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TurnerMohan β The son of Azog
Published: 2013-05-23 07:31:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 18064; Favourites: 348; Downloads: 147
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This one was done a long while back as part of a portfolio of concept art for The Hobbit.I had this idea for a very distinctive ancestral helmet which would be worn by all the orcish cheiftains in moria, hammered together out of old dwarvish helmets and shaped to look like the face of the balrog, who the orcs of moria worship as a god, and believe that, in taking on his likeness, their chief brings his power onto the battlefield. My thinking was that Azog would come out wearing it at the battle of Azanulbizar, and later when Bolg (who I originally envisioned fulfilling pretty much the exact role that it seems was given to his father in the movie; as this mostly unseen but constant tracking menace) shows up at the battle of five armies, he would don the helmet, which we would recognize.
The spearheads on top are bolg's own addition; the big one in the center is the dwarvish spearpoint that his father's head was impaled on after he was killed in moria, a constant reminder of the blood feud, and over the years others have been added, forming this crest of jutting spikes.
The draped bear hide, displayed with claws and all, is a typical piece of orcish bravado, one which really comes back to bite Bolg in the ass when he meets a certain someone [link]
Bolg [link]
thorin [link]
orc tracker [link]
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Comments: 27
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This is now stuck in my head as my mental image of Bolg... And that's a very good thing!
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I really like the savage splendor on display in this picture. Your design and details are nicely thought out, and make sense. It is not too different from the reasoning that WETA used in some of their props for the LOTR & Hobbit movies. (I have some of the background/design books, and it was interesting to see why certain costumes and props looked the way they did.) It also matches some th of the old MERP descriptions of their orc-chiefs, who had heirloom helms and swords that gave them power, and some status among their followers. 
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I think peter jackson's lord of the rings films were a huge turning point for tolkien artists, in that he encouraged them by example (beginning with the two greats, alan lee and john howe) to dig in and read between the lines, to extrapolate and theorize about how to build a consistent, credible picture of middle earth. Alot of artist's work before the movies (even, as i said, the really great ones like alan or john) was rather unambitious conceptually; just take a little armor from here and some castle architecture from there and it only has to look good for that one painting, whereas now i think tolkien artists are more encouraged to really try and make more informed, consistent designs for middle earth, to treat it more as a real world and not as an opportunity for (admittedly beautiful) fantasy/fiction still shots
(I know I am anyway)
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I must say that when I learned that Lee and Howe had been selected as concept artists my support for the film really took off. Alan Lee had been a favorite of mine ever since his "Fairies" work, and his illustrations for the LOTR anniversary edition and "The Children of Hurin" really made Middle-Earth seem both real and mystical. And Howe had done such a great job of illustrating Middle-Earth that he ended up with many "definitive scene" illustrations.
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They're two of the best to be sure (certainly my biggest influences for tolkien art)
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Why couldn't this have been what was in the movie instead of garden tool hand?Β The actual work itself, as well as yourΒ reasonings for the different elements are both great.
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Haha, garden tool hand!
Β thank you for such a great comment (and all the faves) i try to put a lot of thought into designs (or rather, it's hard not to, as tolkien's world is so rich) glad you like it.
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Striking, too bad there's noth much depth in the "movie-orc's"
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thank you. yes that was a problem i had with it
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Very cool, it certainly gives off a strong impression of menace. The balrog influence comes through nice and strongly, and although i don't particularly like the canonical idea of orcish familial loyalty, a helmet that like a crown is worn by the current leader of their tribe is a nice way of linking the characters. However i do wonder if the open mouth and slit visor is slightly too reminiscent of the films' uruk-hai helmet. Perhaps giving it a prominent lower mandible will put it back towards the Moria side of things?
