Drawings of the Day

[bunn]

So I recently decided I was going to try to do a drawing a day.  Not necessarily a complicated drawing, but just a drawing of some kind.  The first day, I did a quick sketch inspired by a post by topum, about having to run to escape attack by geese.  I have no idea what topum looks like so this is very much a quick artistic representation of the whole geese problem.

Then we were re-watching Robin of Sherwood, so I decided to draw Marion.  This is just a copy of a photo, but it did take me two evenings, so isn't really a drawing of a day. Oh well.





I resolved to draw more quickly, and drew a picture of the Pilgrim of Brixham:  a nineteenth century sailing trawler which has been brought back into sailing condition by a group of volunteers who have come together as a small charity to operate Pilgrim as a working boat, doing sailing holidays and training sessions and so on.  They happen to be one of our customers, one of the more interesting ones too!   That was a fairly quick thing to draw, not least because I didn't put in any crew.


Next, I had an idea to draw Fingon and his knights, coming over the bridge to visit Rian in Nen Lalaith, inspired by this bit of song by hhimring.  Sadly, it did not go well.  I like the colour balance, but I couldn't get the riders right (I think it needed too much small detail for pastels) and my mental vision of the trees behind the bridge fading into the mist didn't work.   I worked on it for a couple of days and it just got worse and worse so I abandoned it at this point.  I still have a clear idea in my head of how I think it *should* look: all silver and blue on one side, with the Elves coming out of the shadow, and then warm sunny mortal tones on the other side of the stream around Rian.  Maybe I'll try again.



Possibly I should try it in acrylics: it's muche easier to do fine detail in acrylic, and you don't have the problem that the colour around the edges of small people comes off and muddies the whole thing. On the other hand, I am probably better at faces in pastel, as you can rework pastel a lot whereas acrylic tends to end up looking rubbery if you rework it too much, which is not good for faces.

In the short term, I decided to be less ambitious and just draw Fingon on a horse, on a bridge.  This went better, and didn't actually take that long to complete.

All the pencil drawings are on some A4 slices of card that I found in the the skip at the recycling centre.  I was supposed to be just taking in some boxes to get rid of them, but when I went up the steps and started heaving in boxes, I noticed that there were all these fabulous creamy rectangles of card, just sitting there in huge bundles.

So I stole a big heap of them, as many as I could carry. They are lovely to draw on and solid enough that you don't need any support for them, you can just hold them on your lap.   I don't know what I shall do with them all once I've drawn on them though, there are stacks and they are thick enough that I can't easily just shove them into a folder.  

Comments

[hhimring]

I can at least follow that side of the argument--and, in fact, I've always believed the same thing about Glorfindel's beryl.

Of course, Glorfindel seems to have his limits as a helicopter gunship--otherwise we wouldn't end up with Frodo's desperate ride across the Ford. But as he is capable of chasing away individual Nazgul, when not all Nine of them are together, maybe the Black Horses have learned how to recognize those bells...

To be honest, I wrong-footed myself into my position when I myself needed a jingle of a bridle--and realized afterwards that in my case, at least, substituting bells would definitely not do. If it is possible to have bit-less bridles that is good news as far as I'm concerned.

But I also feel that, when the weight of armour and the distractions of battle come into play, both horse and rider might appreciate a bit more help--not all First Age horses can be like Shadowfax, surely.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think the problem of the Nine is that there are Nine of them! Glorfindel is like a falcon among swallows, it's hard to pick out one and do anything about it!

Bitless bridles are definitely a thing, I have a friend who rides who is a big fan. People who ride entirely without a bridle usually seem to use a neckrope, which might have a ring on it? Or there are halters, which might have jingly metal rings without implying the bling of 'headstall'...?

I don't know. I am not a rider. But I don't really like all the fiddly tack they sell for dogs, I would prefer ideally to have the relationship with the animal at the point where you don't need to pull and tug. Asking a lot for us mortal humans, but with a thousand years of time, you could get your timing and your body language comprehension skills to be *really* *REALLY* good!

Aaaaargh elf envy. The curse of Numenor!

[hhimring]

I loved my dog deeply, but without tack she would have got herself killed multiple times a day, at least when she was young.
You seem to be much better at dog-whispering than I ever was!
But I do get the elf-envy.