NM99 Sketching

I started this piece not too long ago, and put some more work into it while we were recording the 99th Ninja Mountain Episode. I'm interested in seeing how it turns out.

Eowyn and the Nazgul

Last month Jon Schindehette and the guys at the Muddy Colors blog put together a challenge. The topic was Eowyn and the Nazgul, from the Lord of the Rings. It wasn't until I was waiting at the airport, trying to fly to the Austin Kotei, that I found the approach I wanted to take.

There's been a lot of focus on the end fight, but I decided to look at what lead up to that. I settled on when the Witch-king takes to the field of the battle. Eowyn's horse Windfola panicked, and she and Merry were thrown (and since there's no specific reference to when her helmet came off, I decided it would be a fine time for that, too). I stretched things a bit having her bumped by the fell beast, but I wanted to show her resisting them. The Witch-king and fell beast, however, are cropped out of the picture to show they don't regard her at all.

Here are some of the steps I went through. The last is a photo of the painting as it stood last night. It's oil on paper on panel, about 15" x 21".

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