Victory at the Morannon

Lord of the Rings book fans will recognize this scene.


Drew this for some forgotten contest in 2002.

Gimli cradles a lifeless Pippin on the battlefield outside the Morannon (the Black Gate of Mordor). The dark clouds are blowing away, sun is peaking through, the eagles are there, and you've got some more Gondor guys and some of Imrahil's dudes back there searchin' for survivors among the carnage of the aftermath.

Also I messed up with some of the lighting.... either those are some really low clouds.... or that's a really big bird.

But hey, we learn.

More fun factoids:

1. My scanner killed the oil pastels, so now all Gondorians bleed hot fuchsia. Might try to do a better upload later.

2. The book never really directly portrayed this scene; the characters only talked about it later. Actually only Gimli talked about it. But it still struck me as powerful enough that I just had to draw it.

3. I drew this before Return of the King came out in theaters, so Pippin's Gondor get-up was total guesswork from what I could glean from the book, wingaling helmet and fancy-pants sword and all. But I'm happy with how it came out.

4. The reason Pippin is dead: My drawing pencil and his face were being SO belligerent with each other.... that my eraser finally rubbed him out nigh unto oblivion. I had to make a new head on a different piece of paper, slice it out with an Exacto-Knife, and glue it onto the full picture. Seriously.