“Legolas turned and set an arrow to the string, though it was a long shot for his small bow. He drew, but his hand fell, and the arrow slipped to the ground. He gave a cry of dismay and fear.”
-- J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings, Book 2
I’ve told before of how I work.. in a very unorganized way, like with everything that I do.. I usually have several ideas kicking around in my head and when I pick up the pencil and start sketching something new ones pop up.. so instead of starting one drawing at a time I often start half a dozen and then slowly finish those up one by one. That’s why I have such huge WIP lists too.
Well, this one was started simultaneously with the Beleg drawing, because my image of Beleg and of Legolas have always been very similar and I wanted to draw both in order to study their differences and make the way I see them clear to myself at least..
So, it’s a slip from the Silmarillion to the Lord of the Rings.. a simple drawing of the elf-warrior member of the Fellowship of the Ring. Drawn fairly quickly with a regular HB pencil, this is much sketchier than most of my recent drawings. There are not that many good quotes on Legolas in the book and not much about his appearance.. only that he was wearing green and brown. I chose the scene at Moria, because I wanted to draw him in a dynamic pose readying his bow. The bow could be simpler, I guess.. this one is a composite bow. His “long knife” I imagine as a simple scramseax-type blade that was as much a hunting knife as a fighting weapon.. the sheath is not the typical seax-type, though.
I have the weird habit of mentally skipping some descriptions when I read them. For instance, I am never sure about the Middle Earth Geography. I always imagined Legolas blonde, with rather short hair, shorter than in your drawing. I am not sure how is he described though.
I practice kendo and historical fencing and in my opinion the elven blades as Hadhafang or Legolas's knifes (in this case wakizashi's blades) are basically a katana's blades without guard and with a curved handle.
In your opinion (by the books, no by the height of Orlando Bloom). How tall are Legolas?
Heh, yeah.. a whole generation has been spoiled by the movies. Always nice to hear the views of a true Tolkien fan! I also first read the book almost 20 years ago and I always pictured him with brown hair. Red does go well with his green raiment, though..
But unless my eyes are tricking me, his ears are not the leaf shaped ears of elves!
I practice kendo and historical fencing and in my opinion the elven blades as Hadhafang or Legolas's knifes (in this case wakizashi's blades) are basically a katana's blades without guard and with a curved handle.
In your opinion (by the books, no by the height of Orlando Bloom). How tall are Legolas?
Anyway, I adore your gallery! Every single bit of it!
fav and a watch!
Thank you very much!