Thorin Ink Test

I know I seem to be focusing on Thorin as well as head/shoulder portraits, but I've been currently going through a few things:

- I am older, and while I've been drawing most of my life, there was a long break. I guess you could say I'm trying to find my old habits again, as well as any new voice or styles that might be wanting out.
- Chronic pain and eyes that aren't reliable makes for lack of confidence and shorter amounts of working time. So bigger views allow for that practice.
- Thorin's a favorite and more familiar subject, so he's helpful to use.

I recently was on a road trip with my husband (it was a writing conference), and while he attended things throughout the day, I relaxed in the hotel room and sketched in my sketchbook.

This was one of the sketches. It was very small, one side of his face ran into the binding area (making it non-existent for the most part), and it was in blue pencil. Also, it was very stylized and simple. But we liked him... so I decided to enlarge him, add a little more detail and finish the view for inking.

Unfortunately, that first thing I mentioned above got to me. I kept playing and changing and obsessing... as well as making stupid mistakes or flat-out not realizing I couldn't even see what I was doing (sometimes it's not a good idea to "just do it" -- what's the point of working if you can't even see what you're doing, eh?). I finally stopped myself from constantly fixing things (or making those changes that I just never seemed satisfied with), and finished him. This was really supposed to be a way to get myself drawing/inking, as well as breaking in a new brush I had not used yet. Well, at least the brush works nicely compared to the old one that was worn out!

Stylized, small, unfinished blue pencil in a sketchbook, enlarged and transferred (in blue pencil) to 11x14 Bristol. Inked with Black Magic ink, using a Winsor & Newton series 7 #2 brush. Also using a few tiny archival ink art pens, a little white pencil, and acrylic white paint for fixes as well as a little fur texture.

As far as what point in the story this is from, I had made a simple non-costume-specific cranky Thorin face. My husband, a friend, and myself voted on which costume to draw... and while working on him, I realized it made me think of the point after talking to Bilbo about the acorn, when Dwalin came to tell him about the Laketown survivors and he snapped back from his brief moment of kindness. It wasn't intended, but works for me.