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Strange Guests in the Woods (G)

By December

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An ordinary day on the job drawing to a close, when suddenly — who is this in the woods of Ithilien?

I’d like to dedicate this humble random sketch to Raven. It was thanks to viewing and bethinking me of your art, and getting some extremely kind things said about mine, that sparked me to pick up the pencil again. This came out. At least he’s clothed xD

If I don’t hate this too much by the time Christmas comes when I get my tablet, maybe it will develop into a more proper coloured piece.

Posted Nov 21, 2011

NB: Please do not distribute or repost this picture without the artist's prior permission. [ more ]

5 Comment(s)

Good Lord, that´s him! That´s exactly they way I figured book Faramir to look like! The thin sensitive face, the thoughtful eyes with that little lively sparkle – they way his mind seems to work all the time while his eyes are still observing what the woods reveal to him. And then the details of his clothing, almost palpable in their accurate completion, Arrows, belt-buckle, the seam of his thin leather gloves. Not to speak of the gracious hand that brushes away twigs and leaves – leave that look alien and familiar enough at the same time. :)

Also: the colour! The muted brown/red background absolutely fits the calm homely atmosphere and if my opinion is required ;) I would say there is no need to add any more colours. Yet now I have to be curious: I was under the impression you were a Photoshop artist (which means one of the people I admire boundlessly) but the background and the lines have almost the appearance of pencil on colored paper. So, if it is not too impolite to peek at your artistic secrets: How did you do it???

And the best thing of all: You dedicated this gem to me! :D And now it is my work-mates´ turn to ask: “Why the heck are you so blithe?” for I´m currently running around with the face expression of Peregrin Took after he has found a secret store of longbottom leaf. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Please feel virtually hugged a thousand times!

— raven22372    Monday 21 November 2011, 11:18    #

Ooh!!! this is lovely! Faramir is so lovely here. I think I’ll just sit back and fall in love with him all over again:)

Minx    Monday 21 November 2011, 17:21    #

Oh goodness, thank you both for the lovely comments!! There’s already so much I want to change/re-do/touch-up, and I’m not even going to digress into the customary rant about how my scanner ruined everything and my camera did little better xD So yeah, thanks very much, your support is very inspiriting!

To your point, Raven — haha, hm, I too admire Photoshop people boundlessly, for I don’t count myself as one of their number, haha, no. Being on the whole a rather backward-made person, I’ll confess I look upon technology with a mixture of awe and mistrust. I don’t own a single piece of iStuff (there was an iPod once, but it drownded, which is maybe for the best…), and while riding in a saddle is to me more comfortable than walking, the arcane art of driving an engine-operated vehicle remains far beyond the beginnings of my petrified grasp. (You know, when they were screening the first film ever with the arriving train and people ran away screaming, I was there among the audience) Likewise, the first time I was attempting to make meringues under the tutelage of my mother, I remember myself proudly declaring that electric mixers are for sissies and probably the work of the Devil anyway, and I am going to beat my whites by hand, to which my mother was like, you do that, knock yourself out. So, yeah, I’ve still got this suspicion that Photoshop is actually powered by the energy of the screaming souls of the Great Artists of the past, for how else could certain awesome people make such inexplicable, mind-blowing art with it? Oh well, at some point I was seduced by the evidently infinite possibilities of the programme, but my interaction with it typically follows this monkey-in-the-zoo scenario of, hey, I wonder what’ll happen if I do this? — ooooh, neat! — wait, how did I do that again, where did that button just go? And the results of these random encounters with Ps are never remotely alike to what I had initially envisaged, even if in their own way not too bad. So, yeah, it totally humbles me that you might allow I actually did this in Ps. The answer is no, this is indeed pencil on paper, moreover, this is plain school-supplies pencil on plain photocopying paper, because I haven’t brought any of my art supplies to NZ and for the recent lack of need haven’t yet been to the local art store — and yesterday I was overcome with this sudden need to draw (for which I blame you ;p ) that was as insuppressible as when you have to pee after three pots of green tea, so yeah, I had to make do with what was there. And on this laptop I don’t even have Ps, so the contrast and brightness adjustment as well as the colour filter were done in the Windows Picture Manager thingie. I know, Sam would’ve said perhaps that it’s like drawing with your foot, but what are you gonna do…

More towards your point about Faramir (sorry, this reply is already long enough to roll up into a tube, but how can I possibly not pay homage to your wonderful commentary?). Indeed it always felt to me he should be to some extent thin and sensitive of face as you put it, although of course evidently manly and willful at the same time, because such is his character, is it not? These are qualities I find very hard to combine though, tricky, you could say, challenging. I love C.K. Chmiel’s depictions of him, I think she portrays intelligence and gentleness of bearing perfectly while still giving him this rugged ranger allure. I, alas, tend to gravitate more towards the former if anything, but perhaps enough practice will eventually overcome this :)

December    Tuesday 22 November 2011, 0:39    #

So it was you I ran into when I was bolting out of that improvised theater back then in 1895? So good to meet you again (shakes hand)! :D

Haha, yes, the blessings and curses of modern times! Even though I use Photoshop to correct some minor mistakes (like redundant lines or contrast) and despite of how much I envy the smooth flawlessness of PS pictures I can´t bring myself to delve into the mysteries of digital drawing. Sometimes I feel a little like fighting a lost battle; there is just no chance to work as quickly and impeccably as a PS artist does. Unfortunately the pencil offers no return key and if a picture is ruined up to a certain point – well, then you have to face the fact that it is ruined. And then again I must say I enjoy the process of conventional drawing. I work in a printing office, means I spent eight hours a day staring at my screen, so it´s a huge relief to me to do something more “haptic”. 

And since we´re at the intimate confessions anyway: Despite of the way I own my money I can tell you I still nurture a strange though profound mistrust towards the digital world. There is still a part of me that is unable to comprehend how a file consisting of 0s and 1s can be something real. If I would get the chance to treat our company server with a screw driver (which I surely will not) I would be very disappointed to not find any merry pixies in there who are busily carrying around the data packages. X)

Yet I am running off track. All I actually intended to say was: To me the fact that you created this sensitive and multi-layered portrait by using simple everyday´s facilities makes it even more precious to me. I think it was Terry Pratchett who once wrote something like: “Everybody can perform miracles with a magic dagger. But you need a true master to do the same thing with a common kitchen knife.” Allow me to bow deeply to your feet for a true master you are. :)

Those meringues. Those meringues must have been epic! And btw, there is so much to agree with and so much to tell and listen to and the only reason that keeps me from continuing my incoherent babble is the pity I feel for your poor bleeding eyes that do not deserve to read through all this. Just let me thank you again for this marvellous piece of art and I´ll be gone. :)

— raven22372    Tuesday 22 November 2011, 19:58    #

Oh, thanks darling, for writing me yet more compliments! Now I’ll have to try and make more stuff, to at least partially justify all the trust you put in me ;)

Indeed, I too have this typical digital-age nostalgia for the haptic life-style, when for every task and chore one had to undergo intense physical interaction with the world out there. I still remember how my grandma told me how once she bought a live chicken at a village market and then realised she 1. has no guts to kill it, 2. had no frigging idea how much time and effort it would be to pluck the feathers (not to mention the mess that gutting makes)
xD

Quite probably, a week of such life – scrubbing pots with sand, doing the laundry by hand in the local river, carrying water home in buckets – would have me seriously reconsider my views. But for now I can gladly indulge them, and draw myself out with the pencil :)

December    Wednesday 23 November 2011, 9:01    #

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