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Cold Waters of Anduin (G)

By Keihi

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An illustration for the chapter ‘The Window On The West’

‘I sat at night by the waters of Anduin, in the grey dark under the young pale moon, watching the ever-moving stream; and the sad reeds were rustling. So do we ever watch the shores nigh Osgiliath, which our enemies now partly hold, and issue from it to harry our lands. But that night all the world slept at the midnight hour. Then I saw, or it seemed that I saw, a boat floating on the water, glimmering grey, a small boat of a strange fashion with a high prow, and there was none to row or steer it.

‘An awe fell on me, for a pale light was round it. But I rose and went to the bank, and began to walk out into the stream, for I was drawn towards it. Then the boat turned towards me, and stayed its pace, and floated slowly by within my hand’s reach, yet I durst not handle it. It waded deep, as if it were heavily burdened, and it seemed to me as it passed under my gaze that it was almost filled with clear water, from which came the light; and lapped in the water a warrior lay asleep.

‘A broken sword was on his knee. I saw many wounds on him. It was Boromir, my brother, dead. I knew his gear, his sword, his beloved face. One thing only I missed: his horn. One thing only I knew not: a fair belt, as it were of linked golden leaves, about his waist. Boromir! I cried. Where is thy horn? Whither goest thou? O Boromir! But he was gone. The boat turned into the stream and passed glimmering on into the night. Dreamlike it was, and yet no dream, for there was no waking. And I do not doubt that he is dead and has passed down the River to the Sea.’

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers, ‘The Window on the West’

Posted Jul 17, 2012

NB: Please do not distribute or repost this picture without the artist's prior permission. [ more ]

17 Comment(s)

This is beautiful (heartbreaking but beautiful). I just saw it earlier on Tumblr. Is that you too? :)

— Sherry    Tuesday 17 July 2012, 11:24    #

Yep, that’s me -)
Thank you.

— Keihi    Tuesday 17 July 2012, 11:30    #

I couldn’t find your ask box to leave a message so I just hit follow ;) My url is emynarnen btw.

— Sherry    Tuesday 17 July 2012, 11:52    #

I’m new on tumblr, so these things are a bit difficult for me. Anyway, ask box should be there now. Thank you. -)

— Keihi    Tuesday 17 July 2012, 12:04    #

OMG, this is BEAUTIFUL! The vignette and something about the style remind me of an art nouveau window. I love the delicate features and the composed face expression, it fits the atmosphere of the scene very well. And the crescent mood is just magic – probably because it makes me think of some illustrations made for fairy tales. This is wonderful and very unique – I hope it doesn´t come across intrusive but I would love to see more of your art! :)

— raven22372    Wednesday 18 July 2012, 20:32    #

Oh, thank you!
Art nouveau is absolutely my favourite artstyle. And while I used mostly Alan Lee’s paintings of Ostagar for inspiration, it actually looks like one of Bilibin’s illustration for Russian fairy tales. I had a book illustrated by him once, but it wasn’t a conscious decision to try and mimic his style. -)
Thank you!

— Keihi    Thursday 19 July 2012, 6:05    #

Love the composition and style of this, has this old fairy-tale inked-in feeling. I find your communication of emotion is very in-line with the style, whereby the pose communicates more than the actual facial expression, and given the context of the scene that adds it a particular beautiful anguish. There is a mixture of shock, and disbelief, and pain, and love in his hands, as though he secretly hopes that only if he can stay calm, this will not be real.
Very much look forward to seeing more art from you!

December    Thursday 19 July 2012, 14:10    #

Also, er, just saw on deviant that you do slash, too. So, em, maybe you could do some for LOTR, maybe…? That would be just prrreeecious. \o/

December    Thursday 19 July 2012, 14:15    #

You wouldn’t believe how much I love comments such as yours. Thank you!
I’m really glad that you mentioned his hands, because the pose is an allusion to my favourite fanfic (I was sure I found it here, but I can’t find it now, so here is the link to the AO3). The story is incredibly captivating and the imagery is just perfect.
As for slash… I actually do a lot of it, but drawing LotR slash seems… disrespectful.
I also rarely do more than two pieces for fandoms that are not One Piece, but I’ll certainly try to come up with something.

