29 Faces, and counting. Or not.

I seem to have lost the entire first part of what I had just written, all from clicking on one wrong thing, or pushing a wrong button -- I don't know.  

Summarizing:  I didn't finish the 29 Faces Challenge, as a severe and lingering winter has really sapped my creative energies.  I do have some faces I did in the computer's Paint program, to show.  Those are intended to be relatively fast (about 10-15 minutes) and sometimes I don't like them, so I don't keep them.  There have been a few more sketches from The Hobbit movies, and now that the last movie has been released to dvd/br, I can select scenes from that too.  

I was not satisfied with two sketches of the dwarf, Kili, and will have to do a third.  I drew him smiling, and though the actor has a gorgeous smile, the character doesn't smile much.  A non-smiling drawing of him might carry more of a likeness.  His brother Fili, however, was acceptable the first go.  

I started one of Bolg, the Orc, but he was so disgusting to look at closely, that I have to do that one in short stages.  I haven't had this much trouble since drawing the Mouth of Sauron!  Both are utterly gross to view with the analytical intensity needed to draw them.  

Ready for the pictures?  

   ORI, the Dwarf, portrayed by Adam Brown

GLOIN, the Dwarf, portrayed by  Peter Hambleton, who also did the voice-over for one of the trolls in the first movie.  Yes, this is the Gloin that is the father of LOTR's Gimli!  

TAURIEL, the Elf, played by Evangeline Lilly
Her character was entirely fabricated for the movies; she was not in any of the books by Tolkein, much less The Hobbit. 
Still, Lilly did an acceptable job with the part, I think. There was a huge, romantic story line in the movies that included her, but was never touched by Tolkein. 

DORI, the Dwarf, portrayed by Mark Hadlow.  He is offering Gandalf the Wizard a cup of chamomile tea at the "Unexpected Party."

William Kircher as BIFUR, the Dwarf.  Yes, that's an axe embedded in his noggin.  He goes through the whole series like that!  Kircher also did one of the troll voice-overs.  I think he likely had more lines in that scene than he did in the whole rest of the series of three movies, where he was restricted to fairly unintelligible grunts --due to the presence of the axe in his head, no doubt!

Both FILI and KILI -- Dwarves, and heirs to the throne of Erebor, after their uncle Thorin.  
I'd have shown only the Fili sketch, but they're on the same page, and I needed to count Kili as a face of the 29.    The smile here is smaller than the first sketch I did, but still not a good likeness.  He needs to look more intense!  Dean O'Gorman plays Fili (on the left) and Aidan Turner plays Kili (right).





And, on an unrelated note, one of the race of Men (though some claim there is Vulcan in his heritage!).  

When Leonard Nimoy passed away recently, many of us in the 29 Faces Challenge group expressed our sorrow by drawing or painting him.  Many portrayed him as Spock, his iconic role from Star Trek.  I preferred to show him as his still vital, though aging self.  As a photographer of considerable talent, he portrayed women whose physical beauty was contrary to the standards of beauty of our time and culture, yet were sensitively shown as having a great intrinsic beauty of their own.  I'd like to think he would have approved of my showing him at this stage of his life.

A quote he left us all with is included on the page:
" A life is like a garden.  Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.  LLAP."  (Live Long And Prosper)

29 Faces in February, 2015

Not much to say at this time, as it's only a week into the challenge.  I'm alternating serious sketching (like last year) with some fast sketches done in the computer's Paint program.  For now, I'll just show a bit of the serious sketches.  The others are more like exercises to loosen me up.
The movie(s) I've chosen to work from is The Hobbit series by Peter Jackson.  I pause the movie at a chosen point and sketch the face I've selected.  I get to pick facial expressions that no live model would be able to hold for long, expressions that tell a lot about the character him/herself.  I have done several others, mostly from The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey.  Not sure if I ever posted them here, though. They are of Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield, The Great Goblin, Azog The Defiler, Bert The Troll, Bard The Bowman, Balin (one of the questing dwarves of Erebor) and Beorn the Berserker (skinchanger).   I expect to have all the dwarves represented, at some point!

I have three sketches for you tonight:

  
Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm, aka, "Mirkwood."  In this scene, he was telling Thorin that most might suspect the dwarves were on a quest to reclaim their homeland, but he suspected the quest was for something more practical: the Arkenstone.  Lee Pace plays Thranduil.

A second one of Bard, the Bowman, different from the one I had done before, different scene.  I stopped when interrupted, then decided I like it better "unfinished," which is to say, it is finished, now.  Bard is portrayed by Luke Evans. 

The Master of Laketown, played by Stephen Fry.  Sleazy and self-important, he is here considering whether to accept Thorin's offer of shared wealth in exchange for Laketown's cooperation in the quest -- or throw the lot of them in the town lockup! 

29 Faces in February, 2015

Well, it's February!!!  
Time to start another "29 Faces in February" Challenge -- are you ready?  
Am I?  (Only time will tell......)

First, a shout-out to Ayala Art for hosting this invigorating challenge again!  Yaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy.......
  
Second, I thought I'd preface that I'm going to mix it up a bit this year.  I'd like to continue making the same type of face-art as before, but this time, I want to make a bit more from my computer Paint program.  The idea of those is to do them quickly, maybe 20 minutes or less.  It may not make great art, but should loosen me up considerably, and also make me less reliant upon pausing movies and sketching from the stills.  I think I need that, but want to finish a project or two of movie stills portraits.  If I can, I'll alternate days of each.  (It won't be 'Photoshop,' only 'Paint.')  Who knows, maybe I'll throw in a new clay face or two, as well.

And with that, I shall say.......
"Let the Games BEGIN!"