All posts in category LotR & Hobbit

Sauron triptych

A Dark Lord’s Progress :
~~Friend~~ / ~~pupil~~/ ~~follower~~ / servant to Melkor.
Teacher / ~~manipulator~~ / ~~traitor~~ / ~~torturer~~ / ~~murderer~~ of Celebrimbor.
~~Prisoner~~ / most trusted advisor to Ar-Pharazôn.

Sauron with Melkor, Celebrimbor, and Ar-Pharazôn by Soni Alcorn-Hender

‘A Dark Lord’s Progress’ Sauron triptych

To know more of the stories these are illustrating, or more about the artworks themselves, please see their individual pages:

The Seduction of Sauron

Sauron as Annatar, and Celebrimbor

Sauron and Ar-Pharazôn

Inspired by The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien.
Created especially for the Tolkien art exhibition: ‘Evil in the Shining Light’, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield, through September 2015.
Acrylics on paper, digital colouring, 11.5 x 8″ Frame element by Stephen Clulow on Flickr.

4 Comments

by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Friday 4, March, 2016 • Permalink

Posted in ALL ARTWORK, LotR & Hobbit

Tagged art SCENE, ppl BEAUTIFUL MEN, Tolkien BOOK-INSPIRED ILLUSTRATIONS, Tolkien ppl SAURON, Tolkien SILMARILLION

Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Friday 4, March, 2016

https://bohemianweasel.com/2016/03/04/sauron-triptych/

Sauron and Ar-Pharazôn

Inspired by The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien.

Created especially for the Tolkien art exhibition: ‘Evil in the Shining Light’, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield, through September 2015.
Acrylics on paper, digital colouring, 11.5 x 8″ Frame element by Stephen Clulow on Flickr.

Sauron and Ar-Pharazôn, by Soni Alcorn-Hender

Sauron as prisoner of, then advisor to, Ar-Pharazôn

Sauron being fair and flattering as the hostage of Ar-Pharazôn, last great king of Númenor before the fall.
A fall engineered entirely by Sauron in fact, for by cunning he rose from prisoner to most-trusted advisor of the proud king, and convinced him to offer blood and lives to exiled Morgoth. (The smoke of their sacrifices can be seen through the window.)
Then as Ar-Pharazôn felt the weight of old age and death come upon him he listened to Sauron’s promise of life everlasting in Valinor, and how a brave man might take it for himself if he would only sail West to claim it…

Buildings of Númenor adorn the top left and right corners. Embedded in the frame to the left is the shining isle of the Valar to the left, Númenor’s holy mountain Meneltarma to the right. The Eye of Sauron overlooks all above and death awaits below.

1 Comment

by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Friday 4, March, 2016 • Permalink

Posted in ALL ARTWORK, LotR & Hobbit

Tagged art SCENE, books CHARACTER PAINTING, ppl BEAUTIFUL MEN, Tolkien BOOK-INSPIRED ILLUSTRATIONS, Tolkien ppl SAURON, Tolkien SILMARILLION

Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Friday 4, March, 2016

https://bohemianweasel.com/2016/03/04/sauron-and-ar-pharazon/

Shire Bridge

Prints and things available here.

I painted the original a couple of years ago: an idea of Frodo and Sam enjoying one of the Shire’s little rivers’, perhaps at the beginning of their journey when everything still felt enjoyably adventurous in a very safe way. I liked the parallel between these two by the river, and the earlier pair of Sméagol and Déagol, and how their river trip ended. And both of those pairs of friends are bound by the same ring.

This is a re-working made for the Tolkien art show ‘Evil in the Shining Light’, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield, through September 2015.
Original was acrylics on paper, 10 x 7.5″ Frame element by Stephen Clulow on Flickr.

1 Comment

by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Sunday 8, November, 2015 • Permalink

Posted in ALL ARTWORK, LotR & Hobbit

Tagged art LANDSCAPE, art SCENE, Tolkien LOTR BOOKS, Tolkien m-e LANDSCAPES, Tolkien m-e LANDSCAPES OF MIDDLE-EARTH & BRITAIN, Tolkien races HOBBITS

Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Sunday 8, November, 2015

https://bohemianweasel.com/2015/11/08/shire-bridge/

The Ring is taken to Rivendell

Prints and shiny things available on Society6 here, and also a version without the frame border is available too.

A re-working of an earlier painting (The Hidden Valley), this new version has Frodo being carried to Rivendell by the Elves after falling at the Ford. Made for the Tolkien art exhibition: ‘Evil in the Shining Light’, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield, through September 2015.
Original was acrylics on paper 11.5 x 8″, added frame element by Stephen Clulow on Flickr.

