Concerning Hobbits.

Hello good reader!

This is the first post in a series that I will be doing on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”. I don’t claim any particularly great knowledge of the world of Middle-Earth, or of Tolkien’s own literary process, style and goals, and that is precisely why I am doing this series – To learn new things about this secondary world that I love, and share them with others who desire the same. Think of this as more of a winding journey where the end isn’t especially important, where I don’t know a great deal more than you do, and discovery is the goal.

Now there is a lot that one can gleam on a close and thoughtful reading on The Hobbit’s first chapter, and frankly, I don’t possess the confidence to write on some of the insights I believe I’ve had in my reading, so today I’ll be sticking with one theme, and I’ll be approaching it from a few different angles. The theme I will be focussing on is how Tolkien draws his readers, adult and child alike, into the world of The Hobbit, and how despite marvelous, fanciful and some downright unbelievable occurences, readers come to accept the world the young Bilbo inhabits.

Bilbo comes from two very different hobbit families, the predictable and ‘prosy’ Baggins family, and the unpredictable and not-altogether proper Took family. These two groups coexist peacefully, with the Baggins side dominating, until the events that begin The Hobbit. When Bilbo’s quiet and comfortable life is disturbed by the dwarves, he begins to see a world that is far removed from his own. He sees a world full of golden treasures, wonderful toys, goblins and magnificent dragons. Bilbo seems to begin to fall in love with this world, albeit hesitantly. His hesitance is given an identity by the Baggins side of him, the part that doesn’t want to go gallivanting off on adventures, conversely the curious side of him is represented wholly by the Tookishness he tries so hard to dim. The tension between these two sides of Bilbo make up a lot of the content of the first chapter and give the reader not only an insight into Bilbo’s mind, but also an archetype to follow whilst accepting the fanciful world that they are entering into.

Bilbo offers the reader someone they can relate to on their own journey into the world, and just as he slowly becomes more accepting on the adventure that has been dropped into his lap, we as readers are slowly weaned of our dependency on reality, or at least the things we perceive as real, in the world of The Hobbit. Poems and stories are part of what encourages Bilbo to partake in the adventure set before him, and interestingly enough, provides a sort of how-to on, uhh, how to enjoy the book.

Tolkien had said that it wasn’t necessarily important on where an authors inspiration came from in created a secondary world, but that it was rather more important that the world is accepted and enjoyed by its readers (I must admit I can’t remember where or when he said this, I think it was in one of his essays, but I don’t know which one, I think I read an excerpt from it in the beginning of my edition of The Lord of the Rings), rather than being over analysed and turned into something utterly boring. Just like Bilbo is encouraged to accept and enjoy the adventure he has been thrust into, readers are subtly encouraged to do the same. So The Hobbit really set out the framework not only for the rest of the mythology of Middle-Earth, but also how it should be interacted with.

So, that’s the first part of this series done. I’m hoping to read Tolkien’s sub-creative works as they were intended, not to be overrun with analysis, but to be understood and enjoyed as what they are.

Until next time.

That is All.

As promised.

Hello good reader!

Yesterday I was meant to have finished a project I had been working on for a friend’s birthday present, alas, I baked it (it was a clay statuette, I don’t just bake random things, don’t worry) and the anklse shattered, one day and a scoop of putty later it’s finished. In any case, here it is.

Recognise this fellow internet? If you don’t know, this is Slenderman. I don’t know much, or really anything about Slenderman, other than what he looks like, but my friend is a fan, so “Why the hell not” I thought. I tried to do some research on ol’ Slendy before I started the figure, but I was mostly met with obscure internet memes and long stories that I couldn’t be bothered and didn’t have time to read. So I just stuck with researching the aesthetic qualities that made Slenderman, in order to add my own twist. Once I had the basics I began.

After I made the wire skeleton I and had the basic form filled out I decided I would try to put a fresh spin on Slenderman. I’m a real fan of Lovecraftian horror, so I thought I would try to incorporate that into the figure. I went beyond the tentacles and imagined Slenderman as a somewhat amorphous creature, that despite looking like a guy in a suit, was something else entirely. With that in mind, on I went. I tried to make his whole form look like it was made of the same material, just changed in colour and made to look like a human shape. I also tried to make it look old and not cloth like, to maintain the sense that it only looks like a suit. Dealing with the broken ankles was tricky, I ended up just putting filler putty around them, which looked terrible, so I shaped the putty to make it appear as though Slenderman was forming himself/coming out of the ground, which supported the look I was going for. Anyway, here are some more photos.

