WIP:Lords of Noldor: Fingolfin

WORK IN PROGRESS: Ñolofinwë Arakáno, Son of Finwë


Character Background

Fingolfin was Finwë’s third child (second by Indis) and second son, renowned for his strength and wisdom. He became the regent of the Ñoldor in Tirion after Finwë retired to Formenost with the banished Fëanor. After the death of their father the half-brothers disputed the kingship of the Ñoldor and led their people in pursuit of Morgoth and the Silmarils all the way to Beleriand. There Fingolfin eventually became the first High King of the exiled Noldor.

He was perhaps the greatest warrior among the Eldar and a natural leader who inspired loyalty, but like his father and most Ñoldor he was quite proud and perhaps a tad bit too fond of power - which strained his relations with Fëanor even further. Still, he was much more of a diplomat than Fëanor at any rate.

Design Concept

I picture Fingolfin as the tallest (6'9" / 206 cm) and strongest of the sons of Finwë, with athletic broad-shouldered body type (which I view as uncommon among the Elves), strong-jawed face and medium-long straight hair of very dark brown colour. I see him as slightly vainglorious.. not quite as much as his father, but he would wear flamboyant, intricately decorated formal robes of blue, white, silver and gold to show off his wealth and status and would generally bask in the attention and reverence his elevated position granted him.

The heraldic design is my interpretation of Tolkien’s original design for Fingolfin. The smaller design below his name is my idea for a more simplified emblem of the House of Fingolfin, a white/silver star on a deep blue 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