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peter jackson also has yet to show any orcs having families or familial loyalty (bolg is supposedly in the next movies, but we'll see how he plays that) personally I've always thought it was one of the more interesting elements of tolkien's orcs, who are otherwise usually just the all-purpose "horde" and it's one of the things that always drew me to bolg and azog, because they are (as far as i know) the only given example of orc family relations. the design of the moria orcs' armor in fellowship was far too boxed in and uniform for my taste, it felt like their armors came off a stamping line (which ofcourse, in reality, they did) it worked for the ten minute scene they were in, but it's like ian holm playing younger bilbo in gollums cave in the prologue, you couldnt really extrapolate it much farther.
I've considered a revised take on this design, depicting the helmet as less a helmet and more of a crown/headdress, something more rangy and barbaric, maybe incorporating the skull of the ram aswell (rather than just it's horns)
we'll see
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It's a solid point- for a group of orcs as isolated and disorganised as the Moria Goblins, such a complex and standardised suit of armour doesn't seem entirely appropriate. However it was a very striking look and gave them a strong identity that was immediately distinct from groups and fitted their personality as a group if not their resources and means. By comparison i found Azog's 'Gundabad' orcs in The Hobbit film to be disappointingly generic and ill-defined- dirty leathers and furs with the occasional glint of metal.
This is why i kind of seize on the idea of Azog as being a bit of a visionary as orcs go. His personality in the brief bits of dialogue he has in the appendices paint him as something of a tin-pot dictator, an opportunistic orcish strongman who sees a chance to build his own empire in the shadow of dwarven greatness in Khazad-dum. In justifying the film's Moria Goblin designs you can imagine that Azog has made the most of the vast wealth of abandoned metal-working facilities in the dwarves' first city and had actually trained up something resembling a professional army. The film gives him the epithet 'the Defiler' and that's given even more weight by his use of their industry to create weapons that will ultimately be used to kill them.
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I think the moria orcs' look in fellowship worked just fine on film, but I dont think Tolkien really conceived the orcs of moria as being anything special or different from the other orcs of the mountains (for that matter; a much-ignored point by illustrators and fan artists, myself included, I dont think tolkien was big into plate armor) though i like and tend to agree with your assesment of azog, and would have liked, since we were already treated to material not in the "hobbit" book, to see more of the moria orcs under his command.
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Great idea for Bolg's outfit, I like this. The orcs of Moria don't seem as inclined to listen to Sauron as other breeds, so your idea of balrog worship sounds quite sound. Wish they'd have used the helmet symbol in the movies, and kept Azog in the flashback only.
One question though from one who hasn't studied weaponry overmuch - what are the spikes on the scimitar for? Do they have a practical use, or are they purely ornamental?
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the spiked edge along the back of the scimitar was my nod to the design of those crab claw-like swords used by the moria orcs in the fellowship.
Thank you for your comment, I really appreciate it.
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Dude!
You always surprise me!
Seriously, we are like Brothers in Arts hahahah
look at this one here: [link]
Aside from being so poor and crude (I did it many many years ago) and for not being the exact same orc, we again had the same ideas! They are strikingly similar in concept and even design! Yours is so fucking better of course but bah! Amazing!
Needless to say I love yours! The concept is just great, the thing I tried to make myself but do not got there.
With each piece of that series of yours I see, the more I hate PJ Hobbit, they HAD to use your stuff, they all have a story to tell, the design is so accurate and consistant, the ideas so unique...man I hate modern industry! They just judge what is cooler based on they nerdy 10 years old criteria and put aside really meaty work. Seriously, this shit upsets me greatly!
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"great minds think alike" as they say, but yeah Damn if those arent indeed close concepts. i think you and me really vibrate on the same wavelength when it comes to tolkien illustration.
this helmet was something i'd done quite a few drawings of back in '07, this was the last one and the one that i was most happy with, though I think I might take another stab at it in the near future, there's some things i would change now, i think, or atleast experiment with changing.
