Bre Draws Elves

Bre

Active Member
I have a a lot more of these in the works that are all hovering at about 90% done, but I'm filling iffy about the designs, so I'm just going to post them here as I finish/re-do them, starting with the Teleri at Falas.

Yes, I'm posting this is in the season two forum section, but really all these designs are envisioned for the three big Men tales (Beren & Luthien, Children of Hurin, Fall of Gondolin). This is the point from which I start all my design work, and then proceed to work back or forward in time from said point.

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Feanorians, Fingolfin's lot at Hithlum, and the elves at Nargothrond. These aren't meant to really be specific characters, more just general costume/color schemes.

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I have more elf costume stuff likes those above in the works, but in the mean time, here's a piece I did way back in spring for a fan anthology book that I wasn't allowed to share until now:

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Not really elves, but still Silmarillion. I'm actually selling prints of this one, so if anyone's interested in that or the fan anthology book, check out this post over on my tumblr.
 
Oh yeah, I also doodled some Fingolfin and Beren & Luthien stuff earlier this month that I did as part of a style experiment:

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I like the Feanorians but I'd like to request two little details... 1. no plate armour, everything else, splintmail, chainmail, ringmail, segmented armour should be okay 2. larger Crests for the Helmets and feather plumes. I like the Helmet design in the third Post (Is that Turin with the Dragon-Helm?)
 
hmm I haven't posted anything in here for a long time- oh look my hand slipped

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I've been drawing teenage AU Silmarillion characters in Procreate lately, but this brooding-biker Turin is the only one I've posted online so far.
 
I like a lot of the clothing choices you made, and the proportions that make the Elves seem tall and slender without even comparing them to human figures. But in addition to seconding the request for no plate armor, I have a few added critiques: that the ears are larger than I would like, that the Elves of Nargothrond would not have golden hair other than their kings, and that Elves do not wear boots or heavy shoes. The ears thing is just my personal preference; the hair colors and boots things were stated by Tolkien.

I like the illustrations for the four "Great Tales". Why did you put the seven stars over Taniquetil?
 
I have a a lot more of these in the works that are all hovering at about 90% done, but I'm filling iffy about the designs, so I'm just going to post them here as I finish/re-do them, starting with the Teleri at Falas.

Yes, I'm posting this is in the season two forum section, but really all these designs are envisioned for the three big Men tales (Beren & Luthien, Children of Hurin, Fall of Gondolin). This is the point from which I start all my design work, and then proceed to work back or forward in time from said point.

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I love these pictures but it struck me today as I momentarily was able to join the session that I had some thoughts about them. I think I should trace these thoughts back to the casting of Damian Lewis, who has red hair, because I have been picturing the Falathrim with red hair or with that trait as a common feature. I also nominated another red haired actor to play Galdor of the Havens. This view clashes slightly with these pictures (which I love), and I’m trying to find a way out of this dilemma. Your idea is that the Falathrim should have darker skin than the Sindar, and white hair, as I understand it. Perhaps you don’t mean this to be the general rule without exception. I could for example see red hair and olive skin - but then, I’m not sure why Círdan, who was born at Cuivienen, would have a different tone of skin than Elwë or any of the other Cuivienen elves. I’m not sure about the white hair because we want to show a really aged Círdan in the Third Age and one way to do that is by giving him white hair - and that won’t be possible if he already has white hair. Well, I guess haven’t come to a solution by myself so I’d like to hear your thoughts and the thoughts of others.
 
Everyone is allowed to pick whatever color schemes they want for their personal headcanon, I just generally try to encourage a range of visual diversity across whatever those interpretations happen to be.

So with my Teleri, the decision to give everyone white hair was more directly because of the source text: a lot of the Teleri are described as having lighter hair, and later on you get some Third Age descendants who are the same (though that could be some PJ film pollution).

They ended up having darker skin because, relative to the other elves, I think of them as more southern entities. I also liked the contrast between dark skin and light hair. Also, since I considered the lighter hair as canon, I didn't want to have another group with both light skin and light hair, when I was already thinking of the Vanyar as having light skin with golden and strawberry hair.

