Sauron (new pic added)

[Summer Pudding]

Here's something I painted the other day. It's been knocking around in my head for weeks, trying to get out. I didn't use any reference for it btw.

Perhaps a visit to the Tower of London armoury is in order.

c&c welcome

http://www.summerpudding.com/index_files/Sauron.jpg

[yfront]

He looks german

[SinisteR]

He looks like a bird, with a beak and those two beady eyes.

Oh wait, that`s his armor.
I get it now, nice. Love the colors.

Real nice, and the Tower of London is extremely sweet. Too bad they didn`t sell any replicas of those incredibly awesome weapons there.
]You should ask the wardens about the ghost stories, freaky shid.

[Fipse]

The Tower of London hasn´t got the Royal Armouries in it anymore - so it´s more or less an overpriced museum ;). The armouries are now in Leeds - go there and weep .

Fipse

Btw nice interpretation

[Molly]

Summer Pudding - this is cool. I like it. I like the way his helmet is just gigantic, compared to the rest of his body. I checked your site out, real nice style you got there, was this done in Painter?

Mollyx;)

[TheGreatSlayer]

Originally posted by yfront
He looks german

What?
Can you explain this statement to me? I am a german and know noone who wears a big bad armor and axe (by the way nice artwork) and has such a long Head :)
So, please tell me on which prejudice this statement is based on, because I love to hear that stuff :D

[Presence]

I thought he was canadian:D

[Scubasteve]

He looks pretty cool. He doesn't look quite evil enough for me though. Also I would like to see the ring of power. Nice painting!

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

hmmm I would probably had made the picture darker and more gritty....but perhaps it's the deceptive nature of Sauron?

[Summer Pudding]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the comments. It's appreciated.

Right, I'd like to clear up the whole 'looks German' thing. I think yfront's brief comment might be referring to the big fella's axehead. I was thinking of the iconography used by aggressive military expansionist empires. The Third Reich, Napoleon, the Roman Empire and a host of others used this as a symbol of their military might.

Fipse: Leeds?! LEEDS?!!! Man alive! What are they doing there?

Sinister: for replica weapons, there is (or was a few years ago) an open air smithies in Wenceslas Square, Prague. Amazing. You can see it being made at the point of sale.

Molly: Double entendres ahoy! :D I'm glad you liked the site. One day, I'll get round to Dreamweaving it. All my digital work is done in Photoshop btw.

Scubasteve: In my quest to avoid as many Dungeons & Dragons visual cliches as possible, I may have overlooked some of the evil look archetypes.

PriNcE oF SpAcE: again, I wanted to steer away from the archetypal evil setting, and have him standing in the sun.

seey'all soon!

[yfront]

Just thought part of the armor looked like the maximilian armor, thats all folks.

[shadow]

I really like it, but mabye, if you wanted him to look more sinister, without cliched jagged armor, make his axe have more sharp edges, and take of the heraldic symbol on his head, t'would make him more veil. Good stuff, i like the background, adds a dryness to the picture.:)

[Summer Pudding]

Here's another version. Ol' Burney Eye leading the defence of Angband for his boss.

I used ref for the outline of the horses. The rest is from my head.

c&c welcome as always

:)

http://www.summerpudding.com/index_files/Sauron_5.jpg

[Aerythes]

Your paintwork is beautiful. I like the first version more. Since Sauron is such a bigbadboss, perhaps you can give him more complex, expensive-looking armor, to signify his bigbadboss status.

[Chris Beatrice]

Very nice stuff. I like your use of color. I think these pieces would have a lot more punch if you could get in there and tighten some areas up, without losing any of that beautiful loose quality.

[Commander Obvious]

Inspirational use of colors! The looseness of it is very appealing too.

I just had to do a Morgoth after staring at these. Here he is holding his hammer, Gron.
http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Russell_Collins/Miscellaneous/Morgoth.jpg

[cloaca]

Regarding the original image:

I love the idea of something as evil as Sauron wearing glittering/polished armor, and otherwise decorated in the fashion of a hero-- except twisted somehow. The stretched head does this nicely.

The rusted/blackened wrought-iron look for evil is a little overplayed, I think. Perfectly evil villains can be a bit boring like that.

I think the struggle vs. good and evil gets interesting when you blur the lines and blur the way you depict each side-- an evil god/king has a host of followers, etc, who believe that he/she is the one true god/king/queen, etc... so wouldn't it follow that they would present themselves in this sort of grand and terrible fashion? Wouldn't they inspire both awe and terror? Wouldn't Sauron wear glittering armor?

In a broader context, are they really the bad guy, or are they just someone *else's* good guy?

nice painting. I wanna see more.