And a close-up of Frodo’s rescue party.
At the front are two pairs of Elf riders, followed by an Elven cart bearing the fallen Frodo; behind him is Strider on foot; then Glorfindel (not Arwen :p) on his white horse; behind him near the bridge are the three Hobbits on foot; then there are two Elves on foot on the bridge, and two more on horseback at the end:

Sauron as Annatar, and Celebrimbor

‘The Craft of Ring-making’ inspired by The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien
Prints and goodies now available on RedBubble here.

Created especially for the Tolkien art exhibition: ‘Evil in the Shining Light’, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield, through September 2015.
Acrylics on paper, digital colouring, 11.5 x 8″ Frame element by Stephen Clulow on Flickr.

Annatar (Sauron), Celebrimbor and the Craft of Ring-making

Sauron‬ disguised in fair form as ‘‪Annatar’,‬ when he taught the Elves the craft of ring-making. It wasn’t until he forged the One Ring in secret, planning that it should rule all the others, that his true identity and purpose were revealed.

Depicted here: Annatar guides the hand of ‪Celebrimbor‬, greatest of the Elven smiths. In the top left and right corners, Elrond and Galadriel shun him. They couldn’t see through his disguise, yet still they didn’t trust him.
The rings that were made in secret are embedded in the frame: on the left, right and bottom and the three Elven rings forged by Celebrimbor; and above Sauron’s head is the One Ring. At this time it was still just an idea.

3 Comments

by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Wednesday 14, October, 2015 • Permalink

Posted in ALL ARTWORK, LotR & Hobbit

Tagged art SCENE, books CHARACTER PAINTING, ppl BEAUTIFUL MEN, Tolkien BOOK-INSPIRED ILLUSTRATIONS, Tolkien ppl SAURON, Tolkien races ELVES, Tolkien SILMARILLION

Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Wednesday 14, October, 2015

https://bohemianweasel.com/2015/10/14/sauron-as-annatar-and-celebrimbor/

The Seduction of Sauron

‘The Seduction of Sauron’ inspired by The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien
Prints and goodies now available on RedBubble here.

Seduction of Sauron by Soni Alcorn-Hender

Melkor corrupts Sauron (Mairon)

Long before Sauron was lord of Mordor, before he was even evil, he was ‘Mairon’, a gifted metalsmith among the Maiar. He grew impatient with the slow unfolding on the flawed world and desired to create things to his own plan. Melkor promised to show how this could be achieved, and so step by step, Mairon followed Melkor down into darkness until he became ‘Sauron’.

Drawings contained in the frame, starting from the top: Eye of (future) Sauron, the two Lamps of Arda, and (bottom) the future One Ring. The corner images are of Valinor.

2 Comments

by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Tuesday 13, October, 2015 • Permalink

Posted in ALL ARTWORK, LotR & Hobbit

Tagged art SCENE, books CHARACTER PAINTING, ppl BEAUTIFUL MEN, Tolkien BOOK-INSPIRED ILLUSTRATIONS, Tolkien ppl SAURON, Tolkien SILMARILLION

Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Tuesday 13, October, 2015

https://bohemianweasel.com/2015/10/13/the-seduction-of-sauron/

31-Day Art Challenge, day 5

31 Days of drawing, Day 5. The prompt: ‘A movie/TV character drawn in a cartoony way‘

Even though he’s first and foremost a book character, the movie version makes a good subject: Thranduil.
As a ‘cartoon’ it’s a failure: too many lines by about five-bajillion lines, and peculiarly Byzantine, but I like it anyway. :) But I still (really) need to practise drawing cartoons and other simplified, non OCD things.
Inks and liquid leaf on scatty cardstock. 8×10″

Thranduil, Soni Alcorn-Hender

Dwalin print signed by Graham McTavish himself :D

I’m stuck here in Portugal so my chances of going to exciting conventions in North America are teeny. However, I do have the nicest friends *in the world* and was just sent a scan of this wonderful thing! Fresh from the Calgary Expo where my goddess of a friend asked the man himself to sign this for me, and apparently he was lovely (and awfully handsome) in person. ^_^

Dwalin illumination by Soni Alcorn-Hender, signed by Graham McTavish

Sam & Frodo Artwork for The Hillywood Show!

The talented parody sisters Hannah and Hilly Hindi asked if I could provide some sketches for the end credits of their LotR parody (to mimic the credits of Return of the King), but they specifically asked for Sam and Frodo ‘with all the feels’.

Here’s what I drew for them. (All 10.5×7″, graphite on watercolour paper)