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RivkaZ β Forging Arda- page 4
Published: 2013-02-01 06:58:41 +0000 UTC; Views: 18085; Favourites: 176; Downloads: 65
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Again, apologies for taking some minor liberties with the chronology of the AinulindalΓ«/Valaquenta. I am trying to take care not to smudge too much canon, and only when it's for the sake of story-flow.Anyway, here's Melkor, doing his finest Stevie Nicks impersonation. I want his design to show his fall from splendor a little more subtly and over time, instead of WHAM BAM DARK LORD like it is in the book. XD Bear with me. Mairon is going to undergo some changes as he develops as well (don't we all).
Remind me never to have a purple-ish, blue-ish character lit by ambient orange light ever, ever again.
___
I had a dream about the origins of Sauron/Mairon the Maiar, and his time spent in the service of AulΓ« the Smith. Now I am trying to put some of that dream-material into a comic.
I want to explore some of the empty margins in the history of these characters, simply because there is a lot about Middle Earth theology that frustrates me a great deal, and I feel like the motivations of a lot of the 'dark' characters are not explored in the books at all (or at least, not to my satisfaction). So this is my sort of self-indulgent, mini "Paradise Lost" for the Silmarillion. XD
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Comments: 31
Your art is exquisitely beautiful..
This page reminds me of the Firebird Symphony sequence from Fantasia 2000.
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The dialogue is very similar in tone to Simba and Mufasa discussing the Outlands of Pride Rock, in the Lion King; was that intentional?
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No, but I have definitely made that joke before about this page! XD I have a parody sketch of it floating around somewhere on my tumblr. Good call!
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"THAT... is a being of pure sex and dangerous fun you would be wise to avoid."
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Melkor being gorgeous, yet so evil is very Lucifer like.
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I Love this SO MUCH! I always imagined Melkor as the dark, black one and Mairon as the golden or shining gold, but this part of your comics is so exciting, so "disturbing" its own way, so interesting.Β
Aule reminds me of the forest god (Mononoke) a bit 
I LOVE IT! Β 
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I can't decide if I'm disturbed by Melkor or not. He's kind of creeping me out.
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aaww! Mairon's face when he asks about Melkor is like an excited child hahaha, how cute!
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Gosh, Mairon, bebe, you so adorable :3 You really pulled off the young naive look perfectly! I especially adore the third panel, he's like "look daddy, what is this?". Dawww.
Melkor looks like he is having a really good time, which he probably is, the vile destructive bastard. XDDD
Oh my gosh, those backgrounds that you do they are so fab, so fab! So many dozens of hours must have gone into each of these pages! They are a masterpiece! 8D
I downer do you do thumbnails of pages before you draw them?
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But the shading on the purplish-bluish character lit by orange firelight is beautiful. o3o
I am impressed with the magma in this one.
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This is simply gorgeous! And very original, too.
Good luck with the project!
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Thank you so much! You are too kind!
I'm scratching away at the next page as we speak.
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Yay, that's nica to hear!
I totally adore your version of Aule.
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"Anyway, here's Melkor, doing his finest Stevie Nicks impersonation."
OMG. I just Jackson Pollocked my monitor with coffee! 
Beautiful work. The colors are fabulous, and the way you've captured the light of the erupting volcanos and coupled that to the figure of Melkor is amazing. I am picking up the Milton vibe (and how!) from the story as it continues. I meant to note earlier that your interpretation of AulΓ« is fascinating - the mane-like hair and beard, the broken horns - those really gives him a pagan feel, more like the Valar of the History of Middle-Earth as opposed to the scrubbed and sanitized Valar of The Silmarillion. Mairon seems suitably innocent β for now.
"I am trying to take care not to smudge too much canon..."
Read David Brin's words again. And repeat. 
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The Milton vibes are only going to get stronger. XD
And as for me, I cannot read the Silmarillion without wanting to rough it up a bit (like Melkor mucking about with the perfect, symmetrical Arda).