the design work in "unexpected journey" was definitely a bit short of what i'd hoped for, feeling in places simultaneously over designed (like the inside of erebor, which in some shots looked like it belonged on coruscant, and all the wacky dwarves) and under designed; it always bothered me for example that azog was just mostly unclothed. the design for Azog is the damndest thing to me, because I kind of love it and hate it at the same time; on the one hand I think his facial and bodily expressions were terrific, they really conveyed the viciousness and preening arrogance of the character,and the descision to have him speak only orcish gave a lot of power and menace to what would have otherwise been some pretty flat, lame dialogue. but it bothered me how he was basically just arnold schwarzenegger from the neck down (my theory is he must do curls with at least one impaled minion a day to keep that severed arm from atrophying), he didnt feel quite "orcish enough" and the fact that he was mostly naked, while optimal to show off that impressive physique, also felt like rather lazy, unimaginative design work.
thanks once again for your kind words man. i'm very complemented (and ofcouse I would've like pj to use my designs too, haha)
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Hahahahah that Coruscant one almost killed me hahah. I hated the design before de comparison, now I really can't tolerate it.
And as for Azog, I do think much like you, he is so good and so bad at the same time, and his aparell could be much much better. And also I think he turned up to be almost handsome. Those girls this days, they need even their monsters beautiful you see. Azog look more like a ghoul or nosferatu than orc. And that mutilated arm weapon do not worked in any sense. There are so many better ways to make a convincing and menacing foe. It's sad how film makers are shy and coward when it comes to do something aside from the proven formulae, I think the public can handle some new and innovative stuff here and tere. Also, why the heck Thorin didn't finish Azog off? That scene was awkward!
Hey, I did appreciate that one "great minds think alike". And of course, the similarities in the designs (specially our motivations and lines of thought) are strikingly similar.
But when you say you would be changing this one here and there a little bit, you really make me curious man.
And last but not the least, sorry for the terrible delay in the reply, you see it's hard for me to write in english, and I have so much to say about the great art here. And it's time for me to do some LOTR artwork again.
I want to ask you something: Do you know Games Workshop LOTR stuff? Do you like it?
See you bro
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nosferatu's a good comparison, I hadn't considered it before, but he does have more than alittle of that going on. and yes, way too handsome. somebody i was talking to about azog's design recently said to me that they think CGI really cant do clothing very well, and it's true most cgi characters are mostly naked.
as for the problem I have with this helmet (this version of it anyway) one of the guys who commented above said that the helmet itself evoked the armor of saruman's uruk hai, and that's exactly what had bothered me for yeas about this design, because while that slit visor look is wonderfully aloof and intimidating, it looks a bit too "standardized," like it was mass produced, which doesnt fit so well with the ramshackle orcs of moria, or the helmets's status as an object of reverence. I was thinking I might want to try a version that incorporates more of the skull of the ram, not just it's horns, something that seems like more of hideous decoration than just a functional helmet; rangier, more tribal, and more homemade looking. that's one idea anyway, and if I could come up with something that would meet the two ideas in the middle I think i'd have my winner.
I've heard of LOTR Games Workshop, but I don't know anything about it, I see on google that they make figurines right?
Oh, and you might want to check out this concept sketch I did of the front gate of erebor [link] really like to do a whole erebor architecture series, because alan lee's angular dwarven aesthetic is one of the great highlights for me of the design work for the LOTR movies, sadly not so well lived up to in the hobbit)
cant wait to see what you got coming.
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I do agree with your points here, and am lokking foward to see new stuff from you.
You are roducing so much, so fast, so good stuff that I had no time to teel you all that I think of it. I'll spare some time for doing it today, but I really love what I see. And how does you get so different ideas from the books? Are you constantly reading or have a amazing memory?
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no, I have an amazing memory (i like to call it "the internet" XD )
but in honesty, I retain alot from tolkien's books, and occassionally i'll consult the books themselves, if it's nescessary (I re read the "akallabeth" chapter in the silm recently, for all the numenor-related work i've been doing)
glad to hear from you again my friend! i look forward to hearing your opinions on some of my more recent work.
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hahahah yeah I see.
I was more puzzled by your ability to get inspiration from small fragments and expand it way beyond it's original contest. But I see, I can grasp a little of your inspirations process.Β
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