A stein illustration I made for Taverncraft [link] Working on the LOTR
theme was indeed lots of fun, we tried winged variations on the preliminary sketches but
ended up getting rid of them completely in the final. Don't get me wrong, I love creatures
with wings -I guess it's obvious- but in landscape canvases they're simply a pain in the ass :)


Since Balrogs' wings were already in debate, we decided to use that window, also we needed
to avoid the Jackson's interpretation as best as we could because of license issues, so I came
up with an original Balrog and I have all the space for a massive bulk :)


This one took me around 40-50 hours start to finish so it was just like the old times, and it
turned out great.


Enjoy!

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CS4, Cintiq 12WX
Note: I have used reference for the gargoyles.