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TurnerMohan — Ancalagon Rises
Published: 2014-04-20 08:35:16 +0000 UTC; Views: 16771; Favourites: 372; Downloads: 179
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Description
Ancalagon the Black, the mightiest dragon ever to live in middle-earth, Morgoth's greatest creation and champion in the field during the War of Wrath, slain by Earendil (just how Earendil managed to kill him is never made clear, though I highly doubt it involved pinning the beast underfoot, as seen in this late second age rendition of the scene , those numenorean sculptors always did have a flair for dramatic exaggeration)I was so encouraged by all the positive feedback that my last attempt at the old 'Rushing Jaws' received that I thought I'd try a full reveal shot of him, above ground. Tolkien describes him as blotting out the sun with his wings, I imagine him here emerging upon the slopes of Thangorodrim, a moving mountain himself, wrapped about in the choking smoke and soot of his own fire, like a volcano erupting to life, before taking to the air.
this one started purely as a piece of concept art, but moved quicky into more 'illustrated scene' territory (that's been happening alot lately) I'd also intended to give Ancalagon a pair of front paws for this drawing, but once again, I found the wyvern-build to be just too naturalistic and compelling to pass up on.
Part of the Weekly Tolkien Sketchblog
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Comments: 44
Ominous and majestic, congratulations. It gives an idea on how the good guys must have felt faced by this beast.
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I agree, tetrapod dragons are more realistic and more aerodynamic.
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I actually whispered "oh f*ck" out loud when I saw this. You perfectly captured the feeling of dread this monstrosity should inspire, like the reveal in a classic monster movie.
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It's nice work, but why Ancalagon doesn't have four legs?
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For that i think you'll find the answer in my description 
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Sorry, I read your description after I post previous comment.
I know that it is artist's freedom to express himself how he wants, and this is impressive work!
About limbs you have right, in particular case of Ancalagon number of limbs is never specified. But I have to asked you about legs simply because of fact that later Smaug was interpreted like dragon with four legs (from Tolkien's sketch), and Glaurung was also with four legs (I know Glaurung wasn't winged dragon, but that beast was first of this species, and specimens after him had similar attributes including Smaug (from my perspective ofc)).
I really like this wyvern look, as I have said before, it is really impressive work! 
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Yes tolkien drew smaug as a six limbed creature (four legs, two wings) but the classification of "dragon" seems a varried thing in tolkien's world - some fly and some dont, some breathe fire and some dont - in general he seems a lot less rigid and specific with the taxonomy of his dragons than alot of role playing games that put a big emphasis on the difference between dragons, wyverns, basiliscs ect. Furthermore, from an anatomical standpoint, i've always considered it more convincing looking that four-legged flightless dragons like glaurung (which were the earliest model) might evolve into four-limbed flyers (two wings and two hind legs) than if they were to simply grow another pair of limbs (we see the evolution that i describe above in nature, with ancient reptiles going from crocodilian looking creatures on the ground, to bipeds, and finally to flying creatures like archeopteryx and modern birds)
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Impressive comparison in evolution terms!
Never thought in that way about Tolkien world, this gives me a couple of ideas.
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That is when you go "Oh shit" and run in the other direction as fast as possible.
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The more you look, the more details you'll see. It's awesome.
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Wow. Ancalagon is perfect. Gigantic, a mountain in himself... and the smoke and haze only adds to this. Truly terrifying. No wonder the Valar were beat back by the dragons.
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while reading the silmarillion one does get this image of some elemental, godzilla sized monstrosity, basically so big he creates his own blasting, volcanic enviornment around himself (i can see him taking to the air like footage of some huge volcano exploding, raining suffocating heat and dust down over the hosts of elves and maiar)
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Definitely. He's so big that he can't fit through the doors of Angband - he has to literally explode out. Now that is a movie clip I want to see...
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Indeed, I really hope that Peter Jackson will eventually be able to make movie adaptations of The Children of Hurin and certain parts of The Silmarillion (such as the story of Beren and Luthien and the War of Wrath).
