Italian med student with an obsession for painting. Also a mythology and history nerd. Give me a book and I'll give you my heart.
204 posts
Philosophy - Dmitry Kochanovich, 2019 (1st) Oil on canvas, 100x120cm
Ideal - Dmitry Kochanovich, 2019 (2nd) Oil on canvas
@emilyenrose was my 1500th follower and so gets a fic of her choosing; she asked for something with Fingon. This is a complement to and one man, in his time, plays many parts; it covers the same time period but the other host.
act i.
Elves could see eight colors, depending how you counted them. A prism split them, always in the same order: on one side the far-red that hot things gave off, the color of living things in Endorë’s dark. Then red, then orange, then yellow, then green, blue, violet, then true-purple. Flowers were often true-purple because bees could see it best.
That these were the only colors the Elves could see had been unknown to Aulë until the Noldor had advanced the study of light far enough to describe it, and then it had been a source of delight and astonishment to him. To Aulë there were a thousand colors visible when a prism split, hundreds to the side of far-red and hundreds on the other side of true-purple, colors that the stars spoke, colors that the Eldar could not see. The range of light that Elven eyes captured was just a tiny sliver of the true thing; the whole was vast beyond comprehension.
It was dark now, and the only color was the far-red of shivering Elven bodies and the distant pinpricks of cold and unforgiving stars. The fire on the opposite shore had long since burned down and out. Findekáno had not moved since it had, but in the long night his thoughts had already hit all their notes - grief, anguish, hatred, betrayal - and now circled idly around this, around colors.
His skin was going grey with cold, but that barely registered. His breath kept clouding his view, then dissipating in Araman’s harsh winds; every time he imagined he would see something different on the other shore. Every time he saw nothing at all.
Even if they now regretted it, which they assuredly did not, what would he see? It was too late. The ships had burned.
Keep reading
Ereinion Gil-Galad, son of Fingon, Idril and Earendil in the Havens of Sirion. First meeting.
the strange trails series so far - halfway through now!
I’m absolutely obsessed with the reddit side of the Tolkien fandom, in particular, this discussion regarding how Sauron fits the ring on his finger, as well as penal compensation a la Lord Farqaud style
Art by J.R.R. Tolkien
This is the kinda shit I wanna see Ungoliant do
“Settling on a cheery yellow couch near a vase of fresh flowers, he mentions being struck by Harrison’s openness on the psychological havoc wreaked by Beatlemania – a frequent topic in Martin Scorsese’s Harrison film. “I think we all experienced the trauma that George vocalized,” McCartney says. “I liked to hear George talking about it, because he’s getting it out in the open. For me, it’s something that was more internalized, and my upbringing would lead me to say, ‘Yeah, OK, it’s a trauma, but get on with it.’ It’s like, “Yeah, what are you gonna do, sit around and moan? You were just in the most famous band in the world. You wanted to be, it pays good money, you’ve had a lot of great times, and some shitty times, so what are you going to do, concentrate on the shitty times or just deal with it?‘””
—
“Paul McCartney’s New Album, New Life and How the Beatles Almost Reunited” by Brian Hiatt for Rolling Stone (1 March 2012).
Laugh when your eyes are burning Smile when your heart is filled with pain Sigh as you brush away your sorrow Make a vow That it’s not going to happen again It’s not right, in one life Too much rain You know the wheels keep turning Why do the tears run down your face We used to hide away our feelings But for now Tell yourself it won’t happen again It’s not right, in one life Too much rain It’s too much for anyone Too hard for anyone Who wants, a happy and peaceful life You’ve got to learn to laugh
‘Too Much Rain’ from Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005).
Fëanor Lives AU
Inspired by comment-tags on my poll about whether Fëanor or his sons were worse, I’m going to try to theorize what would have happened if Fëanor hadn’t died within a few weeks[1] of landing in Beleriand.
