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The Balrog

by Chuck Melville in Black & White

Created 11 months ago

Rating: G

Medium: pen and ink

Tags: Tolkien lotr balrog gandalf elves hobbit dwarves

Category: Fantasy

I did this a long, long time ago. I was a big fan of the Tolkien illustrations done by the Hildebrandt Brothers, but I was always annoyed that their version of the Balrog was so off-base. So I decided to try my own hand at it, just to see it done right at least once. I was pleased to see that the Peter Jackson movie got it right.


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07/27/2008
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KoOkY!

Man that's some serious inking there! o.o Looks great!
07/27/2008
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Chuck Melville

Thanks! I was a big fan of, and always inspired by, the classic magazine illustrators of the pulps, like Joseph Clement Coll (http://www.fleskpublications.com/galleries/coll/).

07/27/2008
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KoOkY!

Wow, amazing stuff. My brain just could never work in that fashion. Reminds me of the old illustrations in Lewis Carroll's books by Sir John Tenniel. (I had to look up the name, couldn't remember it. Hehe.)
09/16/2008
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Ardashir

The Jackson Balrog -- what do you think of the people who complained that it shouldn't have had wings and horns because that made it too "generically demonic"?