New Piece: The Hall of Fire

It took me a while to get the colors right on this piece as well as the overall design. I must admit that when I first read The Hobbit and learned about Rivendell, my initial visualization was more like the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park. Being from the American west, it was the first idea that came to mind.

But then along came Peter Jackson (and John Howe and Alan Lee) and the whole concept of Rivendell changed for me. It became far more ethereal under their combined influence, and to be honest, it is pretty ... but not quite as I would imagine it.

After this overload of Rivendell visions, I struggled coming up with a design for my favorite place in Rivendell ... The Hall of Fire. Visitors and Elves gathered there in the evenings for song and story telling and I thought that it was important to not only portray the pillars that Tolkien mentions, but also come up with a place for those activities to happen which is why the floor contains a seating in the round. My bow to the ethereal  comes with the canopy of stars overhead and my homage to the original Old Faithful vision was to make the pillars come from nature and the wooden tree trunks.

Many (most) of the colors used (another marker and ink medium piece) were 'washed' with several other colors until I had what I wanted. Here then is The Hall of Fire.