silwritersguild | Tolkien Fanartics: Interview with Ruslan Shapolov

A painted image of sketchbook. There are papers with painted multi-coloured circles and stripes in blue and orange around the sketchbook. On the book it reads: "Tolkien Fanartics: Interview with Ruslan Shapolov-2

It is a common experience of readers to visualize the setting, characters, and story as they read. All of us likely have our own mental images of what certain people and places in The Silmarillion look like, often inspired by fan artists, the films, and other sources. Rarely, however, do we get to see our visions come to life on the page.

A self-described workaholic, Ukrainian Tolkien fan and artist Ruslan Shapolov sought to do just that. In only a year, he created more than fifty illustrations for The Silmarillion, along with initial capitals and illuminated pages for each chapter. Although part of a Master's project in art school, Ruslan exceeded the project's expectations to create a book's worth of stylistically distinct and thought-provoking illustrations. For this month's Tolkien Fanartics column, our art editor Anérea chatted with Ruslan about his inspiration, training and technique, and what it is like to work as an artist in a country besieged by war.

You can read Anérea's interview with Ruslan Shapolov here.