WIP:Lords of Noldor: Feanor

WORK IN PROGRESS: Kurufinwë Fëanáro, Son of Finwë


<sub>”Fëanor grew swiftly, as if a secret fire were kindled in him. He was tall, and fair of face, and masterful, his eyes piercingly bright and his hair raven-dark; in the pursuit of all his purposes eager and steadfast. Few ever changed his courses by counsel, none by force. He became of all the Noldor, then or after, the most subtle in mind and the most skilled in hand.”

-- J. R. R. Tolkien: The Silmarillion, Chapter 6: Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor</sub>



Character Background

Finwë's eldest son and only child by Míriel, Fëanor was the greatest of the Ñoldor in skill of hand and power of the mind. He created the Silmarili and the Tengwar and is without doubt the most pivotal figure in the history of the Ñoldor and all of Tolkien’s legendarium of the Elder Days.

Fëanor was also extremely proud and hot-tempered. Although the Fall of the Ñoldor was contrived by Morgoth, Fëanor was truly the embodiment and main motivator of their rebellion, driven to madness by the loss of his father and the Simarils. The Oath he swore with his sons led to the Flight and eventual Fall of all the Ñoldor who left Aman. Although for the most part of the Silmarillion Fëanor is already dead, without his deeds there would be no story to tell in the book!

Design Concept

My image of Fëanor is tall (6'4" / 193 cm) and nimble, with sharp features and raven-black hair reminiscent of his father. I see a slight air of nervousness and a great deal of creative madness about him; he would never sit or stand still, never be content with what he has and constantly aspire for greater achievements. Although I see him as the shortest of Finwë’s sons physically, his spirit and his presence would be so powerful that he would always seem taller, almost as if glowing with an inner light. (Not quite sure how to draw that, though..)

With the pose I try to convey that as always, Fëanor’s mind is at work.. He can’t be bothered to look at the ‘ portrait painter’ as he’s already thinking of some new invention or work of art. I wanted to give him some item that would mark him as a great writer and loremaster and ended up with a peacock feather quill, because.. umm.. well, peacocks are extremely cool and I think Fëanor was also a bit of a “ peacock” himself. He wears very flashy (but still quite practical) clothes and lots of jewellery.

The heraldic design is my interpretation of Tolkien’s original design for Fëanor. The smaller design below his name is my idea for a more simplified emblem of the House of Fëanor, a silver star on red/black background.

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This is a WIP character sketch for my “Lords of the Ñoldor” project. It combines the scanned, not-yet-cleaned-up pencil lineart without shading or highlights, the current idea for the heraldic device(s) and the Tengwar inscription (I haven't decided yet whether I want to use the regular script or the cursive style, so I included both) to be used in the triptych. At some point I might finish it up as an individual character portrait but for now it’s just a WIP component.

Character drawn on regular copy paper, no references used. The originals are quite small; each character is under 15 cm tall (that’s a bit under 6” for the measurement-impaired). I draw them with a regular HB pencil that I try not to sharpen too much.. gives the line a nice thickness and more lively(=uneven) character. The size also keeps me from adding too many details, which would be lost anyway in the finished piece where the characters are fairly small.

The heraldic designs were drawn in AutoCAD, I looked at Tolkien’s design for reference. Assembled in Photoshop. _{(--Hard to say what category this should go into, but let’s say traditional, since the pencil drawing is the main thing..)}

It’s still WIP, so comments, ideas, suggestions, etc. are more than welcome!


WIP:Lords of Noldor: Triptych Layout

WIP:Lords of Noldor: Character Portraits