Images

The Watchers at Cirith Ungol– RivkaZ 2017

“…Within the shadow of the gate he saw the Two Watchers. They were like great figures seated upon thrones. Each had three joined bodies, and three heads facing outward, and inward, and across the gateway. The heads had vulture-faces, and on their great knees were laid claw-like hands. They seemed to be carved out of huge blocks of stone, immovable, and yet they were aware: some dreadful spirit of evil vigilance abode in them. They knew and enemy.” –The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien

I took a few artistic liberties with the statues (largely because I didn’t have the description in front of me…whoops) and cheated a bit at the end, but at least I got the idea on paper! I was excited when I came across this passage in my re-read because I’d already done one drawing with Sauron featuring a chimera/griffin motif using Mesopotamian and Mediterranean influences, and the description conjured an immediate visual of some of my favorite mythological beastie statues. 🙂 They were very fun to paint, and I spent far too long on them.