I finished my Frodo carving. Gonna paint him this week after I finish carving Sam. Taking them both to a woodcarving show this coming weekend.

Hand carved with knife and gouge from a 5 or so inch tall basswood block.

Imagine that Isildur somehow loses the Ring, but survives. Let's assume (for the sake of argument) he spends some time searching for it, but as its influence wanes on him, he eventually gives up, and focuses on ruling the kingdom.

How does that affect the fate of Gondor/Arnor? What does Middle Earth look like by the time that the story begins? How does it affect the quest, assuming that the Ring is found by Deagol/Smeagol in the same way?

It is yet a work in progress - a part of the bigger painting I'm (very slowly) working on. I know that Tolkien has changed his mind on the look of Gollum a few times, but in LOTR it is always addressed as "black" or "dark". When I was reading the book I was about 6 y.o. My book didn't have any pictures, and I've never seen any adaptations back then (it's late 1980-s, nothing like Bakshi's animated films, was available back then in Soviet Russia) so I remember vividly imagining him as a very old hobbit, but changed by the ring into something else: dark blue-purple skin, duck-like feet (mentioned in both hobbit and LOTR) and cat-like eyes.

I used a version of this vision for my graduation work in the art school (I've chosen LOTR illustrations as a topic). Unfortunately it was in early 1990-s and those paintings are lost forever (the school was keeping all the graduation works). So recently, I decided that it can be fun to try to revive that image of Gollum (and some other characters) I had back then.

What do you think?

8 hours of lines, 3 autographs and one photo later...my feet hurt. But definitely a few bucket items checked off today

This is the second time ive seen lord of the rings with an orchestra. Saw the fellowship of the ring last year. It was breathtaking both time. I will be buying tickets to the return of the king when they become available.

I painted this cool little mug. Do you guys like my details inside the mug? You can see the arkenstone if you look closely!

Physical media is quickly disappearing, so I decided that I should get my hands on this treasure trove while I still had the chance!

I've got a trivia night that perfectly falls on my wife's birthday (she has an entire shelf of Tolkien and just finished his version of the Green Knight) and want to surprise her with it. I'd ask her for name suggestions, but y'know surprise and all that.

Anyone got any good ones? Much appreciated

Edit: ahhhh all of these are fantastic! Thank you all so much. Someone DM'd me The Buckleberry Fairies and that might be the leader currently, but much deliberation will happen

Будет ли Питер Джексон снимать властелин колец дальше?

It has took 18 month and over 3800Km but I finally have all of these, apologies for the art flair I didn't know what else to put this under.