An image of the Fellowship traveling through Middle-earth. This won second place for 'Fan Favorites' at the One Ring Celebration 2006 art show, as well as first place in the 2009 New York Comic Con's LOTR Fan Art Contest.

If it wasn't clear, I am not Tolkien and I hold no ownership with anything related to the franchise. Thus the "fan art" category

Definitely my best pastel from 2005 (at 15 years old, yeesh!), and overall one of my best images. This was a bit of a challenge... here's a bit of the process:

I used a no.2 pencil, sketch paper, and Rembrant soft pastels to create this.

I started off with an outline of the Fellowship and a general light sketch of where the mountains and some clouds and snow would be. Drawing the Fellowship was simple... coloring them was a whole other story.

But then I colored the mountains, starting with two types of light purple and adding greys, and a dash of light blue. Snow was simple, and the clouds immediately above the mountains were relatively easy as well. Next I colored the grass with this odd dark green color (some mix of tan and green, I suppose), with some tan, and then some black at the bottom. Turned out exactly how I wanted it.

Next was the sky, which was one of the most difficult parts of the picture. Purple, grey, and black were the main colors used, with dashes of magenta and white to darken or lighten areas. I'm satisfied with it; it's not perfect, but it will most certainly do.

And then, of course, coloring the Fellowship... a whole entire different story from drawing them. Most difficult part of the picture, without a doubt. It took many layers to make them look 3-d and the colors I wanted them to look (or as close as possible to the colors, heh). I started with brown, for the Fellowship is not completely black in the ref image. Then I added dashes of black and grey, mostly, mixing it randomly and such. Since I used my finger to mix, naturally I smudged and went over lines a lot. I used the white a *lot*, going over my blunders and stuff. For variety, I used a very little peach for the faces that you can see a little when it is zoomed in; but in the final product it makes a difference.

The easiest character was Frodo, and Pippin was pretty easy as well. Sam was challenging, but the most difficult one to do is not even an official member: Bill the Pony. It took me 45 minutes to get a decent color and keep to the correct figure of the horse. Most annoying.

After that, I added some blades of grass, the shadows, and a little detail here and there throughout the picture.

The whole thing, if I did it from start to finish, probably took 6-8 hours. But it was completely worth it.

Congratulations if you read through this whole thing Comments on this one really appreciated!