— Keihi    Thursday 19 July 2012, 14:31    #

Good grief, this is breathtaking! I’m going to just end up parroting everyone else but honestly this is a stunning piece of work, thank you for sharing it! I adore the cool, muted tones; rather than dull the image you’ve brought a real sense of peace and sorrow to the scene, an ethereal aspect that works perfectly. Others have mentioned the ‘fairytale’ quality of the composition, as if you’d open a beautiful old illustrated story and find this nestling amongst the pages and I fully agree, the hints of art nouveau influence in the line-work particularly are especially enchanting. Poor Faramir, you show his pain so subtly, it really breaks the heart! The dreamlike aspect of the piece works so well on this level with Faramir himself standing there wishing it was but a dream! Thank you again for sharing this gorgeous piece with us; if I could draw like this I’d never leave the house! :)

Eora    Thursday 19 July 2012, 22:14    #

Oh my. Excuse me while I go die happily in the corner. My life feels complete.

— Keihi    Friday 20 July 2012, 6:05    #

Disrespectful? Yes, I can relate ot that. I often feel that way myself when posting something slashy, the Book just has this pure feeling about it, something almost akin to the Christian understanding of virtue and celibacy etc. If it wasn’t for the movie with all the meaninful glances etc. I probably wouldn’t have ever worked up the courage to set any of those er… ideas on paper.
Thoguh I guess that also depends on WHAT kind of slash that would be. I mean, romance between men can be portrayed with a sense of grace and purity just as much as romance between a man and a lady – and at least judging by this work, I feel you are well capable of portraying any of the characters in a slashy situation without it coming across disrespectful to the original. But you shouldn’t listen to me of all people, I post such profanity here it is awful, lol.
Was just dropping by to once again say how lovely I find this picture to be. May I ask, what medium(s) did you use, and how long it took all in all?

December    Friday 20 July 2012, 9:06    #

ПыСы Спасибо за линк на историю, обязательно посмотрю))

December    Friday 20 July 2012, 9:24    #

Ехехе х))
Касательно неприкосновенных историй – в основном относится к книгам, которые читаешь в детстве. Даже не так, к книгам, которые написаны для детей. But I can totally see your point -))
As for the meduims – I had a couple of sketches – one for laying out general composition and variants of Faramir’s pose, and one for the design of the river part of the frame. I never even scanned them, all in all it’s pure Photoshop (CS3). The time… Well, I started it in the middle of May, worked on it for maybe two or tree days (I only work for a couple of hours a day) and did lineart for Faramir, the boat, the bank and the reeds. Then there were finals, and I only finished it in a couple of days a week ago. So it took about 12-15 hours in total, I guess?

з.ы.: где я спалилась?)

— Keihi    Saturday 21 July 2012, 5:35    #

Wow!!! This is beautiful!! It’s so detailed and lovely!

Minx    Saturday 21 July 2012, 21:29    #

Оо, это очень интересный вопрос) You feel that LOTR is a children’s book? By the way, I totally don’t know whether it was intended like one, although I have read such statements several times, incidentally in Russian net communities – so I’m not trying to hold an enducated literary discussion here ;) only asking re your personal perception. To me too, this tale was read when I was around 5 – and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I don’t think it would be much of an exaggeration to say this book has shaped my worldview, at least more than any other work of art or writing. But whether it’s actually a children’s book, at least in how it came out if not the intent… I don’t know, having reread it some one and a half decades later, I felt it was perfect for my age – no, not that, I felt I was still too young to fully understand… Admittedly, if you compare it to, say, Sil, then Sil does have a much more adult feeling to it – though Sil is generally written in a myth-like fashion, and that is always a more sombre reading… But either way, I guess my current view is that LOTR is literally a book for all ages. It certainly is appropriate and good for children, though maybe 5 is a bit too young, hehe – it did give me a fear of the dark that hasn’t 100% gone away yet, though I’m on my way – and a panic fear of spiders that I… well. I know I’ll never move ot Australia, haha. Would love to know your thoughts on this. Though I must add that this approach reads well in at least this current painting, and I guess one of the reasons it has touched me so, is the way the style, which indeed is very Bilibin-like, sends me back to my childhood years, and therefore back to my childhood perception of the LOTR book. We did have at home the Tsar Saltan book with Bilibin’s illustrations, so your picture definitely pulls a nostalgic string…

