth should I stop doing it now while it's still possible (thoug...

Happy holidays!

There's rather more stuff in here than ought to be posted on Christmas Eve, and some things are pretty unfestive. Please know that I'm okay, despite it all.

The main thing is that my eyes are getting worse. I've had a pretty pronounced astigmatism since birth, and as soon as horn-rimmed glasses went into fashion in the nineties, I've been totally fine with it. Now it's got a lot worse, so much worse that my optician had to switch manufacturers for my new glasses, because the old manufac...