In the mirror of Galadriel

[bunn]

. Mountains loomed dark in the distance against a pale sky. A long grey road wound back out of sight...

Far away a figure came slowly down the road, faint and small at first, but growing larger and clearer as it approached. Suddenly Frodo realized that it reminded him of Gandalf. He almost called aloud the wizard's name, and then he saw that the figure was clothed not in grey but in white...; and in its hand there was a white staff. The head was so bowed that he could see no face, and presently the figure turned aside round a bend in the road and went out of the Mirror's view.

Doubt came into Frodo's mind: was this a vision of Gandalf on one of his many lonely journeys long ago, or was it Saruman?

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The ferns, intended to create an impression of Lorien in the background have not really come out in the photo.   I should have made them a stronger/contrasting colour, I think and lost more of the grey of the background paper. Also I could have done more with the rim of the mirror.  Some runes, perhaps.

I'm going to try to draw something every day for a bit, I think.  I just don't draw enough to really get good at it.  Hence the new drawing a day tag.  I may not post the drawing every day, that might be a bit much, and most of the drawings will not be very large or detailed.  But I hope the existence of the tag will encourage me onward.

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

That's pretty good, and I look forward to seeing more of your drawings.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I wondered if I should have given him a hat rather than just a cloak with a hood. I think that both Gandalf and Saruman are supposed to wear hats (and not just in the movies). But the description here does not actually mention a hat.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

There is confusion later on, on the edge of Fangorn, over whether the cloaked and hooded figure was Gandalf or Saruman.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

I like that a lot.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks! I appreciate the encouragement.

[topum.livejournal.com]

Somehow I am seeing a Jewish man in a prayer shawl.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think that's the slightly hunched forward posture: it is emphasized when people wear the prayer shawl, and the mind's eye is not very used to old people in cloaks any more.

[topum.livejournal.com]

Yes, probably. Come to think of it, Jewish men in prayer shawls are about the only time I saw people in cloaks in real life (outside of dressing up events) I think.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Ooh, nice. The landscape is awesome, all the relief and shadow.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I feel confident in the general area of landscapes. It is when awful humanity intrudes upon the blasted heath that everything begins to go pearshaped. :-/

[ylla.livejournal.com]

It's very good blasted heath - it looks like the edge of the Coniston fells.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I love your artwork.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

I like it!

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

That's great. We read that bit to Fro just the other day and this feels perfectly right! I like the ferns - I agree it does need something like that to show it's a bowl of water out-of-doors, and not say a picture hanging on someone's wall - difficult to suggest when Tolkien is clear that the picture is absolutely sharp and not at all a wishy-washy vague watery image! Perhaps that's why illustrators usually show the bigger scene of Galadriel and the hobbits and the mirror, but I like the idea of illustrating the actual scenes shown in the mirror. You could make a series!