May 13, 2010

The Hobbit, part four

"Suddenly a sword flashed in its own light. Bilbo saw it go right through the Great Goblin as he stood dumbfounded in the middle of his rage. He fell dead, and the goblin soldiers fled before the sword shrieking into the darkness."

Chapter 4: Over Hill and Under Hill

Click to enlarge.

At this point in the story, Bilbo and the dwarves are crossing a mountain ridge when they are are kidnapped by a hoard of goblins and taken into a cavern below. The Great Goblin recognizes the Elvish weapon Thorin carries as one that had slain dozens of goblins and goes mad with fury, leaping up and preparing to devour the dwarf. The great bonfire goes out in a pillar of blue smoke as Gandalf appears and kills the Great Goblin and many of his soldiers and the prisoners beat a hasty retreat.

Phew. That was a tough one.

I mentioned in the previous Hobbit post that I've been trying to work more with my unaltered linework, and that continues here. I'm realizing that there are places where it's appropriate for me to remove lines or color lines, but it's not quite the necessity that I used to feel like it was. I think this piece is more successful than the last in that regard.

I'll make a process post on this when I can, but don't expect it before Monday. I really appreciate any comments that you have on these pieces, as always.

22 comments:

  1. You are a beast my friend

    This is one of my favs!

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  2. I never would have thought that impaling a goblin could be so beautiful.

    Nicely done, Gandalf.

    Nicely done, Mr. Bosma.

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  3. well scheiße! i think this is the best one yet! these just keep getting better and better sam. might be cool to see a bit more agony in his face, maybe with a bit of his gums showing. but then again, i also love the idea that this is the split second before he's processed what just happened to him.

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  4. Absolutely incredible. Big fan of your work, man. You somehow continue to get better and better and BETTER!

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  5. My new favorite for sure :) Beautiful work.

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  6. These are gonna be made into a set of prints right? Cause I'd love to have them for my Tolkien section :)
    Wonderful stuff, especially that lighting effect you achieved that I don't know what to call haha

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  7. this one blew me out of the water. Great job, so much going on the image, it took me right back to when I was 12 years old!

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  8. It's absolutely the best image yet... The composition, the nice job on the slight lights, the textures... Perfect.

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  9. This is beautiful! Really love the smoke and the Goblin.

    Hello Sam! *waves*

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  10. This is absolutely beautiful. The best in the series so far, in my opinion. It would look great on a postcard, you know :) Could have been a great complement to the previous postcard -- hot colors vs. cold colors.

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  11. hey Sam :) this is pretty amazing, i love the framing with the rocks in the foreground which makes me feel like I'm peeking out from some kind of hiding spot & the modulation of color in the great goblin's skin is great!

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  12. I agree with everyone else here - I think this is your strongest one to date! (and the others were nothing to sneeze at!) Nice work!

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  13. This is great, I think it's my favorite so far too!

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  14. gorgeous smoke stuff, i always love your layers of colour.

    I agree with Jeremy, perhaps a little more gum-action to really push the facial expression and maybe even make the blood on the sword a little less subtle? A splash of brighter red might give it a heightened sense of immediacy/drama?

    Love it as always, this series is delicious!

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  15. these keep getting better and better man, great job!

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  16. Yeah man, the lighting and layering and everything are excellent.

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  17. Definitely my favorite piece of yours so far. The colours are very nice and I love the atmosphere, the way youv'e used the blue smoke to separate things out. Amazing work. I enjoy the way you remove and colour some lines, its just enough.

    My only critique might be about some of the surrounding figures. The goblin on the left with his hands up in fear looks AMAZING, great pose and very dynamic. But all of the other goblins get reduced to the same head and shoulders only. It would be great to see a little more dynamics in the figures around the great goblin. Especially considering the dwarves have to be curled up and static around the bottom.

    Hope it makes sense, but ultimately its a minor critqiue - youve done a great job with the great goblin, which is the main focus.

    Keep up the lovely work dude, really enjoy your blog.

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  18. Oh, the blues are so beautiful---it's always interesting to see you use cooler colors, and this time the shock made the image all the more arresting.

    I need to do something like this this summer for sure.

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