silwritersguild | Entries tagged with tolkien fanartics

Tolkien Fanartics Banner: Mapping Arda Part III: The Second Age

Maps and geography are an essential part of Tolkien's worldbuilding and a major allure for fans of his work. As part of the Tolkien Fanartics column, Anérea has been working on a series, Mapping Arda, that considers not only the maps and geography from the books but how fans represent, reinvent, and fill in the cartographic work that Tolkien did.

The Second Age is the most fragmentary of Tolkien's work on the three ages of Arda, and its maps are no exception. This month, joined by Varda delle Stelle, Anérea takes a look at Tolkien's (incomplete) maps of the Second Age and how fans have explored and answered the questions they present, representing the geography of the Second Age in myriad forms, from traditional paint and ink to embroidery to three-dimensional models. Anérea and Varda have curated a collection of fan-made Second Age maps that show the various ways that fans approach and represent this most mysterious of the ages of Arda.

You can read "Mapping Arda, Part III: The Second Age" here.

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A watercolour painting of paint supplies. In the centre is a sketchbook. Its text reads: "Tolkien Fanartics: Interview with Mirra Kan."

One of the effects of Tolkien's broad-reaching world-building is that the people on the margins of the map (and the texts) invite fanworks creators to tell their stories. In this month's Tolkien Fanartics article, our art editor Anérea had the opportunity to chat with Mirra Kan, whose work embodies the concept of moving characters and peoples from the margins of Tolkien's works to center them in her own.

Self-taught and a self-described orientalist, Mirra Kan focuses on the peoples of Middle-earth who live in the south and east. She seeks to show these characters—who are often depicted simply as enemies in the text—as real people from complex cultures. Among the Southrons were "heroes fighting and dying for the sake of a better future for their children," Mirra reminds us, and her art represents their cultures and tells their stories.

You can read Anérea's interview with Mirra Kan here.

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A painting of a sketchbook. Text reads: Tolkien Fanartics Mapping Arda. Part II - Travels through Beleriand

Many readers mention the vast expanse of time covered by The Silmarillion. Less often mentioned is the vast expanse of geography. Spanning three continents, The Silmarillion is a series of tales that, more often than not, center on migrations and battles that involve moving groups across the landscape or heroes undertaking long-distance quests across awe-inspiring terrain.

In this month's Tolkien Fanartics column, Anérea turns to the land mass at the center of most Silmarillion tales: Beleriand. From the sky-stabbing peaks of Thangorodrim down the shores of the Great Sea, Beleriand is a realm whose forests, mountains, and rivers shape the lives and journeys of the people of The Silmarillion. Selecting maps from seven fan cartographers, Anérea considers the various ways that fans use the variety of canon details left by Tolkien—maps, stories, and even data—to visualize his world anew. Their maps stand as fanworks in their own right, while their original depictions of the familiar stories can also inspire and inform new fanworks in turn.

You can read Anérea's "Mapping Arda, Part II: Travels through Beleriand here.

daughterofshadows

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.

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Tolkien Fanartics: Mapping Arda, Part I: Terraforming by Anerea

Tolkien cared very much for the geography of his second world, which extended to making multiple maps to help him visualize place and nail down details such as travel times. This proclivity has passed on to many of his fans. Many of us recall poring over the map in our first copy of The Lord of the Rings or flipping frequently to the back of of The Silmarillion to find a location on its map.

For other fans, Tolkien's cartography has inspired them to build beyond what he gave us by making their own maps of his world. Anérea's new series within the Tolkien Fanartics column focuses on fan-made maps of Tolkien's world. In the first part, she looks at maps that detail the building of Arda and of Aman, areas that, compared to the well-trodden paths of the Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, and even Silmarillion maps, require a lot more digging, conjecture, and imagination. In addition to finding stunning examples of maps of Tolkien's earliest legendarium, Anérea spoke with several artists about how they envision the maps they make, blending Tolkien's canon with their own imaginings.

You can read Anérea's "Mapping Arda, Part I: Terraforming" here.

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Tolkien Fanartics, Interview with Ismene

Tolkien artist Ismene's illustrations and character portraits fairly leap off of the screen ... or now the page. Ismene's artwork was recently featured on the cover of the Tolkien Society Seminar proceedings for Tolkien and Diversity. Since Shadow recently reviewed this volume, we hoped that Ismene would chat with us about what it's like to be a self-taught Tolkien fan artist whose work was chosen for the proceedings of the best-attended Tolkien Society Seminar, and she kindly obliged.

In this month's Tolkien Fanartics, Anérea spoke with Ismene about the draw (pardon the pun!) of The Silmarillion as an inspiration of fan art, her creative process, and of course the Tolkien character she would meet in person if given the chance. You can read Anérea's interview with Ismene here.

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Tolkien Fanartics - Featured Artist: Busymagpie

Busymagpie's art shows eloquent and expressive character portraits, most often depicting characters in moments of comfort and bliss. In this month's Tolkien Fanartics column, Anérea interviewed Busymagpie about her work: her approach to art, her evolution as an artist, and of course, her OTP, Maedhros/Fingon, all accompanied by a selection of her work.

Having started serious work on her art at the age of fourteen, Busymagpie has been drawing every day ever since. Mostly self-taught, she says of her work, "Art, and fanart in particular, is a way for me to tell stories." And her work does exactly that. Whether a cozy family gathering, a tender moment between a couple, or sometimes something spicer, her grasp of character and expression brings Silmarillion characters to life on the screen.

You can read this month's interview with Busymagpie here.

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Tolkien Fanartics, Featured Artist: ArlenianChronicles

This week, we are thrilled to introduce our newest newsletter column, Tolkien Fanartics, which will focus on everything that is art-related to do with Tolkien. For the inaugural article, the column's lead writer, Anérea, had the chance to chat with the artist ArlenianChronicles (Cassandra) about her artwork, her approach to her work, and her journey to becoming an artist.

If you've spent any time in the #silmarillion tag on Tumblr, you've seen Cassandra's art: its vivid, luminous quality fairly leaps from the screen, and her willingness to tackle some of the most emotionally fraught scenes in the legendarium gives her work a narrative quality that invites contemplation of the stories and relationships behind her characters. You can read Anérea's interview with ArlenianChronicles here.