![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
~ Detail of Frodo in Girodet’s “The Geography Lesson”:
Yes! In honor of Hobbit Month, I have made a new Frodo Art Travesty. As soon as I saw his painting, even with the globe and the straight-haired Bilbo, I wanted to make Girodet's "The Geography Lesson" into an art manip....
For those who are interested, here is the original painting:
~ “The Geography Lesson”, by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson 1803:
For the face, I chose a screencap from the series in which Frodo is saying goodbye to Sam at the Grey Havens:
The challenge in making this painting into a Frodo manip was that the teacher was so huge compared to the student. The student pictured is not a little boy.
Therefore, I saw my first task as reducing the difference. I tried cutting out the boy's figure, making it larger, and pasting it back in. That did not work at all. I studied it some more and noticed that it was the teacher's head that was so disporportionately huge, not his whole body. So I cut out the teacher's head and, after tinkering around for the correct size, pasted a smaller one back in (using the clone brush to fill from the background made empty, making some additional collar, etc.). With a little fine-tuning, the newly-sized teacher's head fit imperceptibly with the teacher's original body.
Frodo’s head required the usual tweaking for colour, contrast and sharpness match, plus hair work, along with making a tiny bit of collar. The only “new” thing I did to him (that is, an effect I hadn't tried before) was to add some colour to his face. Because Frodo’s make-up is so wan in the Grey Haven’s scene, the screencap didn’t quite suit. The teacher’s face is extremely florid, which made Grey Havens-Frodo look even more pallid. Using the “add tint” brush, I could bring faint colour to the suitable places on Frodo's face.
At the end, I added a very faint grainy filter, to help blend everything.
~*~
Of course, this manip could not possibly be a literal illustration of Frodo and Bilbo in LotR. In it, Bilbo’s hair is straight and the “map” they are looking at is a [relatively] modern globe. It is not at all the sort of thing Bilbo would have had in his study. Even if Bilbo did already have access to tales telling of Numenor’s folly and how the world was made “bent” (round), Bilbo’s maps were always described as things drawn on paper.
Bilbo had maps of the lands beyond the Shire at Bag End, but the youthful Frodo did not seem to have paid much attention to them, being fonder of stories than maps. In LotR, it is noted of Merry, not Frodo, that he studied the maps available in the house of Elrond. My guess is that Bilbo took his maps of the wider world with him when he left, since they would be necessary for his journey. Moreover, early in FotR when Frodo actually is looking at Bilbo's maps (after Bilbo's departure), the maps described are from the Shire.
But even if Frodo hadn't paid much attention to maps as practical navigational aids, he was aware of what they implied. They provided glimpses or hints, like runes, pointing towards the unknown; to that which was far away in both space and time; that is, towards Adventure.
I think the finished manip gives a sense of that awareness.
To me, the scene in the manip suggests Bilbo explaining a point of geography to his newly-adopted heir. “And here is the eastern edge of Mirkwood the Great, my lad, where the Forest River falls towards the Long Lake before it turns to marsh.” But Frodo is thinking, “Mirkwood ... what a wonderful-sounding name. Foreboding, even dreadful, yet it fills me with awe....” Bilbo might still be going on about plants and waterbirds, but Frodo is thinking of narrow dark paths, trees looming over him, the skittering sounds from things unseen in the tangled undergrowth, all of it giving him chills -- but chills of pleasure, for these things are not yet real for him. They still are things out of tales, things that happen to other hobbits.
~*~
In the opening of “The Shadow of the Past”, it is written of Frodo as he reaches his fiftieth year that he is thinking of Bilbo. He is beginning to feel restless, finding “the old paths too well-trodden”.
He looked at maps, and wondered what lay beyond their edges: maps made in the Shire showed mostly white spaces beyond its borders.
I think that expresses rather well what I glimpse in this manip, Frodo as a youth, newly come to Bag End. And isn't Tolkien wonderful? I love how much he can imply with the seemingly simple image of the "mostly white spaces" beyond the map's borders. White spaces. White light. White shores under a swift sunrise.
~*~
And, so, here is the actual manip....
~ Frodo as the student in Girodet's “The Geography Lesson”:
~ Mechtild
Find other Frodo Art Travesties LJ entries HERE.
View Frodo Art Travesties album of images HERE.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
Your contibution to Hobbitmonth is so beautiful, darling Mechtild!
I always love the way you take wonderful works of art, and explain how you insert Frodo-Elijah... and I bless you for doing it here!
