WIP:Lords of Noldor: Finwe

WORK IN PROGRESS: Finwë, King of the Ñoldor


<sub>”In those days [Indis] had looked upon the Lord of the Noldor, and he seemed to her fairest and noblest of the Eldar, dark-haired and white of brow, eager of face but with eyes full of thought; and his voice and mastery of words delighted her.”

-- J. R. R. Tolkien: The Later Quenta Silmarillion (II): Of the Silmarils and the Darkening of Valinor, §24 (HoME X: Morgoth's Ring)</sub>



Character Background

Finwë was one of the four original envoys of the Elven peoples who visited Valinor with the Vala Oromë and then persuaded the Eldar to leave their original homes at Kúivienen. He led the Ñoldor during the Great March and eventually became their king in Tirion. He was undoubtedly among the oldest Elves in Aman and was renowned for his wisdom. But later he, like most of his people, seems to have become more proud, vainglorious and often let emotion overrule his famed wisdom. He favoured his eldest son, named all his sons after himself, and pursued his own happiness over that of his people..

Design Concept

I picture Finwë as very tall (although not as tall as most of his descendants at 6'5" /196 cm) and thin, with a narrow face, sharp features and very long and straight raven-black hair. He would wear incredibly ornate and luxurious raiment wrought of the most exquisite materials, embroidered with gold and jewels. His colours would be gold, ruby and sapphire. He would be fond of intricate jewellery and carry many tokens of his exalted position, like the crown, the sceptre, the necklace, the belt, the signet ring..

The heraldic design is my interpretation of Tolkien’s original design for Finwë. The smaller design below his name is my idea for a more simplified emblem of the House of Finwë - a silver/gold.. star (I’ll avoid calling it “sun” since the mythology is confusing and contradictory..). I might still simplify it by removing the circle, but let’s see..

---

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