retellingthehobbit

[retellingthehobbit]

what drew you to the stained-glass style for your art? you're very good at it, and i love your mermay work!

Ahh thank you so very much! The secret Deep Lore of why I became obsessed with stained glass art: Early on for my fancomic adaptation of The Hobbit @retellingthehobbit, I came up with an idea that the art style would change depending on the perspective of the characters. Here's the Very First concept art I posted way back in 2019:

My "default" art style was much closer to "Bilbo's," and I wanted the dwarves' art style to feel like the opposite of his-- and to show that they came from a land that valued their own unique kind of art that was very different form his. So it needed to be clean instead of sketchy, geometric instead of organic, metallic/'stained glass' instead of hand-painted. It was initially a struggle, but as I researched artists who did similar stylized work (Cartoon Saloon studios, Jin Guo, actual old public domain stained glass designs, etc) I fell in love with it!

I love how anatomy and perspective are less important in this geometric art, because the emphasis is instead on Symbolism and Meaning. And I also love how stained glass-like art innately makes something feel like it's depicting an Important holy Semi-Mythical Narrative.

Long answer, but thank you for the ask!

[retellingthehobbit]

you've got me missing my old bagginshield days badly lmaooo. Bilbo's always been very queer to me and I didn't even know about that passage from unfinished tales- but I've always been very drawn to his gentle hobbit gender and eternal bachelor status. might go delve into some old AO3 classics now...

Thank you, thank you, one of my key goals here is to inspire Bagginshield Nostalgia. Bilbo really invented being “the eccentric gay uncle” just as Frodo invented being “the tragic doomed gay waif.” (Also speaking of the classics, someone else is doing a webcomic adaptation of Sansukh over at @sansukhcomic .)

This could probably be its own post, but part of the reason I’m drawn to making fanwork for The Hobbit (over lord of the rings) is because there’s always an intentional feeling that something is missing from the hobbit, and there’s a part of the story we’re not being told. Not just in the usual sense of “people go to fanfic for the things that they can’t get in canon,” but also in the incomplete way that The Hobbit (the original book) is integrated into Lord of the Rings.

When I was a kid, the part of the Hobbit I read the most often (outside of the riddles game) was the scene where Bilbo spares Gollum’s life. This scene was not actually in the original edition of The Hobbit—in the original version published in the 30s, Gollum was a nice guy who just gifted Bilbo the ring. Tolkien later retconned this to something that’d fit more with LOTR—- with the in-universe justification that “Bilbo is an unreliable narrator who lied about how he got the Ring.” The scene that had grabbed me so much was one that Tolkien wrote when he revisited The Hobbit, and was now retelling the story through the lens of the stories that came after.

And while we are told that Bilbo is truthful about everything else, there’s also a moment in FOTR where Frodo notes that “Bilbo always jokes about serious things,” which casts the upbeat tone of The Hobbit into a different light.

Rather than completely rewrite the hobbit to fit into LOTR’s tone— something Tolkien partially did before realizing it was not a good idea— he allowed it to continue feeling “off.” He sowed doubt about the story, the feeling that we might not have seen the “true” version of it.

This is something I’ve also really loved about the opening of the film version of the Fellowship of the Ring— the first forty minutes of the extended cut focus so much on Bilbo, but are rewriting him through the lens of LOTR rather than his character in The Hobbit. They really lean into the idea that he shared an idealized sanitized child-friendly story of his adventures with Frodo, while repeatedly concealing a darker truth— and it works really well!

And The Hobbit/Bagginshield fandom was the first place where I saw people really digging into that idea? And while I have mixed feelings about the hobbit films, they also started to touch this idea…. And obviously I really enjoy their more serious portrayal of Thorin, and the dynamic/character foil relationship he has with Bilbo. (If only they had more screentime XP.) but the fandom really keyed into that dynamic, and explored all the possibilities/depth of it in a way the films never fully did.

Not only they are a Quality Ship(tm), they could also have this really deep connection to the source material as well? It’s not really the hobbit or lord of the rings, but this special thing that exists in conversation with it. And I think there’s especially something interesting/relevant about a tragic queer love story getting “censored” into a lighthearted children’s adventure. Obviously I don’t necessarily think my own fanfic webcomic can convey that perfectly, but it is an idea I really find interesting.

Wow that was a text wall. TL:DR:

[retellingthehobbit]

Happy Pride Month to Bilbo Baggins and whatever on earth was going on in Tolkien’s The Unfinished Tales. The first slide is a direct quote. What did he mean by this…..Squints 👀🏳️‍🌈.

