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Doom comes to Nargothrond.

Bonus art of a scene from song of staying by @halethleia for Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2024. Original art prompt is here.

Rating: T Warnings: None Relationships: Gen Characters: Finrod, Beren, Finduilas, Orodreth, Celebrimbor, Celegorm, Curufin, Maedhros, Maglor, Galadriel, Word count: 8,706 Summary: It is said by some that in Valinor, deep in the halls of Mandos among the deep dark places, are miles and miles of tapestries. The lives of the Eldar, inscribed in colored threads—their pasts, their presents, their futures. They hang silently upon the walls of long echoing hallways, only to be seen by those that wander there.

Sometimes, these glimpses are not entirely accurate. A work of art is never truly finished, a life even more so. A slight nudge, a slipped stitch, and the tapestry changes.

What happens when foresight proves false?

@tolkienrsb

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Sixty-some years after its fall, two women return to a ruined city to find what remains.

Bonus art of a scene from Where now all our sons? by @niennawept for Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2024. Original art prompt is here.

Rating: T Warnings: None Relationships: Gen, Eärwen/Anairë (if you squint) Characters: Eärwen, Anairë, Findis Word count: 5,227 Summary: The women of the house of Finwë must band together to make it through the War of Wrath mostly whole. Through it all--through grief and the shifting tides of fate, they make their stand and seek out justice for those who were lost.

@tolkienrsb

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Lion’s Rest

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False Sight for Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2024 ( @tolkienrsb ) in collaboration with @halethleia.

Now King Finrod Felagund had no wife, and Galadriel asked him why this should be; but foresight came upon Felagund as she spoke, and he said: 'An oath I too shall swear, and must be free to fulfil it, and go into darkness. Nor shall anything of my realm endure that a son should inherit. - The Silmarillion, "Of the Noldor in Beleriand"

In the pits of Sauron Beren and Felagund lay, and all their companions were now dead [...] But when the wolf came for Beren, Felagund put forth all his power, and burst his bonds; and he wrestled with the werewolf, and slew it with his hands and teeth; yet he himself was wounded to the death. - The Silmarillion, "Of Beren and Luthien"

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Where now all our sons? for Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2024 ( @tolkienrsb ) in collaboration with @niennawept. Title roughly translated from this song by Lind Erebros.

Eärwen, mother of Finrod, Angrod, Aegnor, and Galadriel, as I imagined she might have been had she joined the Host of the West in Beleriand during the War of Wrath.

Other thoughts below.

This was strongly influenced by Jenny Dolfen's A Sorrowful Meeting in theme, if not in execution. I've always wondered how much those in Valinor knew about the goings-on in Beleriand, where so many other reunions would never happen.

Women, broadly, get the short shrift in the canon narrative, so I wanted to draw focus to them and their grief, not as helpless, hopeless, hand-wringing maidens, but as angry, maybe even ambivalent avengers of what they had lost.

This closing verse from Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Dirge Without Music" was very much on my mind:

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave. I know.  But I do not approve.  And I am not resigned.

[fil3t]

The Mouth of Mordremoth

This Elder Dragon from GUILD WARS 2 still intrigues me to this day. The fact that it used to be corporeal, before 'growing into' the Heart of Maguuma itself, present within the vines and only physically manifest as the Mouth, makes me wonder what it really used to look like before all that.

Art Prints | RedBubble Shop

[fil3t]

Cats Stealing Food in Paintings

Still Life with Cat (1705) by Desportes, It's no use crying over spilt milk (1880) by Frank Paton, Still Life of the Remnants of a Meal with a Lunging Cat (18th Century) by Alexandre-François Desportes, Fish Still Life with Two Cats (1781) by Martin Ferdinand Quadal, Still Life with a Cat and a Mackerel on a Table Top (18th Century) by Giovanni Rivalta, The Collared Thief (1860) by William James Webbe, Cat Stealing a String of Sausages (17th Century) by Abraham van Beyeren, Still Life with a Cat (1760) by Sebastiano Lazzari, Kitchen Still Life with Fish and Cat (ca. 1650) by Sebastian Stoskopff, An Oyster Supper (1882) by Horatio Henry Couldery, Still Life with an Ebony Chest (17th Century) by Frans Snyders, Still Life with a Cat (1724) by Alexandre-Francois Desportes, A Cat Attacking Dead Game (18th Century) by Alexandre-François Desportes, Still Life of Fresh-Water Fish with a Cat (1656) by Pieter Claesz, Still Life with Fruits and Ham with a Cat and a Parrot (18th Century) by Alexandre-Francois Desportes, A Cat Holding a Fish in Its Mouth (18th Century) by Sebastiano Lazzari, Still Life with a Cat and a Hare (18th Century) by Desportes, Still Life with Cat and Rayfish (1728) by Jean-Siméon Chardin, A Cat with Dead Game (1711) by Alexandre-Francois Desportes, Still Life with Cat and Fish (1728) by Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin

Via James Lucas on X/Twitter

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Pass.

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Hope it's ok to ask - do you use references for the faces you draw or are you just so unimaginably good at drawing from imagination?

Short answer: Yes, I use references.

Long answer: I usually start with a general idea in my head about what I want to do, try a couple sketches that are mostly scribbles and notes like "why so much hair :(," and establish how I want the final portrait to be lit (values). By the time I actually start painting, I have a pretty strong sense of what the face should actually look like, structurally speaking. I rely more heavily on references when I get into more of the detail work so I can answer questions like "how saturated should the unshed tears in this eyeball be?"

[fil3t]

Your art takes my breath away. I’m always glad when you update. Thank you for sharing it, it’s unimaginably gorgeous (and your grasp of colour theory is sublime).

Thanks, that's so kind of you 😅

[fil3t]

my love-letters to gw2′s griffon over the years

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The Knight of the Flowers (1894)

— by Georges Rochegrosse

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There was a fair lady of the Vanyar, Indis of the House of Ingwë. She had loved Finwë in her heart, ever since the days when the Vanyar and Ñoldor lived close together. In one of his wanderings Finwë met her again upon the inner slopes of Oiolossë, the Mountain of Manwë and Varda; and her face was lit by the golden light of Laurelin that was shining in the plain of Ezellohar below. In that hour Finwë perceived in her eyes the love that had before been hidden from him. - The Peoples of Middle-Earth, "The Shibboleth of Fëanor"

Tolkien in Color: The House of Finwë (part 4/x)

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Kermit discovers a frog in his kitchen.

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Then Fëanor ran from the Ring of Doom, and fled into the night; for his father was dearer to him than the Light of Valinor or the peerless works of his hands; and who among sons, of Elves or Men, have held their fathers of greater worth? - The Silmarillion, "Of the Flight of the Noldor"

Tolkien in Color: The House of Finwë (part 3/x)

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[Míriel] was a Ñoldorin Elda of slender and graceful form, and of gentle disposition, though as was later discovered in matters far more grave, she could show an ultimate obstinacy that counsel or command would only make more obdurate. - The Peoples of Middle-Earth, "The Shibboleth of Fëanor"

Tolkien in Color: The House of Finwë (part 2/x)

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Ludvig Munthe (Norwegian-German, 1841-1896)