*shares your love for sweet wee creatures and the people that portray them*
♥
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
(Although the little excerpt you chose makes it look like Frodo is in the professor's lap, preparing for a little kiss...) ;)
From:
no subject
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:From:
no subject
Will be back later with a longer comment, I hope! *huggles and runs*
Thank you for a wonderful contribution for Hobbit Month! :)
From:
no subject
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Once again stunning!!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
*hugs*
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
You did wonder in manipulating Frodo, but Frodo's face is so perfect that it fits well in classic paintings.
Thanks a lot, dearest, hugs you!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
The face you chose is simply perfect. Together with the teacher's head it creates a wonderful intimate moment between the two of them.
I *love* Frodo's slightly rosy cheek. Wonderfully done!
From:
no subject
Yes, the rosy cheeks are an improvement. I added a little to his forehead, nostrils, lips and ears, too. Not enough to notice individually, but enough to bring up his colour in a general way.
But, you know, I wondered about the gender of Girodet, too, because of the "Anne" in the "Anne-Louis". But the sites I looked at all said he was a man. Perhaps the use of the feminine name is like that in the name of the composer, Carl Maria von Weber. His middle name is "Maria", which is definitely a woman's name. Perhaps "Anne" was his saint name, just as "Maria" might have been Weber's saint name?
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:From:
no subject
I have always imagined Bilbo, during the long winter evenings, explaining to Frodo strange subjects: runes, elvish, lore of other peoples, geography, botany of far countries. I have pictured him very pleased in teaching those ‘tookish’ matters, so typical for mad-Baggins. Frodo singularity among the other Hobbits was due also to his open-mind interaction with Bilbo.
It’s amazing that you used the Grey Havens scene for that warm coloured picture. The result is beautiful and, I will repeat other comment, more interesting then the original.
It’s always a pleasure to go into LotR story with your manips. Thanks, Mechtild!
From:
no subject
I think this picture is much more the sort of thing I had imagined, although the style of things in it is too recent, so many of the furnishings being things that are the products (directly or indirectely) of the Industrial Revolution: a well-off gentleman in a well-off gentleman's home, leading a well-off gentleman's life (who can afford to be accentric), imparting his knowledge to his well-born, well-brought-up ward.
From:
no subject
And THX a lot for explaining how you did it. That was interesting.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Perfectly done, as always, and yes, much better than the original. Thank you for posting up a little on how these beautiful pictures are made - I've always been interested to know.
Thank you so much!
From:
no subject
I remarked above that it only occurred to me to say more about how the manips are made rather recently, browsing the LJ of
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Have I ever told you how much I love your icon? I'll bet I have. Well, I love it. Is it from a Book of Hours?
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:From:
no subject
Hewene
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Perfect face for this.. and you SOOOO improved the original and so skillfully that I did not notice that you had done anything to the head at first.. I just marveled that the picture looked so much better without putting my finger on why.. (other of course that it had Frodo in it.)
I also commend you on Frodo's make up job. It looks right and not overdone at all.. just right.
This really is a lovely bit of art. Thank you! (You know how much I love Bilbo.)
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Wonderful work, thank you for sharing it.
From:
no subject
It's one of those images that could launch a dozen stories.
That is just what I think. I was just saying to Igraine, above, that a good illustration invites viewers into the story it illustrates, opening up their imaginations. I think this image does that. Thank you so much for commenting, Plaid PJs.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Have you seen her step-by-step explanation posted using her "EW with Nessie rising out of the tub" manip as the teaching model? (Naughty joke; that's my name for what this NC-17 b&w manip looks like.) Whether one likes that sort of manip or not, she uses it for giving a great explanation, written clearly, warmly, and with wit.
From:
no subject
And of course, the one with Frodo is more beautiful.
:)
From:
no subject
P.S. What does "shinta" refer to? I Googled it and got a lot for "shinta mani" but not plain shinta.
(no subject)
From:From:
no subject
I love the way you described how you did it and the reasons why it could not be a Bilbo & Frodo picture.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Thank goodness EW looked so young as a 18-20-year-old (I think he looked pretty young in the Grey Havens scene, much younger than his desk scene, that was his final shot).
(no subject)
From:From:
no subject
Yes, the flushed cheeks! *dies* Oh, those delicate features *swoons*
THANK YOU XXXXXXXX
From:
no subject
(no subject)
From:From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject