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Canis-Lupess — Luthien and Huan
Published: 2007-12-17 00:03:44 +0000 UTC; Views: 10888; Favourites: 186; Downloads: 19
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Description
Luthien and Huan after she escaped from her father who held her prisoner to stop her from going to rescue Beren from Morgoth.Huan was supposed to be a large wolf hound/dog. Some people inagine him to be like an Irish wolfhound but I imagined him more as a wolf like primitive looking dog so just used a wolf as a ref but it wasn't from my photo so, other than posting it in here, I don't do anything with this piece. He also had to be large enough for her to ride him. I know it looks strange but she did ride him in the story so he had to be large enough for that.
This is from the Silmarillion, not LOTR.
Ted Nasmith said that this Luthien was one of the best depictions he'd seen of her but there are things I'd change if I painted her again now. Another OLD piece.
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Comments: 51
I like the composition and big size of Huan, but I think that he looks like wolf too much. In the book he called a Valar Hound, he should look like dog, I think. But, of course, this is your way to imagine him. As for me - I always imagined Huan as giant wolfhound.
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I imagined him as a wolf-like dog as this would be a primitive type dog but this is an old painting and I would make him slightly less wolfish now but still wolf/primitive dog like. A wolfhound like what we have in reality is a modern dog breed...no actual breed is ancient as originally thought and they all derive from the village dog which evolved from a wolf-like ancestor.....so I couldn't imagine Huan as being like a modern dog breed in our world.
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i love that Huan is so huge. 1) He had to carry her, so he must be big. 2) Most probably he was a Maia, so he's not just some random small dog. 3) He fought against all those creatures of Morgoth and killed thm all so he needs to be extremely huge. I only think he looks too wolf-like, but the reason you axplain in another comment and i think i understand why you did it. i love it
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Oh wow you got Ted Nasmith to compliment your drawings too! He's another one of my idols 8O I really like this renedition, I think the wolf is a nice change to the hounds you see. And Luthien is gorgeous 
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Yeah, thats the feeling I wanted to convey...it pulls the viewer into the image.
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its extremly well made,but i do think Huan is a bit too big
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Maybe...I just took into account that Luthien did ride him so he had to be large enough to carry her.
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Huan wasn't a wolf thought, but a hound!
Yet, this is soooooooo beautiful!
Well done!
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Yes, he was a hound but I imagined him to be a primitive type dog that looks wolflike although I probably made him look a little too wolflike in this, I did it years ago and would change a lot of things now...I didn't imagine him to be an Irish Wolfhound or something of that type...that is a breed of our world, not Middle-Earth.
Thanks
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I wish I could make fur like this in my drawings
just wonderfull ^-^
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ooh I really like this. Not familiar with the Silmarillion though, I think it looks great anyway. It really caught my attention. Must be the huge wolf 
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I like it very much. Its magical. I like the depiction Beren...friendly but wolfish and wild, strong and steady.
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ahhh, 
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Ah, Beren was the guy who Luthien fell in love with and he was captive in Morgoths abode at the time this scene was set.
Huan was the wolf hound.
Thanks.
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I'm not sure about Luthien, but the appearance of Huan, his size and his "expression" are very likable...though he's more like a "friendly wolf" than a "wolfhound"!
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I didn't want to portray him like an irish wolfhound as they are breed of this world so I portrayed him to look more wolfish...like primitive dogs would have looked but maybe he could have looked slightly less pure wolf. I'd change that if I did this again but wouldn't paint him like an Irish wolfhound. More like a wolf hybrid type dog.
As for Luthien, well, everyone has their own image of what characters looked like. The variety can be quite interesting in itself.
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That's right, there's so many Huans looking like Irish wolfhounds , it has become commonplace. But Middle-Earth is not exactly Ireland and Irish wolfhound is not very suitable to ride on. And wolf-like dog seems much more ancient and magical...
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I disagree. Sometimes we lose the original 'spice' of our original enthusiasm.[Is that a double negative? And therefore gloomy?]
The Wolf looks really good. No worse than your modern stuff.
Anyway, enough of that. On to the more fun stuff.
Silmarillion, you say? I read about a paragraph of that, seriously hard going.
I thought I said 'fun stuff'.
I beg to differ on the 'large hound' thing. I think it is more about a 'tiny, tiny woman'.
You've painted all of the pic, to the scale of the hound, so therefore, the woman is tiny.
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You're always gloomy...
Anyway, yes, one of the things I did sometimes fail to take into account during my younger days. Live and learn. I think about stuff like that much more now and don't use other peoples photos anymore unless they are provided as copyright free images such as the RIL at wetcanvas or unless I had permission from the photographer themselves.
I still have to stick with what I said about being reminded on how much you improved by seeing old pieces. I hadn't looked at these old LOTR ones for quite some time. I have even older stuff that I've not looked at for even longer and I know it does actively make me compare my current stuff to what I did back then when I look at it. So, again, we'll have to agree to disagree. The wolf might have been good for the time but, as noticed, there are more aspects to the painting than the wolf.
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Gloomy? I thought I was fairly humourous, oh well.
I did know what you meant though. All I meant was that, whilst technically improving with time, sometimes the rawness of an early work, can appear less rigid. In the same way that some badly drawn cartoons work. They still capture the essence of what you were trying to do.
