It will be mostly Lay of Leithian/Tale of Tinuviel

I drew this in 2003.

I just finished reading The Silmarillion for the first time and I want to draw a bushel of illustrations. The condensed form of it, as opposed to the novel form of The Lord of the Rings, really spurs one to want to fill in what isn't described in great detail with what one imagines.

And I want to use a style that's very different from how people usually draw Tolkien characters. Almost everybody these days is influenced by the look of Alan Lee's work and the Peter Jackson films. Now I have no problem with that, but it's not at all what I want to do. Since The Silmarillion really surprised and delighted me with how much it wasn't just noble high fantasy, it had many parts that were very fairy tale, even whimsical, I want to go for the look of a fairy tale storybook for children; plus influence from 1980s illustrations of toys for girls, like Lady Lovelylocks and Peppermint Rose; and just a touch of 1970s psychedelic graphic design. I don't know whether Tolkien would approve, but it's what I want to do.

Finally, I really do NOT want anyone to think that this in any way has to do with or is any kind of positive response to a certain marketplace website's streaming series claiming to have some correspondence with Tolkien's work. I am not going to watch that crap and I hope nobody else does either, not even to hate on it.

Of course however, I don't know when I'll have time for this. I'm currently very busy with family-related matters, and have the following art and comics projects ongoing or planned:

Professional:

Bovodar and the Bears by Jack Mikkelson

Clockwork Dancer by Jon Del Arroz

Paper Doll Veronika by me

a planned religious project

For fun:

Sherlock Holmes illustrations using Great Ace Attorney versions of characters

Batman: Decadence

Mary's Mazes

and various fanart.



But still, I really want to do this! Beware the Prince of the Cats!

It all comes down to a jumping contest

 

Bonus art for Chapter 21 of Part I of Paper Doll Veronika, which is now posted on Arktoons! You can also read it on my own website. (I recommend my site for PC and Arktoons for mobile.)

This picture is based on what I am planning for the art dedicated to this outfit of Veronika's: the Ribbon Ruffle Jumperskirt. I plan to do a picture for each of her dresses exhibiting its power. However, those pictures will be heavily and delicately detailed in regard to said dresses, and there wasn't time for that with this piece. So I'll do another, similar but much more finely rendered.

Little-One-Eye, Little-Two-Eyes, and Little-Three-Eyes

 

Bonus art for Chapter 20 of Part I of Paper Doll Veronika, which is now posted on Arktoons! You can also read it on my own website. (I recommend my site for PC and Arktoons for mobile.)

Midnight is darkest before the snack

 

Bonus art for Chapter 18 of Part I of Paper Doll Veronika, which is now posted on Arktoons! You can also read it on my own website. (I recommend my site for PC and Arktoons for mobile.)

And later today (6 p.m. US Central time) I'm going to be talking about Paper Doll Veronika on the Superversive Sci-Fi stream! Here's the channel.

The Apple of your Eyes

 

Bonus art for Chapter 17 of Part I of Paper Doll Veronika, which is now posted on Arktoons! You can also read it on my own website. (I recommend my site for PC and Arktoons for mobile.)

I'm currently trying to stay mostly off the internet until mid-June, because I might have to go away again, and I really can't work on Paper Doll Veronika where I might be going, and I really want to start updating again soon from the point at which my own site left off. So I must work hard!

Preview of the Deer Queen's kingdom

 

Issue #3 of Bovodar and the Bears is underway, and the writer, Jack Mikkelson a.k.a. Laramie Hirsch, has a post up with several previews, including the full page of the above inks, which is, though I say so myself, really really good. He also writes with fervor about how while mainstream adventure fiction, i.e. Marvel, preaches Feminism unceasingly, our comic portrays its true face.

By the way, he mentions he recommended I listen to Venus in Furs as inspiration; here's the particular cover I set on repeat. I think the instrumentation is highly appropriate!

The Hospitality of Thuanna's House

 

Bonus art for Chapter 16 of Part I of Paper Doll Veronika, which is now posted on Arktoons! You can also read it on my own website. (I recommend my site for PC and Arktoons for mobile.)

The border is a copyright-free stock image of Celtic knotwork. I was trying to make a papercut version of it, but it was taking too long for the posting deadline, so I printed it on tracing vellum.