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Ellosse — Before the Jump
#elwing #fanart #flashback #forgiveness #silmaril #silmarillion #sindar #tolkien #thirdkinslaying #fanartoffanfiction
Published: 2014-10-18 19:24:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 481; Favourites: 7; Downloads: 0
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As she stood there, thinking out her route, the Silmaril clutched close, she had heard a shout. Elwing had turned. And there below her stood Maedhros, with a few followers, his red hair marking him out.
He stood about fifty feet away, but he was actually only a few feet below in elevation. And he had seen her, and was looking at her - no, staring at the Silmaril intently. The small band he was with were also staring at her. All their swords dripped with blood. Elwing looked away from the blades and shrank back against the cliff. Only a few feet of wind-swept grass separated her and the edge that fell sharply to the Sea.
She could not hear their voices, as the wind swept away most of the noises, but they plainly were arguing. As she watched suddenly Maedhros drew their attention. He spoke a few words, and then turned towards her. Elwing shrank back even more. One foot between her and the Sea.
Maedhros started walking towards her, his sword still in hand. His followers watched below, staying where they were. Evidently Maedhros planned to come to her alone. Elwing backed up steadily. Scarce inches remained. When he was ten feet away he spoke.
"Please, give me the Silmaril." His voice was more ragged than she had been expecting. More despairing. But she hardened her heart. This Elf had ruined her life. Killed her parents, abandoned her brothers (again, she forgot it was he that searched for the twins), ruined her home, and in all probability murdered her sons. Why should she give up something that her grandparents Beren and Luthien had won at bitter cost?
"No." The single word rang out clearly, louder than she was expecting.
Excerpt from my story "Forgiveness". It's about Elwing in 4th Age Valinor, hearing of Elrond's coming, meeting him, and trying to reconcile, with flashbacks to Sirion. For more, follow this link... www.fanfiction.net/s/1… Shameless self-promotion, I know!
But still, I would love your feedback on the story.As for the watercolor itself, it's just a small sketch. Hopefully I'll be able to do a bigger, more elaborate picture of this scene soon. I tried to get the facial shading right, but it was difficult, especially as the light was coming from below. I also tried to make her hands glow with the Silmaril's light, but it didn't work.
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Comments: 7
bravo! thank you for actually thinking to explore Elwing's motivation for jumping as stark fear and despair of maedhros and not just unholy greed of the silmaril.
I'm inclined to believe her reasons for jumping into the sea as the way you see it. Although i always pictured Elwing as dark haired.
One thing to point out: it is doubtful that Elwing and her people would have heard stories of any favor of Maedhros searching for her brothers, after the murders of the king and queen and ransacking of Doriath. Any favorable stories of Maedhros would have been seen as treason to the people who mourned their king and queen.
Or even had the story been spread, it is even more doubtful she or her people would have believed them after the horror he and his brothers inflicted on their city.
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Love the flipping hair, and the expression is well done, showing how she is internally tortured and almost splitting into two. The picture really looks intense despite your abundant use of blue and green.
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Glad to hear that! Thanks!
Blue and green are probably my most used colors... they're running low in my paint-box.
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You are welcome.
Just one thing. Her legs appear too short and feet too tiny in comparison with her head and dress. It is ok for Elwing to look off balance in this pic given the circumstance here, but there is room for improvement in your sense of human body porpotion. [And from my experience, that indeed takes a long time to fix.]
In my case, I run out of light brown and dark brown pencils most rapidly, followed closely by mild orange, black and grey. These colours are just needed everywhere, and most often I just mix the browns with other "colder" or paler colours for visual balance
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Yes, I see what you mean. I have a tendency to draw very small feet, and the legs certainly do need fixing. Thanks for pointing that out! I do need lots of improvement... problem is, I've yet to take any serious classes on art, besides grade school, which was a long time ago and basically free time.
I do a lot of mixing with paints naturally, for tone or mood. Like if I'm painting a scene with trees in autumn, yellow and orange will sneak into every color I use, whether a lot or a little. I don't often use colors straight from the box, they're almost always mixed with other colors.
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The last time I took a serious art class was in my 4th grade, saturday classes for still life sketching. And then my family decided drawing was taking too much of my free time, and as I grew up to middle school and high school I did need to focus more on academic stuff. But I never stop drawing, and for most of these years I imitate the style of my favourite manga artists, and keep adjusting my ways of drawing body shapes to make them look more natural. But to this date my skills for realistic facial contours and muscles are still lagging behind
Yeah, watercolour pastes are usually pre-mixed before applying to the paper; very different from pencils. I need to apply a base colour for a particular space, and shade with darker colours, and then the base colour again on top of them to smooth the shade, and finally some lighter, gentler colour, usually light brown, on the top. For tone and mood, as you say.
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Yes, I really need help with anatomy in general, especially hands, faces, and proportioning.
Yeah, watercolor goes from light to dark and oils and acrylics can go any way (I think, I'm not an expert in oils). Hmm... I might use those tips next time I do a colored pencil drawing. Thanks!
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