I totally agree with the photo stuff. It just isn't worth the risk. I had that problem with that Tiger one. The one that you thought I'd copied off another artist, ages ago. I've managed to build a reasonable collection of photo's now, which helps a lot. Certain animals are not covered, but we can't have everything. Doh, did I end that in a gloomy fashion?
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lol.
Yeah, getting ref photos of all the things you want to paint is a pain. I have the camera, just not the subjects damnit!!!
There are no decent zoos near where I live without having to spend several hours driving there etc...
What zoos do you visit?
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I go to the excellant John Aspinall Zoo's, Howletts and Port Lympne. There are other, more specialist places within an hour or two's drive, like the Wolf place and the leopard place that I went too. There's a Tiger place, really close, closer than all the others, but it is also bloody expensive. That's the bane of living in a rich area.
Where do you live then, that there are no zoo's? I have to drive for 90 min's plus, so they're not that near.
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I live in S. Yorkshire. The nearest zoo is Twycross which is nearly all monkeys/primates now which I am not as interested in photographing and painting. I like all animals but you have your faves when it comes to painting and photography etc...and they aren't it.
There is Chester zoo which is a bit further out but I hear they've not got the cheetahs anymore like they used to and no wolves either.
The only place I got to see wolves was when I was about 10 when my mum took me to Whipsnade on our way home from family friends in guildford. It was an ace place but very big and we didn't have time to walk all the way round it and enjoy it to it's full potential. The enclosures there are very big and natural looking. There was a very large pack of wolves there and they had lions, tigers, cheetahs etc.. too. It's just too far out from where I live and I don't have much confidence driving distances in places I don't know anyway.
The last zoo I went to was in Toronto in Dec 2003 and it was so cold, some animals were taken off exhibit. They did have arctic wolves there, cheetahs, lions, snow leopards and tigers etc... but I only had my old little crappy digicam back then so only got photos reflective of that.
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Who's gloomy here? Oh yeah, I remember, lol.
Mmmm, a nice Yorkshire las eh.
I'd take you out, if only you were nearer. I know some shit hot places.
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Yeah with the BROAD accent to match. I'm not one of these who speaks estuary English/Mockney as too many people in Yorkshire do these days. People know that I'm from Yorkshire.
Us two go out? Nah, you need the opposite to counteract you. We'd be like a couple of victor meldrews fueling each others negative attitude.
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Mockney, hehe, never heard that and I'm not sure what you mean, but it made me giggle.
And you'd best not be mocking Yorkshire birds.
Now to the serious stuff.........Don't build ya part up, I did say 'if'
Having said that, I am peaked, eh?? What the fuck does that mean? hehe, oh well, moving on.
I'm glad you have me sussed. If only I'd realised before that I need an opposite. Since when, did you rise to the league of a meldrew. You have to earn these points, don't you know.
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Ah you see, I don't tell you about all the points I earn do I?
Mockney is basically another name for estuary English. The bland neutral speech you get people use where you haven't the foggiest idea where abouts they are from because of it. Accents are good in that respect. They give a person an identity badge without having to actually tell somebody else where they are from. In Yorkshire, the dialect used to vary greatly just from one end of an estate to the other. Not like that now.
>>Now to the serious stuff.........Don't build ya part up, I did say 'if' <<<
Yeah, definitely an 'IF'...in case you got the wrong impression...
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My accent is probably Mockney then, but I reckon we all think we have no accent.
'IF' and 'wrong impression'??? I'm totally lost now. Are you saying that you want my babies? hehehe. I guess not.
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Haha, now I know you definitely are confused.
I know I have an accent, lol.
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As long as you know, that's all that counts.
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Yes, as long as you do too....
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Me? I haven't got a clue.
Are we still talking about accents?
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Possibly, yet maybe not. Who is to say. I'm just trying to have the last comment, lol. Not sure why, it's something to do , I guess.
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LOL, doing things typical of BCs. There are some herding scenes, mainly near the beginning. Some of dogs playing in water, playing with each other..chapters of pups and individual dogs. Yes it was fun.
One of them has the habit of jumping over the big farm gate then running at it from the other side, pushing it open with her front paws and so letting all the other dogs through so they can go off and play. Dead funny.
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I should sell the vid's of my dogs, if there's money in it.
They are clever little buggers though.
Check out that Wolfman on CH5, 8pm tonight, if you haven't seen it already. It's really interesting.
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Ah yeah, that last word. We could go on forever here....
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We could indeed. We shall have to find another topic of interest.
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Why, isn't this one interesting?
I just got that border collie sheepdogs off duty DVD by Andy Nickless for xmas, lol. Gunna go watch it.
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Yeah, it was, just gotta keep it moving though, lol.
And I see you have done.
Not heard of the DVD, but it sounds interesting.
What are they up to? Gangs of dogs skateboarding, rock climbing or just a night down the pub?
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This is quite pretty, and the wolf is good. It's obvious this is an old piece, but that's a good thing. It shows how much you've improved since then.
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Yeah...always good to know that you are getting better. Is it is gradual, it can sometimes be difficult to notice just how much without seeing older stuff.
Cheers.
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