Arwen Undómiel

[GloamingMerle]

... I would like to get it inked and colored, but my Dad misplaced my color pencils and I don't know that I feel like doing it digitally. *fume*

This version of Arwen is not based on Liv Tyler, even though she makes a lovely Arwen, but on my interpretation of her from the book... sans braids in her hair, because those are such a bitch to draw, and the hair took long enough even without them!

In the books it says that Arwen was so beautiful that elves said that she was Lúthien (a very important figure in Middle-Earth's tales) come to earth again. Lúthien Tinuviel's name meant Entrantress Nightingale, which I believe is noteworthy, because when Aragorn first met her he called out "Tinuviel!" with the belief that somehow she truly was that legendary figure. What a high compliment to be mistaken for the "Entrantress Nightingale", and telling of how radiant Arwen truly must have been. I can't hope to capture her just as Tolkien must have envisioned, but I can surely try.

[Emma]

Just beautiful! I think it might spoil it slightly if it was coloured, the pencil drawing adds to the effect. Lovely work!

[Liss]

gorgeous!

[shells]

I agree, it has a mystical quality just as it is!

[Reggikko]

In case y'all were wondering, this talent does *not* come from me. Dylan's brother inherited his dad's musical ability and Dylan got the drawing.

[GloamingMerle]

 :

I like to think I got my creative writing abilities from you, Ma... Too bad that my stories are of a nature that would make me blush if you were to read them. 

[BlueSoup]

Wow she's gorgeous and the hair looks absolutely beautiful.    I agree with Emma, colour wouldn't be the same.

[Renatus]

You have really nice pencil work, Dylan.  While I think you should give a go at colouring this, I think it would be better for you to do it digitally to preserve the original pencils, if you have means of doing so. Or, perhaps instead you should print out a copy to colour.

Do you mind critiques? I have a few suggestions I want to make regarding her facial anatomy but I don't like to pester people with unwanted advice.

[GloamingMerle]

Constructive criticism is completely welcome. 

[Renatus]

Okay. I always ask beforehand as some folks don't want them for whatever reason.

The biggest problem I notice is that her ear is too far forward on her head. Her face is only slightly turned, but the ear appears very close to her eye. It should be positioned much farther back on her head - in fact, it would appear to meet the curve of the back of her neck if her hair wasn't hiding it. It also wouldn't quite have the straight-on view it has now but that's less important. Finally, it's very, very small for an ear compared to to the small end of human normal, but that's unimportant if you wanted a very small ear.

A more minor but still noticable problem is that her skull doesn't curve in at all where her right eye is. Even for someone with a non-prominent brow and non-prominent cheekbones, there would be a concave curve from her eyebrow down to a bit below the bottom of her eye. The angle at which she faces the viewer means that the curve wouldn't be very deep, but it would definitely be there.

You may also want to move her clavicle and collarbones down, because it appears that she is hunching her shoulders up very high. If she is leaning forward, like the angle of her neck suggests, the bones would appear even lower and have a shallower curve to them due to the angle.

Now, as I said before, your pencil work is excellent! It looks like you have very good control of the pencil, your lines are smooth and they all look like they are exactly where you want them to be. The detail work on the ear and the ear itself is wonderful, and I especially like the eyes - they're very expressive and lively, even though she has a placid expression.

I did a redline (drawing in my examples with red 'pen', or in this case photoshop)to better illustrate what I was talking about.

[GloamingMerle]

Yeah, I knowingly skewed a few things for purely aesthetic reasons, like the ears for example, the overly slender neck, and the brow ridge.. I thought it simply looked better that way... The perspective issues are admittedly not intentional, I've always had trouble with that.. My drawings always end up pretty flat in appearance. *shrug*

[J. M. Pescado]

Her neck reminds me of Hobbsee's scrawny pencil neck. It's still a pretty cool drawing, but now you have to make it into a sim. Nyah!

[notveryawesome]

I think the drawing looks very good as it is - quite stylised, which is not necessarily meant to be realistic. Even though it's a picture of an elf, it reminds me of the art deco period.