Tolkien Etchings

For my etchings Gandalf the Mastermind 1st, and second state, in my series of etchings and drawings based on The Lord of the Rings, the Silmarillion, and other works of J.R.R.Tolkien, the above photos, taped to a piece of cardboard, where some of the materials I used as an aid to capturing my vision of Mithrandir. For a recently finished drawing of Melkor, ironically, or perhaps not, some of the same photos where used. The three photos of Ian McKellen will be obvious to all Tolkien fans. Perhaps less familiar may be the two photos top middle of the author Samuel Becket, and the three of Basil Rawthbone, the one on the lower right the most important for my image. The other people are friends, and others with aspects that relate to Gandalf - Tim in the upper right having perhaps the world’s longest eyebrows.

Though I use photographic images in my work they are purely an aid for detail. At all times what is paramount to me, to paraphrase Beethoven, is crystallizing that cloud-like, yet very specific image I have in my head.