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This is really great. I love how you've drawn these characters, and your art style is just perfect for comics.
More.
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EEeeeeeeeeee
I'm drawing as fast as I can! I have chained myself to the desk so that I cannot get away.
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Chained with pink, fluffy handcuffs, I hope.
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REAL HANDCUFFS OR NOTHING, PRECIOUS
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OHOHOHO SEE YOU ON TUMBLR
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Melkor is flying around the place happily presenting to this new world his amazing lack of armpit-hair and other kind of hair XDDD While Aule looks like he's seen it all before, maybe Melkor gives this show everyday around that time - like instead of rising sun and roosters there is Melkor dawning XDDDD I imagine Mairon applouding at the end and Aule forcing him to stop staring and go away do some work XDD Anyways, gosh, brilliant page, third is still my favourite because of reasons but this is pretty close. I love how you use such different colors in each of those pages, wow, you're a great story teller. Story painter too XD asjhdjasjh can't wait to see what's next! And also Mairon keeps being so freaking cute he should be illegal XDDD
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Every day, at 6 in the morning, there's a burlesque fanfare and Melkor jumps out of the volcano in a torrent of glitter. "HELLO, DARLINGS. It's another FABULOUS DAY on the flaming rock! Take a seat, get something to drink, and enjoy the show! Today I'll be doing what I do ever day, throwing down the mountains and raising up the valleys- can I get an amen in here?"
*furious clapping from Mairon*
XD I'm sure he shaved just for the show. (I have nothing against arm pit hair. I like it! I don't know why I didn't draw any...) I am having a lot of fun painting these pages, and I feel like i am learning something crucial with each page. Unfortunately this means that every time I finish a page I have to resist the urge to go back and FIX EVERYTHING on all the past pages. T_T I have so much to learn, still. It makes me so happy that you like the story so far!!!
I think I will finish this arc in full color (it'll be about six pages long, when finished), and then after that I will switch to a more simple style, like just line-art with some monochrome shading or something, just so I can focus more on the actual story. ^_^;
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XDDD Now, you put it 100% accurate, ah we understand each other so perfectly XDDDD I also love the signing the hammer part that you wrote to some other nice person XDDDD Ah Melkor, you can even get a Halleluyah if you want XDDD I cannot wait for the next page!!! Also I finally can sort of get on with my life now that we managed to get the new chapter posted so maybe I'll also manage to scribble something again too XD
Nah, it's good without the hair, I mean your Mairon doesn't have pubic hair either XDD Taking this further, they should both grow very hairy when they become corrupt, him and Mairon XDDDDDD Good guys apparently only grow moss/grass on them XDDDD By the way, just cmpletely random idea - do you have some concept of Manwe? I'd totally love to see it if you do XD (I am just freaking excited to see the way you imagine everyone, you can ignore me XDDD)
Oh seriously, going back to pictures to improve them is unhealthy, I am always sitting a million years over things but once I submit them to dA I have the rule of not going back to dwelling on it again XDD Zlu has the healthiest rule 'what? going back to the picture? No, I just doodle it again quickly', I care too much for it to look good, so as a result I learn everything much slower and practice less XD;
Oho, you could either do monochrome or perhaps with some gradient, for the shock of suddenly-no-not to be too great XD But wow, this comic, so hot, unff <3 (perhaps I just mean all the volcanos and lava right XDDD)
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Yay, next page! Is that just me or does Mairon develop a very early 'celebrity crush' there? XDD Melkor looks really happy singing about there! I like the design a lot!
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DEFINITELY a celebrity crush. XDD He'll be asking Melkor to sign his hammer next.
Thanks so much for reading!
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Hahaha, the mental image! XD (Or maybe even his rings... *cough*)
You're very welcome!
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I really like your style. ItΒ΄s so different from the others. And wow, your Melkor looks awesome!
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That means a lot to me, thank you!
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