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I feel like he could do a great job with the War of Wrath, and I would like to see it. PJ has that ability with battles; he did such a great job with the Battle of the Pelennor, The Last Alliance, The Battle of the Hornburg, etc (even if everything is not militarily accurate.) But I'm not really sure as to if I want to see a movie of Beren and Luthien. I feel like he will just make it rather a sappy love story and not capture it well. And Luthien is the most beautiful person on Middle-earth; PJ will probably want an extremely handsome, over-the-top Beren too. I think that Luthien would have fell in love with someone very noble and good of heart. And we know that Beren must have looked awful, after being an outlaw in Dorthonion, traveling through Nan Dungortheb, and trying to find Luthien in Doriath. So it must have been his character that really attracted Luthien, and I don't think PJ will be able to see and show that. But he could probably do Luthien's power of dance and song decently, if he doesn't get carried away. As for the Children of Hurin, I'm not sure if PJ could capture Turin's character correctly. It would also depend on the actor. A lot would probably be cut, too.
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True, that definitely could happen, I still want to see these made though (you'll never know for sure if it's bad unless you see it). Besides it will probably be at least another 10 years before anyone could make these, so who knows what could happen?
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We'll have to see. If there will be Silmarillion movies ever made they'll probably have to wait a while.
And I wouldn't want to get an image of an over-the-top Beren and a not-that-pretty Luthien stuck in my head.... 
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its time for a new person to take the reigns of tolkien. pj had his run.
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This is... so batifull and powerfull image...
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That must have been a truly terrifying sight! Even this picture gave me goosebumps. This is very well done.
Who are the two people in the foreground? (I lent out my Silmarillion and never got it back)
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Thanks, the idea of something very far away but imminently threatening nonetheless is a strange, kind of unsettling one, which I was trying to catch. your guess is as good as mine about the two guys in the foreground (i was going to put a larger company of figures up there, several elves and men with swords drawn and a banner, but didnt get around to it)
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Really effing awesome picture of Ancalagon emerging from the perpetual haze & murk around Angband. Not much else to say, the lighting and shading effects are nice.
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Imagine had he been smothered with hordes under side of him, he would have licked Morgoth's enemy split.
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So cool ! Awesome fog effect and really nice silhouette
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Master Mohan, this rendition sells the sheer TERROR of Ancalagon the Black even more effectively than your last rendition of him conveyed his sheer mind-numbing Scale (it occurs to me that Thorondor's thoughts on first seeing this … ENEMY take wing would have likely been more appropriate to ASoIF that to any work of Professor Tolkien!).
As far a felling Ancalagon goes, my best guess is that Elendil (and most likely the Eagles of Manwe) would have tried to tear his wings to pieces, then let gravity do the rest, although it is equally possible that Earendil used the Silmaril to blind This Black Colossus before misleading him into the very peaks of Angbad (resulting in considerable damage to both Bastions of The Enemy); I must admit that while the mental image of Earendil ramming his prow into the dragon like the very lance of St George is a powerful one, it does rather beg the question of how the dragons layer would have survived this slaying …
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I think ancalagon's even larger in this one than he was in the last, aided by those two (or um, one and a half) figures on that near ridge, which I put in for scale, i imagine him quite far away from them, and yet still dominating the skyline (the big money shot in the godzilla teaser trailer was a major influence for the scale of the monster, and that beautiful obscured by soot look)
I would have to disagree on Thorondor, I think the eagles of manwe typify tolkienien epic dauntlessness. As for earendil, as i said before, your guess is as good as mine, though both earendil and vingilot survive the battle. I would think that earendil, who at this point is basically traversing outer space in a shining ship, could be allowed a dose of super saiyan mojo
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Fair enough Master Mohan! (perhaps Finarfin, sensible fellow that he is, would be the one thinking "I knew that staying in Valinor was a good idea, but I didn't quite realise HOW good until now": that may well be him in the foreground).
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there's a pretty damn limited number of named characters it could be, at this point in the story
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True; Professor Tolkien seems to believe that immortality just means you keep running into things that MIGHT kill you until one DOES kill you! (rather like HIGHLANDER-type Immortals).
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Absolutely amazing, like everything else I've seen from you. Keep up the fantastic work!
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thank you, that's the plan!
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