[retellingthehobbit]

I will also say as an addition: you never have to worry if the Youths know frodo and Sam are gay, because obviously they are, they invented it, It is Known. Anybody who sees the movie or reads the book goes 🌈🏳️‍🌈👀.

The Hobbit though? a lot of the gay Hobbit interpretations skew a lot more heavily towards transformatively collectively building headcanons and interpretations together in the nebulous world of fandom vs adapting what’s in canon. Truly, gay little Hobbit content must be preserved by our collective fandom memory. And that’s why I’m painting my webcomic adaptation of the hobbit where —

[retellingthehobbit]

Me remembering the last Hobbit film came out over 10 years ago and the Bagginshield fandom is not what it once was back then: the world has changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it

[retellingthehobbit]

Happy Pride Month to Bilbo Baggins and whatever on earth was going on in Tolkien’s The Unfinished Tales. The first slide is a direct quote. What did he mean by this…..Squints 👀🏳️‍🌈.

[retellingthehobbit]

[retellingthehobbit]

Adapting the original Little Mermaid fairytale every day for Mermay: day 29.

We’re almost at the end; as you can tell, I’m only adapting the first segment of the fairytale this month. This is because I refuse to cut anything from the original story (it’s all good.)

[this is part of a series where I adapt The Little Mermaid fairytale so that the world below water is painted like silhouettes while the world above water is painted like stained glass.]

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[retellingthehobbit]

Adapting the original Little Mermaid fairytale every day for Mermay: day 28. I love this line, and almost wish I had more time to paint it.

[part of a series where I illustrate The Little Mermaid fairytale so that the scenes below water are painted like shadow puppets, while the scenes above water are painted like stained glass.]

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[retellingthehobbit]

Adapting the original Little Mermaid fairytale every day for Mermay: day 26.

The journey of the eldest sister continues, above the surface. [This is part of a project where I illustrate the little mermaid so that the scenes below water are painted like shadow puppets while the scenes above water are painted like stained glass.]

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[retellingthehobbit]

Adapting the original Little Mermaid fairytale every day for Mermay: Day 25.

The original fairytale begins by focusing on the journeys of the little mermaid’s older sisters, as they rise to the surface one by one and all get different glimpses of the world above the sea. [This is part of a project where I illustrate the little mermaid so that the scenes below water are painted like shadow puppets while the scenes above water are painted like stained glass.]

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[retellingthehobbit]

Adapting the original Little Mermaid fairytale every day for Mermay: day 24. Another one of my favorite lines, and one of the reasons I wanted to illustrate this story.

[this is part of a project where I adapt The Little Mermaid so that the scenes underwater are painted like shadow puppet silhouettes while the scenes above water are painted like stained glass.]

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[retellingthehobbit]

Im noticing some Trends in my comic adaptations of The Hobbit and The Little Mermaid. Don’t psychoanalyze what this says about me <3

[retellingthehobbit]

Adapting the original Little mermaid fairytale every day for Mermay: day 19. More yearning.

[This is part of a project where I illustrate The Little Mermaid so that all the underwater scenes are painted in silhouettes while the scenes above water are painted like stained glass.]

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[retellingthehobbit]

Adapting the original Little Mermaid fairytale every day for Mermay: Day 18.

This is one of my favorite lines in the fairytale. Earlier on in the story, Hans Christian Anderson repeatedly compares the fish in the deep sea to swallows and birds, so that the reader will understand. Then in this paragraph, he describes the grandmother doing the reverse of that — comparing the birds to fish, so the little mermaid will understand. [this is part of a project where I illustrate the little mermaid so that the underwater scenes are painted in silhouettes while the above-water scenes are painted in stained glass.]

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[retellingthehobbit]

Adapting the original Little Mermaid fairytale every day for Mermay: day 17. This might be my favorite page; I really loved painting all the little glass roses. [This is part of a series where I adapt The Little mermaid so that the b below-water scenes are painted in silhouettes while the above-water scenes are painted like stained glass.]

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[retellingthehobbit]

Adapting the original Little Mermaid fairytale every day for Mermay: Day 15. She ;_;

We’re about halfway through the month. We saw more of the undersea world in the first half, and will start to see more of the above-sea world in the second half.

[this is part of a series where I illustrate The Little Mermaid so that the underwater scenes are painted like shadow puppets while the above-water scenes are painted like stained glass.]

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