Jul 14, 2010

The Hobbit, part five


"What iss he, my precious?" whispered Gollum (who always spoke to himself through never having anyone else to speak to). This is what he had come to find out, for he was not really very hungry at the moment, only curious; otherwise he would have grabbed first and whispered afterward.

"I am Mr Bilbo Baggins. I have lost the dwarves and I have lost the wizard, and I don't know where I am and I don't want to know, if only I can get away."

I've written a more formal and informative post on the story within this image that you can read on Picturebook Report.

Ok, now that's over.

I've had a long and arduous trip with this image, starting from a design that didn't come easily and a stack of thumbnail drawings inching close to sixty in number, but it's done.

Look for the process post on this image in the next few days, when I can get around to it.

I really wish Gollum were in more scenes in The Hobbit, since I have a lot of fun drawing him and would've liked to show his weird face, but here we are. It was more important to show Bilbo's reaction than to show Gollum, and since Gollum is the unknown enemy, it seems fitting to leave his visage to the imagination.

Thanks for sticking around through all the sketches and the missteps. Wolves and Eagles are up next, and the next final Hobbit image will show up in September.

8 comments:

  1. Kudos to you for having the self-discipline to sacrifice a view of Gollum's face for correct narrative emphasis here. As it is his back looks amazing though, and I see you've managed to sneak in a few crabs too. Fantastic

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  2. Nice portrayal of Gollum. I dig the Haitian Zombie VooDoo look. :)

    Ever see the animated Hobbit? I am one of the possibly few people who quite enjoyed that film and even very frog-like rendition of Gollum it had. The voice actor was also rather spiffy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLssei0sId0

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  3. definitely hit it out of the park. Really, REALLY beautiful piece.

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  4. Really fantastic colors/lighting in the piece!

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  5. Really beautiful detail work in the clothing and the lighting from Sting. Is that a fish in Gollum's mouth? Great little details abound.

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  6. Awesome! Really nice pose and expression on Bilbo and overall composition. I don't know if you're looking for any constructive criticism, but I think the structure on both Bilbo's and Gollum's skulls is getting lost a little bit.

    Great work!

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  7. looks good bro. can't wait for the next one

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  8. This is gorgeous. I love the crabs behind Gollum and the shadow Sting's glow is casting across Bilbo.

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