“I bring news from the Underground City: We’ve been betrayed. And so have you.”
(From my work-in-progress story. MUCH bigger snippet under the artwork…)
Acrylics, coloured pencil, chalk pastels, Mylar flakes, green iridescent enamel paint, the glowing hauteur of an underground kingdom who cares not for your petty achievements, and gouache paint, on paper. 21×29 cms.
Original character from a story in progress: A Gelft
For those who want story time, click on ‘Read the full post’ below:
Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Friday 15, October, 2021
https://bohemianweasel.com/2021/10/15/my-story-the-gelft/
“The soft-winged shepherds of the dead. To see one is an honour, for it means a gentle end and a safe journey.
They’re known for their patience and sombre bearing, yet those who’ve seen them (and lived to tell of it) have glimpsed hard, black armour under their shadowy robes. But I only ever met one woman brave or mad enough to detain a Crow in their duty and actually ask.
She told me even she couldn’t believe the question came out of her mouth, and it was with a mingled feeling of surprised triumph and utter horror that she saw the robed figure pause in his task and then turn to face her.
In a voice as soft and dark as the dreaming sea, he said, ‘A freshly severed soul is a powerful and precious thing. The hinterland is full of claws and hunger. When we take a soul, we protect it.’ “
(From my work-in-progress story.)
Acrylic, watercolours, pastels, an ominous sense of foreboding, and pencils on paper, 21×29 cms.
Original character from a story in progress: Raven shepherd of the dead.
Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Thursday 14, October, 2021
https://bohemianweasel.com/2021/10/14/my-story-a-raven/
Original character: Samuel
“When they spoke about Samuel they only said how charming he was, how generous and beautifully-mannered; how he never raised his voice, or denied a request, and was always nice to cats. But I couldn’t stop thinking about how his house is guarded by gargoyles bigger than Stonehenge, how his right-hand-woman is an actual harpy, and how his mother set fire to a desert – and I don’t mean ‘dessert’, I mean ‘an endless horizon of sand haunted by dung beetles and the memory of camels’, actual desert. It burned with a blue flame for nine days straight.
But what I’d like to know now is: what’s he doing in London? Samuel with his harpy, his secrets, and his flames, what’s he after? Because I reckon he’s looking for someone. And I wouldn’t want to be the poor bugger he’s looking for.”
(From my work-in-progress story.)
Pastel, pencils, acrylics, and gold paint on paper, 21×29 cms
Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Sunday 18, October, 2020
https://bohemianweasel.com/2020/10/18/samuel-characters-from-a-work-in-progress/
‘Dracula Risen’
Basecard art for a trading card by Iconic Creations; acrylics and gold leaf on paper,
A3 / 29cms x 42cms
Prints and art items available at Society6
Work in progress and detail images:
Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Wednesday 21, November, 2018
https://bohemianweasel.com/2018/11/21/dracula-risen/
John Uskglass, the Raven King
“Even the Raven King – who was not a fairy, but an Englishman –
had a somewhat regrettable habit of abducting
men and women and taking them to live with him
in his castle in the Other Lands.”
The Raven King, with bird and book. Inspired by the character from exquisite Strange & Norrell by Susanna Clarke. (The audiobook is particularly good.)
Acrylics, pencil, liquid gold and silver, sterling silver leaf, and old English magic on paper 21×30 cms. Prints available here.
Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Monday 13, November, 2017
https://bohemianweasel.com/2017/11/13/the-raven-king/
Brought to life with a little animated light and the influences of creation and destruction.
Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Thursday 27, July, 2017
https://bohemianweasel.com/2017/07/27/feanor-spirit-of-fire/
Thingol, King of the Grey Elves, from JRR Tolkien’s Silmarillion.
“In Beleriand, King Thingol upon his throne was as the lords of the Maiar whose power is at rest,
whose joy is as an air that they breathe in all their days,
whose thought flows in a tide untroubled from the heights to the deeps.”
Thingol throned in his grand and secret underground kingdom The pillars were said to be sculpted like great beech trees, with golden lamps hung from all their branches.
In the frame, either side of him are symbols based on those for Melian (his wife) and Luthien (his daughter), and above him his doom: the ‘Nauglamir’ necklace with a Silmaril in the middle.
He can also ornament your own underground lair, with pretty printed things from my RedBubble shop here.
Thingol (work in progress)
Thingol (detail)
Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Friday 9, September, 2016
https://bohemianweasel.com/2016/09/09/thingol/
Eöl the Dark Elf from JRR Tolkien’s Silmarillion.:
“But Eöl, though stooped by his smithwork, was no Dwarf, but a tall Elf of a high kin of the Teleri, noble though grim of face; and his eyes could see deep into shadows and dark places.”
If you’d like a print of his glowering suspicion, you can find them in all sizes and finishes here.
This glowering gentleman was painted in a different way (for me): sketched entirely in paint, no line drawing at all until the end for details.
An interesting exercise, though riddled with mistakes and horror and doom. :)
Eöl (detail)
Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Friday 26, August, 2016
https://bohemianweasel.com/2016/08/26/eol-the-dark-elf/
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 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.
Posted by Soni Alcorn-Hender on Friday 4, March, 2016
https://bohemianweasel.com/2016/03/04/sauron-and-ar-pharazon/
Bohemian Weasel 