Thorin and Goat in Ered Luin

I've been spending a lot of time messing around with ink, but not really getting much done. Time to simplify. And time to finish things that have been sitting around WAY too long.

This was originally started (the blue pencil part of it, not the inks) in early June 2015. For whatever reason, I couldn't bring myself to ink it (despite really wanting to). So new brush in hand, I decided enough was enough. I really need to stop putting things off -- I end up forgetting (or am just doing things differently now) what I was planning to do a year or more later when I finally get around to these.

The original blue pencil was done on 11x14 Strathmore drawing paper. I wanted to preserve the blue pencils, so I scanned, darkened the lines, turned it into B&W, and printed it out to transfer to 11x14 Bristol for inking. I used Black Magic ink with a Winsor & Newton series 7 #2 brush, a little bit of detail work on Thorin and a few tiny pebbles with a Micron 005 pen, a bit of touch-ups in white acrylic paint and white pencil, and a little texture-work in black pencil.

As far as the scene... I play Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), and I have one dwarf and two elves (also a hobbit) so far. You'd think I'd be sick of seeing Thorin's Hall/Ered Luin... well, no. My character house is there. I love that area and feel at home there. Many times, when I'd be questing (and coming across little things that were about Thorin or the Battle of the Five Armies) I would stop and just think about the story before The Hobbit. As I said on the original sketch's page:  

"I've been obsessed with the story-not-told in Ered Luin (most likely also because I play LOTRO and love going back there with my characters). I like to imagine Thorin would go away on trips for trade and supplies on his own, so he could think and be alone. Perhaps here, he is thinking of happy days gone by, family lost, Erebor in its glory -- the mighty kingdom of Durin's Folk. And while picking up supplies, I am sure he is also searching for information: where is his father? Any detail. Any hint. Any rumor.... always searching and wondering."

And of course, wondering when the time would be to return to Erebor.

(I hope the scan doesn't lose some detail. I was pressed for some time, and wanted to darken the solid black areas to get rid of the streaking that happens with scanning and hope it didn't do anything weird to the details.)

Link to the original blue pencil sketch:  cfgriffith.deviantart.com/art/…