There could be a range within the Teleri though, where you have white and blonde hair, and possibly even a light brown or light red. For instance, Beleg I think of as being blonde, and Mablung as having light brown hair. I also think I have an old drawing of Saeros somewhere with dark grey hair.

Regarding Cirdain, getting older; I just plan on making his beard get increasingly longer over time.

As for actors, well there's always hair dye. The only coloring issue with casting is ethnicity.
But I'm not expecting anyone to adhere to my personal designs for this project. I make them mainly for me and my own personal portfolio and for SilmFilm second. So if you really want to have a certain actor represent a certain character, go for it, just try to cast the other roles based on whatever look you're going for with that initial casting choice.
 
Faelivrin and I spent some time working out the genetics of elven hair color, and how those traits would be passed through families. Certainly, red hair is meant to be just like humans - a simple recessive trait that can skip generations and is not overly common. The only individuals with red hair called out by Tolkien are Mahtan and 3 of his grandsons (Maedhros, Amrod, and Amras). So, among the Noldor at least, red hair seems to be rather rare (but hardly unheard of).

We could make red hair common among the Falathrim, to visually distinguish them from other groups of elves. After all, there's so little known about them, that there is no reason that *couldn't* be true! Just as easily, the silver/white hair could be confined to Doriath, and the Falathrim could all be dark haired. In general, the Sindar are majority dark-haired, with certain families having blond or silver hair. Silver hair does *not* appear to be like in humans, in that it is not linked to old age, but a natural hair color elves can be born with. We modeled the genetics off horses, where white/silver can be a natural hair color. But even in horses, white is also linked with old age.

So, I am very much fine with Círdan having long white hair and a long white beard in the 3rd age, and showing different hair colors earlier. But, I also think that *only* Círdan should have the 'going white' age effect. Celeborn is silver-haired from the beginning. Elwë, Olwë, Celeborn, Nimloth, Earwen, and Míriel all have natural silver (or white) hair, from a young age. Thranduil is blond. Círdan has no known relatives, and therefore linking him to anyone else via family trees is impossible - so if he's a genetic anomaly, he doesn't impact anyone else.

I think we do need to show Círdan aging. We went back and forth on whether he'd have a beard yet in the beginning - I think not. I think he should be a regular beardless elf until after the end of the First Age. Dealing with his aging can be part of the 2nd Age storyline. We also don't want Círdan and Mahtan to be mixed up by the audience, so linking beard and red hair might be a bad choice. Mahtan should be the only bearded elf in Season 2.
 
Círdan has no known relatives, and therefore linking him to anyone else via family trees is impossible - so if he's a genetic anomaly, he doesn't impact anyone else.

We don't know specifically what his relationship is to the other Teleri, but we do know that he is kin of Elwe and Olwe.

I always think of him as something like a nephew to Elwe/Thingol, probably through Elmo, based on both his reverence and sense of duty to Thingol (especially when he goes missing after meeting Melian), and how he unquestioningly becomes the leader of the Falathrim (like he's an heir or something).

EDIT: My only real hesitancy with making non-Feanorians red-headed, is that the color red is used explicitly with the Feanorians, so it means something within the context of the Silmarillion. If any other characters have red-hair it has to be a variant very unlike the deep dark red, so we're talking orange or strawberry blonde in order to avoid any visual correlations. Because giving a non-Feanorian deep-dark red hair is a way of saying that character has something in common with the Feanorians (whether that be blood, personality, doom etc.).
 
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My personal headcanon was always that Ingwe and his unnamed sister (Indis mom) were the children or grandchildren of Imin and Iminye and
Finwe and Morwe the children or Grandchildren (by a an unnamed father, I call him Maidros, father of Finwe/Bruitwir :)) of Tata and Tatie and
Olwe, Elwe, Elmo , Cirdan (Nowe) , Lenwe and Nurwe were children or Grandchildren of Enel and Enelye. Nurwe, Lenwe ans Cirdan could have well been Olwes, Elwes and Elmos cousins...
definitely those silverhaired are a clan or family of several branches among the Teleri/Nelyar.
 
Considering this is an art thread which contains 'biker Túrin' among other things, I don't think it's necessary to ask the artist to defend her choices vis à vis Tolkien's texts.

A discussion of casting would be more appropriate in the dwarves thread in casting.
 
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