ungoliant and morgoth

[boredomsketch]

hello
i´ve benn reading Silmallirion from Tolkien. Here's a sketch for an ilustration of a piece of the history. Morgoth takes Ungoliant to kill the trees in The darkening of Valinor.
Sketch done right after reading the chapter in the book. It needs a Redesign specially ungoliant and the trees.



critique please.

[dogfood]

The action doesn't read very clearly. It looks like a spider is after the Batman and someone has thrown a javelin through the tree between them. From a design stand point, Ungoliant looks a tad like a mutated gerbel.

It is smooth, however, and the characters do have some interest. (Should some light come from the trees?)

[boredomsketch]

yes, the trees are a big source of light. After their death Valinor darkens.
Morgoth, at right, is scared with the spider, although this a really quick sketch, and the characters were almost an immediate thing.
What is a gerbel? the speer was throne by molkor so that the blood of the trees could be absorved by Ungoliant. I should post a better description, my fault.

[dogfood]

No big deal; I am pretty familiar with the book and the story. A gerbil is a small rodent, but I was making more of a reference to the spider anatomy or lack thereof). While Ungoliant is not normal, the arachnid body segmentation adds to the menace and alien quality.

And while Morgoth was afraid of Ungoliant, I don't think it was the kind of fear he would show, but more of a way of dealing with the beast.

[boredomsketch]

when i was reading it thats how imagine,just a little hesitation from morgoth,because of the size Ungoliant was beginning to take.
I guess that to show some hesitation i would have to use body expression to show it . thats the reason i made Morgoth this way.
But i guess i need to draw Ungoliant bigger. I've been drawing spiders, to became more familiar to their anatomy. At the time i haven't a spider image to look at, just a brief mental image. I agree that adding segments to ungoliant would make her more like a spider. Thats a flaw im correcting.
Thanks for the crits, i hope i'll get your critic when i got a newer version.

[boredomsketch]

here's a new design from ungoliant. Its more arachnid like. i put a big abdomen because she's a very ungry spider and she will eat the trees of Valinor. heres's the sketch. Since Ungoliant is not a normal spider, i tried to maintain some of the spider characteristics but add other like spikes in the legs, and also pointy legs and no fur.

[Slash]

I really like the new, more segmented ungoliant look. "Batman" still needs some work tho.. He needs to have more beefy arms in my opinion. And some other features that changes his silhouette enough to NOT look like batman.

[boredomsketch]

im glad that you like the new Ungoliant. Yep mr.Batman needs to return to Gotham city and leave Valinor. My mental image to him was very much influenced by the moviecharacter Sauron. Yes the arms are a bit weak and slim. Im thinking to put him in an armor with lot of spikes to give some more agressivity. He's the next to be redesigned. I'll post soon i got some interesting stuff.

[Slash]

Its not really strange that you've been influenced by sauron in the movies. They are after all, in essence, the same character.

Alan lee's melkor & ungoliant illustration also shows a very sauronesque melkor.


As for his pose, if you're trying to get across melkors concern, you should tone it down a bit. In the first he looks like he's beeing zapped, or just saw a rat in his closet.

[boredomsketch]

a little too frightned to a dark lord perhaps. Alan Lee and John Howe are big influences also. I did search their images. Theres one off ungoliant truly scary and Morgoth is very smilar to the movie version of sauron.

thanks

[boredomsketch]

the description in the book of Morgoth is "a dark lord, tall and terrible", i've been working on other version of Morgoth, putting him on other clothes, like a sourcerer, giving him the terrible look with his expression, other than his clothes. The third drawing counting from left to right its the one that i think its more acomplished in that aspect. Also have worked on other composition to this image, were only the hand of Morgoth would appear,than the spear in the tree of Valinor, and than Ungoliant. This would be the order of reading that i idealized. Ungoliant would be like the sketch in the drawing i've done above. This would leave more room to people to imagine their version of Morgoth. But since this is concept art, i ve done the Morgoth.
As for the armored version im working on it. I have a lot to learn about armors so i can do them like they were real armours that work.

[thegreypencil]

i think tolkien did some descriptives of her, something about her hide being scarred and that she spewed forth darkness whereever she went. you could bring in those effects! like have certain parts of her anatomy being obscured by thick black smog, that'll make it uber menacing! of course you'd have to redesign her a little, she still looks like an ordinary spider somehow.

[boredomsketch]

Yes, you´re right, Ungoliant covered her and Morgoth with a black smog.
Yes it will be more menacing! Thank you for the suggestions. im gonna work on those.
What do you think about my version of Morgoth?

[Slash]

Morgoth certainly looks more goth. (no pun intended at all! lol)

Its fresh to see some new takes on this well-known character. He could do with some more iconic attributes tho. He looks a tad on the anonymous side for a dark lord.

[thegreypencil]

nye he he ..nic eone slash.

hey I like how your morgoth is humanised, all that i read in tolkien, visually, is that he's this big ass suite of armor.
I think you need to balance out the very human elements in him : the dark envious, power hungry and constantly suffering, with his supernatural aspect. Maybe you could drop the horned helmet design though, i know he has an iron crown but the whole batman silhouette's been done to death, maybe smaller spikes or something hmm.. yea definitely bring out the darkness of his twisted beauty, but also hint at his past, the fallen glory and all that.

Well its all very vague and I wish I could give you more technical stuff but well

[boredomsketch]

Hello again

thegreypencil - im working on ungoliant as being with a black smog and some redesign. Also on Morgoth but im not pleased with none of my drawings. I think when Morgoth went with Ungoliant he didn t have the crown. Where did you read about the armour? On silmarillion?

Slash - yes its a little bit anonymous, i had some ideas like putting black speech written on his clothes. Or some other clothes, still working on it.

i'm researching info about both of this characters. also study more of spiders anatomy , armours , and saw others artists version of both of them.