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~ detail from "Frodo in His Study"
My "new" Frodo manip is actually a re-do, but a re-do from the ground up....
Recently, looking for a different work, I found a much better copy of the painting I used for my first version of this manip, Portrait of a Young Gentleman Reading (or, "Portrait of a Gentleman in his Study"), by Lorenzo Lotto. Goaded by its clarity, I made my own screencap of the image from FotR (Amon Hen) I had found on an internet gallery and used for the face last year, and re-did the manip.
I credit this to a fan of the manips who liked the first version of this particular Frodo Art Travesty so well, I wondered if I could improve upon it. The version I first did, which she saw, never fully pleased me because it was so small and murky, although it had its own charm. (It can be seen here.) I did not take it down from the Photobucket gallery, however, because it really does look like a different manip. The copy of the painting I made it from is so different (in colour values and in resolution), it makes the finished manip different, and I sort of like them both.
Below is the part of Tolkien's text that inspired me to make this manip in the first place, from the last chapter of The Return of the King, "The Grey Havens"....
One evening Sam came into the study and found his master looking very strange. He was very pale and his eyes seemed to see things far away.
‘What’s the matter, Mr. Frodo?’ said Sam.
‘I am wounded,’ he answered, ‘wounded; it will never really heal.’
But then he got up, and the turn seemed to pass, and he was quite himself the next day. It was not until afterwards that Sam recalled that the date was October the sixth. Two years before on that day it was dark in the dell under Weathertop.
~ "Portait of a Gentleman in His Study," by Lorenzo Lotto, c. 1527:
~ Mechtild
Frodo Art Travesties Table of LJ Entries page HERE.
Frodo Art Travesties Album HERE.
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A brilliant combination - Again, you have done yourself proud!
However.... I am not entirely pleased with the throat... Would you mind if I offered a suggestion?
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I followed your advice to start: I cut off the head again, extended the neck and added more shadow. But the main thing I did was notice that I had inadvertently slightly widened Frodo's cut-out face image when I was colour-correcting it the first time, which made his face ever so slightly distorted - flattened from top to bottom.
I am wondering if that isn't what you saw, in actuality, because I think it made a subtle but strong difference, once I replaced it with a cut-out that was correct -- even without any neck adjustments. I had been thinking the screencap slightly "froggy-looking," though I couldn't think why, looking from a window with the cap open to the finished manip.
See what you think. (The "new" model is in place above.)
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I did not see your manip last night, but I opened it just now. You sent it to my old email address which I never use anymore because of its unreliability when I am returning messages.
My more recent email address is mechtild1@gmail.com. You sent it to the chartermi.net address.
Again, thanks so much!!!!
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*huge smooches*!!!!!!!!
~ Mechtild
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I feel a WHOLE lot more comfortable betaing art, something I actually know, than writing. I always feel self-conscious suggesting something having to do with stories because, quite frankly, I was a product of US schools and while I am more literate than most of my fellows, I have no illusions that I am a master of my own language. Drawing, on the other hand, I am better than most (though not all) at and feel confident that, even if you don't take a suggestion, I am not steering you wrong. ;)
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Frodo in Italian Renaissance's attire (dark and sliced) never fails to send me in altered states of ecstasy.
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Heavens, you are throwing huge confetti!
Thanks for the welcome :-)!
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Beautiful artwork Mechtild! I love both versions too, as you said they are different enough to look like two different pictures and I really love them both! Great work!
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I am not faulting EW's job in the scene, they just didn't direct even what they had in a way that let viewers know the degree to which he was still suffering. They would not even have had to change the lines. They could have shown him at his desk really suffering a stab of pain, maybe with an infinitesimal flash from Weathertop to remind folks without a word what he was suffering from(they'd used this device well before, outside Minas Morgul - "I can feel his blade"), show him reacting with the full strength of that, just for an extra second or two or real time before he hears someone coming. They could start out with his make-up not quite so pale so that he could be seen to blanch. That would take another split second. Then they would show a shot of him quickly and heroically pulling himself together before Sam comes in. They they could show Sam do the slightest reaction shot, showing that he sensed something amiss instead of just blithely strolling to the desk and beginning to speak, only then marginally noticing something and asking if Frodo is all right. In real time, these changes would have taken perhaps footage running to the count of ten seconds. I think it would have been a huge help to viewers and greatly enriched the "plight of returning wounded" thread of the film's story.
But, like you, I really did love the films and still do. It's just one of the faults I felt, "Aw, too bad!" about, as a sort of missed opportunity for a really easy fix that would have accomplished so much.
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Cool to see Ariel's suggestions, also.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/mechtild/Frodo%20Art%20Travesties/DavidJacquesLouis-SelfPortrait-Mech.jpg
Thanks for commenting, and have a super few days away, Mariole. *smooch*
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Also, I do agree with you & Mews about that scene in the film - I'm certain that anyone who hadn't read the books would be at a loss to understand exactly why Frodo was leaving.
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Alas, I think it only contributes more of the sense that film-Frodo is an awfully fragile, sensitive little thing, blown about by every wind and prey to every emotional crisis.
They were doing a poll of film fans of "favourite hobbit;" Frodo was beat out by Sam (huge winner), and even Merry. *sob*
Again, it's not like I don't love film-Frodo, I do. But, remember, whenever I watch the films, the whole while my mind is "filling in" material about Frodo from the book, while I watch. I never see film-Frodo any other way.
Even if the film skipped over the Barrow scene, or Frodo talking ably and wisely (like a fellow prince) with the Lord Faramir, or if it failed to show the extent of his nobility and the depth of his mercy in the scene with Saruman in the Scouring, I am thinking all those things as I watch -- as if all that actually was filmed but is somewhere on the cutting room floor, LOL.
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It hurts.
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OT, did you see
"This is Sting," by Whiteling:
And I simply must post a big version of your icon, since that has become my favourite of all her drawings I've seen. Funny, too, since it isn't of Frodo!
"Este the Gentle," by Whiteling:
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Mechtild what a lovely way to celebrate. (((Hugs you)))
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If they did a poll of only book fans.. Frodo would do much better I think. Poor Frodo! Not appropriately appreciated in his home town and now not properly understood and appreciated by the masses in our own world where you think he would get a little justification!
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If they did a poll of only book fans.. Frodo would do much better I think.
I am sure you are right. Although, I think if all readers were polled, Sam would still be preferred to Frodo. Many readers revere and respect Frodo for what he did and who he was, but their affection often resides in Sam, who is more "homey" and accessible as a character, besides being tremendously brave and faithful, two virtues that are difficult not to love.
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Great manip!
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Thank you very much, Ink Gypsy!