First, there’s the question of whether, even if he had survived Dagor-nuin-Giliath, he would have survived until Fingolfin arrived. There’s a decent case to be made for no. His sons are fairly rudderless and inactive after he dies and Maedhros is captured, and don’t do a lot between that point and Fingolfin’s arrival; that would not have been the case if Fëanor had lived. (Setting aside the possibility of “he lives but is too severely injured to do anything,” just because it’s not what I’m interested in here.)
I don’t see him just sitting in Hithlum (even if Maedhros was captured, and I don’t see that happening either if Fëanor had lived; it feels like another product ofhis sons’ disorientation in the wake of his death). And considering his mindset from his speech in Tirion and Oath through to the point where he dies in canon, I can see him throwing his army against Angband until a large part of them are dead, and potentially until he himself is dead. Given that they successfully take out pretty well the entire orc-army in Dagor-nuin-Giliath (“Ten days that battle lasted, and from it returned of all the hosts that [Morgoth] had prepared for the conquest of Beleriand no more than a handful of leaves.”), they might have even made it into Angband. This isn’t Morgoth as of the Dagor Bragollach or Nirnaeth Arnoediad, when he’s got dragons and the accumulated armies of 400 years; at this point he’s got balrogs and Sauron and some other Maiar and a fortress and some kind of reserve forces. Morgoth may be best off retreating enough to lure them into into Angband, and then capturing or killing them when they’re in the dark, disoriented, separated, in mazelike tunnels.
So that’s one possibility: that by the time Fingolfin arrives, Fëanor and much of his forces are dead or captured. The ‘captured’ possibility lends itself to interesting AUs by itself.
In any possibility where Fëanor does survive until Fingolfin arrives, but has realized he can’t defeat Angband on his own, I feel like there’s an extremely high likelihood of another Kinslaying then and there. Not primarily because the elves who crossed the Helcaraxë are angry with him, though they certainly are, but because we’ve seen Fëanor in this position before: with a determined sense of what he wants to do, without the resources to do it, and with someone else denying him those resources. That was Alqualondë. Given the mindset Fëanor has displayed all through the Return, he would see it as Fingolfin’s usurpation standing between Fëanor and the forces he needs to conquer Angband (and would not recognize that the other elves’ total unwillingness to accept him as king is associated with him stranding them at the far end of an icy wasteland, more than with Fingolfin specifically, and that killing Fingolfin is not going to get them on-side). This battle would be fairly brutal, with a lot of bad blood on both sides; it would be very amusing to Morgoth, and pretty well put an end to any chance of an equivalent to the Siege of Angband ever coming to pass.
(I know there are plenty of fanfics where Fëanor survives and Fingolfin recognizes him as king. I just can’t see this happening; not only because of the very justified resentment, but because Fëanor’s decisions have been uniformly terrible, and not abandoning his people to that kind of terrible leadership was the main thing motivating Fingolfin to join in the Return at the start. In the extremely unlikely event that Fingolfin did, I don’t see most of the Noldor who crossed the Helcaraxë following him rather than breaking off under Turgon or someone. The reason why Maedhros’ abdication is so crucial in canon is because it’s the only thing that’s ever going to enable the Noldor to form a united front.)
So yeah, I have to agree with the people on the poll who said it’s probably for the best that Fëanor didn’t survive longer. What he would have done if he had been alive during the later parts of the Silm feels like a moot point because I can’t imagine a scenario where he survived but events were otherwise similar to canon. He’s a force of nature; he makes the narrative different, it’s what he does. It’s why him setting everything off and then suddenly dying makes for such a great story.
[1]: I’m making an educated guess.The Fëanoreans travel up the Firth of Drengist and into Hithlum, start setting up camp by Lake Mithrim, and are attacked by orcs before they can finish making camp; the battle against the orcs, Dagor-nuin-Giliath, lasts 10 days, and Fëanor diesat the end of it.
