Ecthelion and Glorfindel - the story so far - Part I

[dagmarjung]

I'm now going to fullfill my threat/ promise to unleash some half-baked sketches of Ecthelion and Glorfindel to the world at large, a promise that I made a week ago in Tehta's livejournal.

Anyone who is not interested in a dozen headstudies of elves would do better to skip the rest of this post. For the rst of you, on with the show!

Comments

[tehta]

I am sorry to take so long to comment! I couldn't look at these at work for obvious reasons.

I have to jump on the #3 bandwagon. #1 and #2 are nice, but my eyes want more detail, and #4 is slightly less finished too. I love the facial structure you have chosen for him, and the way you have him smile slightly off-center (I think that seems very deliberate.) And, well, I always love how your Elves seem solid as well as beautiful, and fully capable of taking down a demon or two.

With #5, if I can make a comment you will probably agree with, the Hildorish feature is the smile. Otherwise he is brilliant, and yes it is possible that his hair looks like that, unfortunately. At least after he styles it. But I think there is something about his slightly compressed lips that makes the smug smile seem like a private one. Argh, I can't explain it. I'm just not convinced that he wants other people to return his smile.

[dagmarjung]

I think I know what you mean about #5's smile. I imagine Glorfindel as a character who is essentially in harmony with himself and the world around him, who is not given to cynism and deceit. So, a smile which isn't fully honest would be most untypical for him. Not impossible, but very far from his usual self.

I'm glad you like #3, there is a reason why I keep using him as a base for new sketches. (The off-center smile is deliberate, the off-center eyes and cheekbones are not.)

[tehta]

Ooh, you're online! I was just thinking about pinging you. Can I advertise these sketches in my LJ please?

[dagmarjung]

Feel free if you want to. Although most of the people who have expressed an interest to see them are on my f-list also, and I have already informed Eledhwen, the only one who isn't.

[broom__rider]

Yesss! Elves

[dagmarjung]

Yes, I think the otherworldly beauty of elves looks most convincing in a stylized way, like Manga or your own personal style, where you can focus on essentials like large, shining eyes or impossibly long and slender limbs. In realistic style, things tend to look unnatural very soon if you stray to far from the human norm. So it's hard to do an elf that is convincingly non-human. Manga style on the other hand tends to uniformity which reduces individuality. And most characters look too feminine/childlike for my liking.
All in all, I find that I am really hard to please when it comes to elf pictures. Good hobbits or dwarves are easier to find and, for me, to do. They don't have to fullfill so many contradicting requirements.

>I imagine the ancient elves' faces to be much smoother then that of the humans, as if the time is not putting lines on them, but kind of wipes the lines and polishing them to that ageless perfectionThat's a very good point you made. I will keep it in mind for my further efforts, because I want my elves to look

[dagmarjung]

#5 doesn't look overly sleazy as such - 'Hildor the Sleazy Elf' (full title) is the hero of his own little elfslash parody, to be found here, if you are interested:

http://tehta.wozupdoc.net/hildor.htm

To enjoy it in full measure, you only need to know a minimum of background knowledge about this specific version of Gondolin: Egalmoth, Lord of the Heavenly Arch, has a fashion sense to make you blind, Glorfindel and Ecthelion are romantically involved, and Salgant, Lord of the Harp, is the local representative of Moral Majority.

[broom__rider]

Thanks for the link, I'll take a look. Romantically involved Glorfindel and Ecthelion sound promising...;)

[solarfallsrealm]

Beautiful... just friggin' BEAUTIFUL!

Glad to see you're being artistic again. I'm very much looking forward to seeing these in a finished state.

[dagmarjung]

Hey thank you! How about your own artistry? Do you still find time to draw or paint once in a while? How is Birdie's portrait going on? I don't remember to have seen it in a fully finished state.

These sketches are as finished as they will ever be. I am still in the process of 'finding' the faces of these two elves. I'm afraid it will take me some more time until I get there.

[sirielle]

Portraits #1 and #2 are the best for me, I also like the #5, especially the hair even if you think you overdid them - Im love such hair! And I need to tone down amount of hair I give my elves, I reaised recently taht it's impossible amount, unreal, a bit ridiculous. Coming back to your Glorfindel as you say he doesn't look exactly like Glorfindel on #5. Close but not him. Generally my Glorfindel must be more feminine in look, as I see now. But we're missing here the portrait you drew a year ago together with the #1 Ecthelion, that was my fav :) The cheerful Mr Goldenhaired :)
While I couldn't catch the symmetry differences in Ecthelion, I see some here, but they do not make your drawings weaker because of that. Really nice character concepts, I'm curious what will you do with them in the future!

"Sadly, these elf characters don't easily cooperate. As I have whined about more than once, I find elves very hard to do. The ideal elf should combine striking beauty with unique personality, which in itself is a somewhat of a contradiction,

[dagmarjung]

Impossible amount of hair can look good in artwork, and it can add to the otherworldly aspect of characters, if you just think of Alfons Mucha. But I think you need a certain ornamental style to pull it off believably, otherwise it tends to 'drown' the character's faces or looks silly

[wulfila]

Sadly, the artist seems to have disappeared from internet years ago. I would like to follow her newer work, but there is nothing.

Speaking of disappeared artists ... Are you still alive, Dagmar? I've been debating with myself if I should be bold enough to ask, but now that tehta has been writing some new stuff again, I have been re-reading her older tales and looking through your old drawings (such as the ones in this post).