#balls tablet era

Elrond wore a mantle of grey and had a star upon his forehead, and a silver harp was in his hand, and upon his finger was a ring of gold with a great blue stone, Vilya, the mightiest of the Three.

JRR Tolkien, Return of the King

This week marks my Tumblr-versary, by which I mean this time last year I created an account here for the sole purpose of archiving some further reading I’d collected for my first longfic. A temporary, academic blog of sorts. Clearly, that did not happen, and I spent the last year publicly shaking my ass at Elrond on the internet and being a pain in yours 🫶🏽

To commemorate my roots, I spent 8 hours on the Caledonian Sleeper train last night painstakingly initiating said Elrond, his dramatic eyebrows and politically motivated five o clock shadow into my graphics tablet era.

[brocade brushes] [commissions open fyi]

Celebrían in Valinor

Fully painted version of the ‘sloppy sketch’ I shared here, aka me spreading my firm belief, nobody can convince me otherwise, that Cel absolutely rocked this exact haircut and piercing in Valinor. Anyway, with Elrond looking like this, they are the hottest couple in Aman and literally everyone hates them because of this but also can’t ever actually avoid inviting them to anything because it would be a diplomatic clusterfuck.

(she’s wearing my phd graduation outfit and i gave her my nose because it’s my drawing and i make the rules 😇👇🏽)

"Elrond, having been a twin for the majority of his life, had always preferred to live his life by halves and doubles. He is at his best when part of a ratio: a portion of duty, a slice of pleasure, a thimbleful of regret. He likes to know where the ground ends and Elrond Peredhel begins. He dwells in memory only for however long it takes to neutralise the compulsion to return to it, to return to not-knowing things. The whole never tastes as good as the sum of its parts. When Elros died, he was very, very unhappy. The kind of unhappy that got people locked up. Then, he moved on, because that’s what people did. Yes, absolutely. He absolutely moved on."

Spoiler: he didn't. All right, *rattles bucket, bangs spoon* all right, here's Elrond and Elros from Prayers to Broken Stone, with their little descriptors to identify them because obviously they look exactly alike otherwise... speed-sketch under the cut as always.

Hotel? Trivago

Commission: Celebrían Boudoir Sketch

In non ‘Daddy Finarfin’ news, I finished my first Tumblr commission today, this black and white boudoir sketch of Celebrían my beloved, for the wonderful @shrikeseams 🫶🏽 plus, a bonus zoomed-in shot because I need you all to see the books on her bureau. I also like to think that this is what the inside of Elrond’s mind looks like 24/7.

And it is said that Elwing learned the tongues of birds, who herself had once worn their shape; and they taught her the craft of flight, and her wings were of white and silver-grey. And at times, when Earendil returning drew near again to Arda, she would fly to meet him, even as she had flown long ago, when she was rescued from the sea. Then the far-sighted among the Elves that dwelt in the Lonely Isle would see her like a white bird, shining, rose-stained in the sunset, as she soared in joy to greet the coming of Vingilot to haven.

Realised I’ve never drawn the beloved birdfucker here as of yet, so decided my graphics tablet era was the perfect time to remedy that. Also I know she likely wasn’t a swan and was probably a seagull or albatross or something but I’m scared of albatrosses and like hell was I going to draw a seagull. I took an oil painting approach with this one, working from large shapes and building up details slowly — see it take shape below 👇🏽

“Then an enchantment fell on Thingol, and he stood still; and afar off beyond the voices of the lomelindi he heard the voice of Melian wiggling her fingers going ‘yoo-hooo, loverboyyy’ and it filled all his heart with wonder and desire. He forgot then utterly all his people and all the purposes of his mind, and following the birds under the shadow of the trees he passed deep into Nan Elmoth and was lost. But he came at last to a glade open to the stars, and there Melian stood; and out of the darkness he looked at her, and the light of Aman was in her face.”

— JRR Tolkien, ‘On Greymantle and Silvertits’

The classical painting I mentioned I spent 16 days agonising over to the point of stress dreams, but it was such an interesting project, especially considering the brief was ‘a nude that makes me think, you know what, Thingol, I get it’. Inspirations and references include Titian’s reclining Venus of Urbino, this photograph by Herb Ritter, and Caravaggio’s dramatic lighting. Delighted to have improved in my colour cohesion, concepting and detailing since my other two tablet-era classical pieces (Fingon and Eärendil). Entire piece in CSP oil brush, aside from pattern brushes on lace and cloth.

Detail shots above and more below because like I said, this took more brushstrokes than I can count, and colour palette + uncensored version below the cut (maia titty warning).

Latest instalment of Balls Tablet Era: a self portrait I’ve been working on for the last few days, based on a banging photo my brother took of me a few weeks ago, so I can use it as a more secure pfp (not here, dw, Elrond icon is here to stay, it’ll just go on my pinned). Probably going to clean it up a little more but rn I cannot look at it anymore so here you go!