April, 2010: Esgaroth

[A.Alvarez]

Hi all...

So I'm off to visit Australia, New Zealand and Weta (!!!!) in a couple weeks which has me thinking of the Hobbit. So this month's theme is...

Esgaroth, or Lake-town is a fictitious community of Men upon the Long Lake, in The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. The town is constructed entirely of wood and stands upon wooden pillars sunk into the bed of the Long Lake, south of the Lonely Mountain and east of Mirkwood.

You can choose to depict it during peaceful times or, of course, during the attack by Smaug.... up to you!

good luck!

edit: winners announced!



-Alex

[kraal]

very interesting....

[aseryen]

i just struck gold! just looked through my parents library and found 'the hobbit 50th anniversary' in a gold box !!! gonna start reading it and hopefully get a better understand of esgaroth and smaug should be a good month for all

[inNate]

Man... I'm very jealous Alex. I can' wait to see Weta. Hope you have an awesome trip.

This is a badass topic. I don't know if I can resist this one. Definitely one of my favorite stories.

[Hovig]

Hello
Two quick initial rough thumbnails..Im hoping to make this an exercise in matte painting if I have the time, but at the very least couple of style/color key frames.
Enjoy NZ and OZ!

EDIT: I also added some reference that I was thinking of like Theo Jansen's wooden kinetic sculptures and various other wooden structures.

And a first color/mood rough pass ...kind of mixing both comps.

[TSonline]

sounds like a fun topic i'll definitely try to join in on this one.

[Anthony Christou]

Hi Alex,
When you come to Australia I would love to meet up with you at some point I live in a place called Adelaide in South Australia let me know if you are coming to melbourne or sydney its not far for me.
Cheers
Anthony

[BAmaral]

Hello,

quick question. im thinking of working on a piece for this contest this month. Where do we submit our picture? Thanks in advance!

Brian

[Yumiyahachiman]

Right here bamaral in the tread, post it here.

And who has to read the lord of the rings to remember anything of it!! shame on you!!! The base of all fantasy stories should be branded in your memory like initials on the butt of a texas cow!!!

[HaYaTo]

@Yumiyaha: Texas Cow? Holy Cow? Lol, so fantastic mind...

LOTR was a great asset to any of fantasy or sci-fi illustrators in this world, Narnia too... STAR WARS, don't ever forget about that...

But if we talk about epic and classical one: LOTR still the one that eternal through the lifetime. IMO.