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AlystraeaArt — And the King Had No Wife
#finrod #findarato #amarie #elves #felagund #nargothrond #silmarillion #tolkien #tolkienfanart #silmarillionfanart
Published: 2016-12-03 16:13:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 10408; Favourites: 257; Downloads: 0
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Description
This is Finrod sculpting a bust of Amarië after the completion of Nargothrond. (Kind of inspired by the Pygmalion and Galatea myth though of course poor lonely Finrod's statue isn't coming to life.)
And this is the meaningless conversation I had with myself as I painted this:
“…and I’ll make Amarië a life-sized statue.”
“Nah. It might look creepy.”
“You think?”
“Make her a little smaller.”
“OK.”
*draw draw paint paint*
“Argh!! I should have made her life-sized!”
“Re-do her.”
“No way! Not after all that work.”
“Well, open the file in GIMP and scale her larger.”
*open GIMP. Select Amarië. Select Scale tool. FAIL. Select. Scale. FAIL. Repeat two more times.*
"You should stop being so cheap and just get Photoshop CC. It’ll work so much better.”
“Shut up.”
I'm a digital art idiot. And that’s why Amarië isn’t life-sized.
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Comments: 65
I'm not sure what I appreciate more, the art or the internal dialogue. XD
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LOL! happy if it amused someone!
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This strongly reminds me of one scene from brilliant russian novel Po tu storonu rassvěta (i had the luck that one amazing person translated it to my language), where Lúthien during her stay in Nargothrond comes upon a statue of a woman that Finrod made before he left, and recognize her for who she is ... I saw this beautiful picture and thought immediately: this could be some missing scene ...
Also, the caves in backround are really beautiful.
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That sounds like a beautiful fic I would love to read! The Russian Tolkien fandom is simply amazing... but while the art is accessible to the rest of the world, unfortunately the language is a barrier for the fic. Lucky you that you got a translation!
And thank you - very happy you think this is beautiful
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If it was just that easy to create a partner for life.
I think it all looks good. She looks possibly a little more delicate because she's a bit smaller in proportions. Doesn't harm the picture at all. And statues don't always have to be exactly lifesize.
He looks very inspired and captured by his own work. And she also looks nearly alive.
And: Adobe (Photoshop) is evil.
(for upscaling non-vector graphics: I don't know if Mitchell algorithm is implemented in recent versions of GIMP but Lanczos is also fairly good at the job (even though Lanczos is said to be very good at downscaling)).
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I'm glad you think it looks OK!
(I might join the evil empire of Photoshop if it wasn't so expensive - and wasn't a monthly running cost. I have never heard of Mitchell or Lanczos! I'm quite new at digital art, paint with a simple idiot-proof freeware, and can't grasp the technical stuff... algorithms...? )
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There is a cheaper alternative - Photoshop Elements, with everything painters need and more. Actually even Elements have way too much options for painting, at least for me. Only it doesn't work in CMYK, the biggest minus. But - have you tried Artweaver? It looks like mix of Photoshop and Painter and is free.
What are you using right now? I understand not Gimp, since you used it only for up-scaling? I cannot work in Gimp, it's layout drives me nuts, as well as layers in it, these problems are absent in Artweaver. So if you are still looking for a painting software give it a try
Artrage is another solution, but I never tried the paid version with layers, only the basic version. Plus Mischief - a similar software, no layers, just drawing, but the canvas is endless. A lot to try out
Regarding the statue - looks pretty life size to me, unless you wanted Amarie very tall. But for a more fragile built works well
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Thank you so much!! Those are very helpful suggestions, which I will check out. Artweaver sounds especially promising.
I'm using MyPaint 1.0 right now. It has layers and simple functions like rotation, and like Mischief the canvas is endless (but it hangs if the painting is too big). I like it a lot, but I wish at times it had transform tools and the ability to crop, insert text, and draw ellipses and other geometric shapes.
I'm relieved you think the statue works - it irks me that her face and head are a tad too small, but if people just think of her as being very petite, I'll be happy!
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She is either petite or in scale smaller than lifesize, but proportions look natural
What a skilled sculptor Finrod is!
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Thanks! I'm glad you think so.
I find Finrod so seldom portrayed as sculptor or as "hewer of caves", so I enjoyed doing this one!
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Talking to yourself may be symptom of serious problems 
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Or maybe Amarie is just smaller than Finrod. Not everyone can be tall, even among elves.
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I was thinking about that, but her head would be about the same size even if she were shorter, no? To me the statue turned out small like about 13-14 (mortal) years old. I really would have liked to enlarge it a little if I could. Most digital artists worth their salt would have been able to. I just hope most people think it looks OK.
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Hmm, possibly. Just thinking that I've been mistaken for a 12 year old even as an adult, and I know other people even smaller than I am.
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Now we know how petite you are! And yes, a petite Amarie is a distinct possibility - it depends how you headcanon her!!
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A beautiful picture, the gentleness and love (and perhaps melancholy) in Finrod expression and the beauty of Amarië, almost as if she was really alive... 
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Thank you so much! Very happy that you like all that. I enjoyed adding the details in the background though I also suffered so much.
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Haha! But you are just wonderful with the architectural and landscape details! I'm going to have to work on that a lot more.
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He looks like he stood in moment thinking about his love Amarië, making her live forever in that carved stone
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I'm happy that you think so!
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wow!
this is sooo beautiful
I love the expressions - both
great job
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That is your the best picture to this date
I see that Finrod is portrayed in a strategicaly choosen moment, before he started to sculpte more of Amarie's body 
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Thank you!!
I didn't want this to have a M rating. And you know, he might just stop there and make it a bust, and carve the rest into a plinth. it isn't as though he would have seen the rest of her yet since they are not married.
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I think that he might see her on the beach, if she likes topless sunbathing 
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Amarie here is the cutest nis ever.
You might paint Nerdanel, a red hair vixen
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So lovely picture! How tenderly he loves Amarië. How he longs for her ... In his face so much kindness and melancholy...Love this picture somuch!
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I am so happy you could see that in this painting! Thank you!!
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My pleasure! Your art is so lovely!
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You are so welcome!
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Beautiful piece!!! How many details about Nargothrond! I love so much watching how other artist imangine the many places of Middle Earth! The perspective is perfect, and I really like the face of Finrod, so serene and focused. And you drew really well the statue, it seems true!
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Thank you so much, dear! I spent a lot of time on Finrod's face - because I love him so much I find him very difficult to paint. I'm so glad you like the statue, I wanted her to look like she was almost coming to life.
I had difficulty imagining Nargothrond, so I googled paintings of Aglarond the glittering caves and that gave me some ideas.
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