I offered to be a dog walker as a public service because it’s fucking cold here right now and there’s a lot of elderly people with dogs but can I just say I expected my first dog to be “Lulu the Arthritic Poodle” and not fucking Ungoliant.
AI under capitalism
Morgoth's cry echoed throughout the valley, which from then on was known as Lammoth, for his cries lingered there from then on always. Ungoliant caught Morgoth in her web, tighter and tighter to strangle the life from him...
The Silmarillion, chapter IX "Flight of the Noldor"
Note: this era of darkness is not only a challenge to draw and color, but it's also dark and dreary. I'm looking forward to draw some scenes in light again. Might even skip ahead some scenes... although, there's some juicy scenes coming up that are demanding attention...
This one always lives rent free in my head. It also pops up in the weirdest moments. Like when I start singing it while doing the dishes. My flatmates don't always approve.
I always loved this Far Side
Couldn't agree more. It has all the beauty and whimsy and terror one could want.
Also it's so unapologetically Crazy in the best way (spoilers!) for example: the protagonist at a certain point is saved by a horde of space-travelling cats! We meet an artist-turned-ghoul and he is absolutely friendly and helpful!
the dream quest to uknown kadath is so fucking underrated, i don’t care it’s arguably less ‘lovecraftian’ than most of his other works, it will always be my favorite. good fucking fantasy, got my imagination working like back in the golden days
Inverted ballpoint pen drawing!! The first picture is what I drew and the second picture is the inverted final piece
Rendering and fighting with hands
finished with the basic greyscale, ready to colorize it. I suck at colorizing so tipo are welcome!
Also sorry for the insanity in the timelapse.
As a mainly sapphic woman the only thing that would make me worse about the Beatles is of they were girls.
Can’t get enough of the girlies (Girl George is doing things to me)
finished with the basic greyscale, ready to colorize it. I suck at colorizing so tipo are welcome!
Also sorry for the insanity in the timelapse.
Next commission: finish!!
This one was a fun one to do; inspired by the Soviet Propaganda recreation posted by John Amor, the client wanted a header text that read “Our cause is just, enemy will be crushed” based off of this classic soviet poster! Our subject was dear Cherno Alpha, based off of the client’s idea that “Russia would not easily give up a giant robot despite the PPDC protests, so why not some reenforce Cherno’s looming strength?“
Top text reads “Find your nearest PPDC enlistment station today,” subheader text reads “Enlist in the PPDC,"and bottom text reads ”Made by request of the Russian PPDC Department in year 2018.“ GOOGLE TRANSLATE IS FOR NERDS; THANKS TO THE RUSSIAN BLOGGERS FOR HELPING ME OUT
buy here
After a long traditional, personal and serious-ish art phase I am back on my digital self indulgent fun!
Process snippet from a work in process. It started as the study of a painting... but I was listening to a lecture on Catilina's conspiracy and it all turned Rome - themed. Also my less unfinished boy is looking suspiciously Caesar-y.
anyway i know people don't like to hear it because of the whole 'sic semper tyrannus' vibe of it all but the modern day equivalent of the ides of march would be if all those senators who've been in office since the 50s and were getting busted for insider trading in 2020 got together and stabbed bernie sanders to death in the capitol rotunda. i'm not even kidding.
“Hamlet”
Listen—to be, not to be, this is a tough question, O.K.? Very tough. A lot of people come up to me and ask, “Donald, what’s more noble? Getting hit every day with the slings, the bows, the arrows, the sea of troubles—or just giving up?” I mean, smart people, the best Ivy League schools.
“Julius Caesar”
Friends, Romans, folks—listen up. The reason I’m here is to bury Julius. It’s not to praise him. It’s just not. Brutus over there—we all know he’s a good guy, right? And he says Julius was low-energy. Is it a crime to be low-energy? Well, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t—who knows?
“Macbeth”
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and yadda yadda, the days are going by—what I’m saying is this is gonna last a long time, believe you me. Long. I see this candle, and I say—should I blow it out?