Smaug!
The story goes that way back in the day, a young Professor Strang read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and was enthralled. That book inspired him to lead an adventurous life of his own, eventually culminating in the discovery of Planet X. He then sent Ellie on her own great adventure and the rest is history.
Pretty much everyone here at Mission Control is a big hobbit geek, and we’re all looking forward to the movie coming up next year. Here’s a little watercolor of Smaug the dragon from my sketchbook!
That is absolutely gorgeous! I also love the more fantastical dragon designs.
Thanks Gustav. I was looking at the drawings Tolkien did and went from there.
Yeah, his stuff is always been some of the most elegant. I fully intend to grab that new Art of the Hobbit that has all of his illustrations in it.
Another book that I’m really interested in is A Tolkien Tapestry: The Art of Cor Blok. He did a series of midieval looking paintings of Tolkien’s world that I’ve mostly only ever seen in calendars. They’ve finally been collected in one book. I guess it was quite a task as many of the works were scattered around the world, held by private owners, and an unfortunate few have been lost.
BEAUtiful! I especially love the lone black arrow sailing through the air.
I am very much looking forward to seeing this book turned into a movie as well. 🙂
Thanks Minifig. When I finished painting, it needed just that little extra something. Voila, the arrow.
I would love to see your version of Bilbo with Gollum.
Maybe I’ll do that!
Pretty awesome, James. You’ve captured a little bit of Tolkien’s style there. He was a wonderful artist, and I loved his watercolors and drawings. There’s a book coming out soon that is going to reproduce all of his artwork, I cannot wait to get my hands on it.
Thanks Tom. The versions of The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings that I read in my teens had his art on the covers. I still think they’re the best ones.