Good Lord What Am I Doing

good lord what am i doing

The Sculptor in her Workshop, Unknown, Late Third Age, Tirion.

and

The Return of the Lost Son, Unknown, Early Fourth Age, Tirion.

This is something of a companion piece to this Nerdanel character study (on AO3). In it, she sculpts her husband and sons as she feels them die across the sea, and she waits long ages for Maglor until he comes home.

(Makalaurë, standing still in the empty space that long awaited him, makes a better marble than live body.)

I think this is the most detailed piece I've ever done. I genuinely started it as "oh, I have a very vivid mind picture of this scene, I could do a little sketch!" and here I am about two weeks and 19 hours of painting later. I'm really proud of it, though.

Please reblog if you like it!

IDs (also in alt), details and more rambling under the cut.

[ID: Two digital paintings of the same room, a sculptor's workshop. In the first, Nerdanel, a light-skinned elf woman with long curly red hair, is working on an abstract sculpture in marble. Behind her are six marble life-sized statues: Fëanor, brandishing a gem, Maedhros, with one hand missing, arms partly crossed, and after a gap, Celegorm, kneeling down to hold Huan, Caranthir, reading a book, Curufin, forging a dagger on an anvil, his arm raised to hammer it, and Ambarussa, holding each other. On the foreground right is a large stab of marble waiting to be sculpted. The second painting has the same background with the workshop and statues, with a more reddish tint as if it's sunset. The abstract sculpture has now replaced the slab of stone and in the middle, Nerdanel is kneeling in front of Maglor, as light-skinned elf with very long dark hair, holding his hand, while she has her other hand on her mouth. She is crying. Maglor is standing in the gap between the statues of Maedhros and Celegorm. The other pictures are details of the first two.]

The statues in order: Fëanor, Maedhros, (Maglor), Celegorm&Huan, Caranthir, Curufin, Amrod and Amras. Feel free to zoom in, they are each pretty detailed.

This is the first time I've drawn any of the younger sons. I did Nerdanel and Fëanor, Maedhros, Maglor and Celegorm before, each in slightly different AUs, but desiging Caranthir, Curufin and Ambarussa was fun!

Maedhros is missing his hand and has scars, because while Nerdanel never saw it, Finrod came to tell her what he looked like after Angband. She first sculpted him with his hand, though, so I imagine taking a hammer to it must have been... a specific sort of pain.

Curufin is a mix of Fëanor and Celebrimbor, they all look like each other, but I headcanon that Fëanor was more thin and wiry (though still strong), while Curufin was a bit buffer, as he focused more on large works (weapons and infrastructure) than jewellery, and Celebrimbor who was a teen/young adult in the war put up more fat once in Ost-en-Edhil, after many years of privation.

I can never settle on Caranthir's craft/occupation, but it's something bookish. As for Ambarussa, I think Nerdanel just wanted to remember them as happy youths, rather than attach them to any activity.

oh yeah Tolkien must have been so pleased with himself

You’re telling me Gimli and Legolas’s kill count wasn’t something that was made just for the movie? You’re telling me it’s actually in the books?

Oh thank you :D

Take modern Nelyo to go with your Finno

Tagging @stellavesperis, @mysticalmagicalbooknerd and pretty much anyone else who wants to participate :P

Thank you for tagging me, @glorf1ndel! Your picrews are so cute 🥹 And the tiny Huan!

Tag game: Make yourself and one of your favorite Tolkien characters with this Picrew, then tag some pals!

Here's me and my girl Celebrían 🫶🏻

No pressure tags for: @middle-earth-moss @elswing @thesolarangel @bananaphanta @braxix @duolingocaticon @elbereth-gilth0niel and anyone who wants to! 🖤

I have never once wished for Tolkien to still be alive as much as I do in this moment

one of the most tragic things about maedhros to me is that the times when he tries to act in a way that feanor wouldn't, when he tries to be something beyond the son burning even brighter than his father, are also the times he fails the most thoroughly, like - the attempt to negotiate with morgoth even if only as a ploy, the union of all elves at the nirnaeth, etc. fate awaited him with fell purpose indeed.