Three more ACEOs, and That Day Maedhros Became a Looker

I did Glorfindel and another Maglor yesterday (looking less like Brad Pitt), plus another Fingolfin. The paper and I had a severe fight, and I'm not sure who won. I'd got new Torchon paper from Fabriano, and it refused to let me do what I wanted to. 

I had an interesting realisation when I was painting these - namely, that I assign faces to characters based on the sound of their names. I have noticed before that shorter names seem to suggest shorter hair for me; similar names result in similar faces and even hair. Thus, Turgon always looked a lot like my Thingol, and when I had to come up with an appearance for Fingolfin, he immediately fell into the "Glorfindel" box. It probably was one of the reasons why I thought for a long time that Fingolfin was blonde.

For Marchof Maedhros, I dug deep into the archives, and I can share a few pieces never seen online before! 

First, this one, the second ever red-haired Maedhros (I broke out the coloured pencils for this), with a still-blonde Fingon (would be blonde for another two years). It was the year that I completely lost myself in that weird style with huge, wooden-looking eyes. People kept telling me that my characters looked weird, but I just put that off as their lack of artistic understanding. Quite obviously, my art was perfect in every respect. I was nineteen. I have no excuses.

Note my feeble attempt of breaking up my previous "Elves in white tights and t-shirts" with that breathtaking embroidery on Maedhros' collar.

At one point, I must have listened to my mother, and drew some faces from a couple of football player photos. The effect was immediate. The eyes were still huge, but the rest of my people started looking a lot more comely. 

I distinctly remember finishing the image below and deciding Maedhros was just the best.

Celegorm appears to be shaping up nicely already. Fun fact: The toy dog is an actual toy dog I had inherited from my mother, by the name of Bobby.