Mapping Mordor: Cartography of The Hobbit

I know that technically Mordor is in the providence of The Lord of the Rings, but my earlier post on mapping Mirkwood follows the same title format.  So I stuck with it.

 

I’ve always wondered what produced the almost square mountain ranges that encompass most of Mordor; it’s a land that’s almost instantly recognizable on a map if you’re a fan of any fantasy whatsoever.  I haven’t yet read any of the massive history tomes that Tolkien wrote, I’ve only made it through the Lord of the Rings three or four times so far.  But it’s a great land to look at.

I know that in my cartography I’m not really breaking any new ground, but nonetheless I really like mapping out these places and seeing every little detail.  Mordor doesn’t have nearly as many as the Wilderland map I’ve done, but still… all those mountains.  Man.  I had fun with this one because I used watercolors to add some extra shading/color to the mountains; in plain ink they looked a bit boring.

Enough blabber! Here are the pictures:

 

I’m also working on a few sketches that involve Edward Gorey-esque children – I’m getting the occasional search on the blog for “Edward Gorey children”, so I thought it appropriate to do some art that’s relevant to that, so as not to disappoint searchers.

Inspiration Post – Sharing Art

In today’s post I’m going to share some inspiration with you.  Over the past few days I’ve come across a few art blogs that I really feel like everyone should know about, so I’ll be sharing those as well as a few links to blogs that I’ve been reading for several months now.  I feel sometimes as if I’m opening doors one by one, and keep finding treasure chests behind each separate door.  Each of these blogs contains a lot of art, namely fantasy illustration.

First up is Cory Godbey’s blog, Light Night Rains: http://lightnightrains.blogspot.com/     He releases yearly sketchbooks that each follow a theme, and his illustrations and art often focus on fairies and the hidden world.  The image below is one that he did of Hagrid from Harry Potter, carrying an infant Harry to Number 4 Privet Drive on Sirius Black’s flying motorbike.

Next is Justin Gerard’s blog, quick hide here:  http://quickhidehere.blogspot.com/   Justin’s illustrations and art feature dragons, knights, and the world of Tolkien.  Several years ago he did a series of paintings based on The Hobbit, to preserve the mental images he had in his head of the characters and scenes before the movie is released.  The picture below shows the scene where Bilbo is captured by the three trolls, and they debate the pros and cons of eating hobbit.

Both of the above two artists post not only finished work, but also work in progress shots, thumbnails, and sketches, which makes their blogs invaluable for any starting artist, or anyone who likes to see the process behind an art piece.

I’ve also been reading James Gurney’s blog, http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/   The creator of Dinotopia posts daily with advice, helpful hints, examples of early illustration work, and much more.

The Drawn Today blog is a collection of artists posting their work, and is the website for their podcast, also named Drawn Today.   http://drawntoday.blogspot.com/

I’m going to try to continue these types of posts when I can, because I feel that inspiration should be shared freely, and these artists all do incredible work that fires up the imagination.  In my next post I’ll try to have some recent artwork of my own, as well as a few sketches.  Would you be ok with short posts that largely feature sketches or works in progress with little text?  Let me know in the comments section.