#tolkien redesigns

Part of my Middle Earth redesigns.

Nienna, one of the Valar, holding the last cuttings of the Two Trees in her hands.

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The Valar’s designs are based off a variety of our oldest civilisations and cultures. Nienna’s starting point comes from illustrations of new kingdom Egypt and Berber headdresses, among other influences. I still wanted to introduce some colour to her, so I went with sort of mostly chromatic greys, rather than outright stark greys.

Frodo Baggins! The hobbits take their visual cues from Taiwanese aborigine peoples (mostly the Puyuma), and the Javanese. 

I watched the movies before I ever read the books; Elijah Wood’s young Frodo is one of the things that sticks with me in all incarnations :P

A while ago, some friends and I were talking about Tolkien and I thought it’d be fun to redesign Middle Earth- inspired by Asian designs! So here’s Galadriel, inspired by Mughal and Qing fashion. 

I kept her Noldorin descent in mind, the crafting and the power, and also the colour of her hair since that’s such a plot point. Also pretty much the reason behind her Sindarin name hur.