По поводу слэша… Опять же, первый разы книга была прочитан в детстве, да и в России в общем-то отношение к такого рода фанарту и фанфикшену весьма неодобрительное… Да, пока жила в России, испытывала довольно сильное чувство неловкости за слэш, да и вообще за все выше уровня ПГ, связанное с ЛОТР. Но в целом у меня выработался подобный взгляд: все-таки в самой книге сказано, что она написана якобы правнуком Фарамира, скажем так, для истории. Соответственно мы имеем дело с официальной и формальной версией событий, где… скажем так, в силу жанра многие вопросы не затрагиваются вообще, и я имею в виду не только слэш. Когда дело касается официальных иллюстраций и экранизаций, я очень даже большой пурист и поборник канона – ох, как же бесило меня изображение в фильме отношений Арагорна с женщинами. Что он трогает Эовин и строит ей глаза, да и с Арвен там тоже довольно всё привольно было… На мой взгляд, это совершенно не соответствует атмосфере книги. Но если мы называем свою работу словом фанарт или фанфикшн, то есть берем авторскую лицензию на полную свободу интерпритации – тут уж, мне кжается, другое дело. Тут уже начинается работа непосредственно с героями истории, а не с самим оригиналом – а все герои в той или иной степени люди, и ничто человеческое)))) Но тут надо сказать, у меня было очень удачное знакомство со слэшем в отношении ЛОТР. ЭТо было большой неожиданностью, я тогда и не знала-то о таком жанре – и это был акварельный портрет Арагорна с Леголасом. Я вообще-то не любитель этой пары, но в той работе… там даже не было почти ничего, ни поцелуев, ни уж тем более чего-то большего. Но там было ощущение глубокого внутреннего конфликта, и сильного чувства, и все было какое-то чоень чистое и печальное. У меня тогда просто открылись глаза… В книге хорошо видно, что все человеческие страсти присущи тем, кто населяет историю, в той или иной форме. И я подумала тогда, ну а это чем хуже, это ведь тоже могло бы быть. Конечно, об этом никто бы не стал даже близко упоминать в книге для потомков, но это еще не значит, что это совершенно невозможно. Как-то так)

Прошу прощения за столь пространные рассуждения. Просто когда встречаешь человека, делающего такие проникновенные работы, да еще по твоей любимой книге, да еще земляка, да еще и с какими-то явно интересными отношениями с хомоэротикой – ну просто очень интересно становится пообщяться и узнать побольше. Ну если вы не против))

Палево, ну в первую очередь, Билибин. Все-таки за бугром он не так известен, по крайней мере по имени. С One Piece я не была знакома, и в гугле ссылки на него тоже выдали русские. Ну а дальше я пошло проверять догадку на Деваянт))))

12-15 hours. Holy ****! I mean, wow, that is fascinating. It seems like really not much time at all for a full-colour work with people and background… Do you do tutorials?)))

December    Sunday 22 July 2012, 2:03    #

Minx:
Thank you, dear!

December:
Hm. Actually, LotR is a bit out of this type of books – ‘cause it certainly was The book of my childhood (I’m pretty sure it was one of the first books I’d read myself), but I don’t think it was meant for children, certainly not like The Hobbit was. I was referring more to the books like… Treasure Island or To Kill a Mockingbird. LotR is more like a sacred text (and I’m very ashamed to admit, that I’ve yet to read The Silmarillion). (By the way – The Chronicles of Narnia fall into both categories here. Good job, Mr Lewis!) And it’s not that I’m not okay with slash in it in general (I’ve read almost everything there is on Boromir/Faramir tag here, for the matter), I just don’t see myself ever drawing anything above PG-13 for this fandom.
Может, дело еще в том, что знакомство со слэшем по фэндому для меня началось с того, что мне вручили ссылку на огромный фанфик, где было много эльфов (в частности, я именно оттуда узнала, что Элронд – полуэльф. Это потрясло меня до глубины души), рейтинг был NC-21, и было неимоверное количество хардкорного БДСМ. Как-то это просто не уложилось в сознании.
Кстати о книге для потомков – я не помню, в каком фанфике и по какому фэндому мне попалась эта мысль, но там было рассуждение одного из персонажей о том, что он и его любовник “войдут в историю по отдельности”. Дело же даже не в том, что это опустят как несущественную деталь – дело все-так личное, едва ли о таких отношениях кому-то известно.
Что дает выдающийся простор для творчества.)

Хе, ясно. Насчет One Piece, правда, странно – мне кажется, что родной японский, да и английский фэндомы гораздо активнее.

Well, actually, it’s not that complicated. The coloring is just basic colous, no shading, it just looks good because of what technically is a texture. It was only a matter of choosing the right colour scheme. And clean lineart are kind of what I do.)) It only took so long because I had to redo Faramir’s face several times, and some parts had to be drawn with… one-movement strokes (like reeds and the river design), when usually every line I draw is a compilation of short strokes.
I never actually tries to do a tutorial, but I guess a can do some kind of step-by-step for this work if you’d like. ))

— Keihi    Sunday 22 July 2012, 7:47    #

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