I did give the skin a slightly pink hue, becase I felt like this made him seem just a little bit creepier. Criticism and suggestions are welcome, but bear in mind I’ve never had any formal art tuition, so please be nice.

Until next time.

That is All.

Woops.

Hello good reader!

About saying I’d post some pictures of the statuette I was working on… Unfortunately that’s not happening today. Whilst baking the statuette the ankles shattered completely, leaving my franticly trying to find a solution, and eventually finding one in the form of some putty filler which, in 5 hours will let me continue where I left off with the figure, then there’ll be photos.

Until then, I figured I had better post something. So from some of the darkest corners of my messiest sketch book. I have a few of the anatomy studies I have done.

This is one of the more in-depth studies of the frontal arm I’ve done. I tried to make the varying depths really clear by using different colours for closer and further away muscles/tendons. I still managed to screw the hand up, so I didn’t finish that, and won’t, until I have a much better grip (see what I did there?) on hand anatomy.

This was less of a study on actual anatomy and more of an attempt at conveying muscle fibers, thankfully, as the proportions, and musculature for that matter, are off.

I spent a while trying to get necks right (it paid off, I can draw really good necks!) this one of my later attempts. I was trying to make sure I could convey the angles and the connection to the chin properly, which I think I did pretty well. Now I can move on to the hard stuff, female necks (dun dun dunnnn!)

I was focussing on form and complexity in this study, to use a reference for shading. I didn’t bother with two halves because I just wanted to focus purely on getting on side right.

Potentially my favourite and most complex torso study. I wanted to make this a reference for as many things as I could, so I used contour lines for reference for shading, cylinders coming out of the shoulder and upper-arm and a brown line running for the ends of each clavicle through the nipple in order to find the line that the serratus anterior follows, I always have a hard time with them.

Anyway, hope that was at least somewhat interesting. God willing I can finish the statuette tomorrow, and if I do, I’ll be putting up some photos of it with annotations.

Aren’t I a lucky hobbit?

Hello good reader!

As an avid collector (or as avid a collector as money allows) of statues and figurines, I jump at the chance to pick up one at a cheap price. The other day I was lucky enough to come across the 2012 “The Hobbit: An unexpected journey, collectors edition” hidden beneath a mountain of boxed sets and series collections at my local DVD store for a reasonable price. Now I’m not a massive fan of the Hobbit movies, I feel they’ve missed the mark in some ways when compared to The Lord of The Rings trilogy (which was also by no means perfect) but I’d be a fool (of a Took) to miss the chance to pick up a statue of Bilbo and Gollum at such a good price. This is it.

As one would expect from Weta collectables it a good quality piece, though I fear not as good as the figures and landscapes that came with the Lord of The Rings collectors sets, but then it was half the price. The one qualm I really have with the piece is Bilbo’s face, whilst it looks good enough for a generic hobbit head, I feel as though it lacks some of the characteristics and emotion that would bring the face to life.

It honestly just seems a bit lifeless, granted it is a small figure. But when compared to Gollum’s head sculpt, it doesn’t quite hold it’s own.

Regardless the figure is still very obviously Bilbo and, apart from the face, really captures his likeness from the films.

There are several really nice details on the piece, such as the Ring, dropped in the mud at Bilbo’s feet (which I foolishly thought was a poorly hidden rivet at first) and a little cavity in the side where you can see one of Gollum’s meals.

Overall it’s a really good piece, the sculpting of the figures doesn’t quite match up to the quality I have come to expect from Weta, regardless it still captures the overall feel of the movie scene magnificently, I think it’s a marvelous rendition of the scene from the book too (although it may not be entirely accurate) . To any fellow Tolkien statuette/figurine collectors or fans out there, it’s definitely a piece worth picking up if you come across it.

That is All

P.S. On Thursday I will be posting some pictures of a statuette I’ve been working on for a friends birthday present, and on Sunday I’ll be starting a series of posts on The Hobbit.