Cannot think of any great titles now... and you probably need the title to know who this is. A completely new face in my gallery. Hopefully he is at least somehow recognisable but I really don't have high hopes for that. I've stared at this far too long during the past couple of days and it has really escaped from me what this actually looks like.

I could ramble quite a lot about this... about why this drawing shouldn't even exist. You know, I've managed to avoid watching the Lord of the Rings movies all these years. Until last weekend. I never wanted to watch them. I have this weird thing of not quite liking the reality and not quite liking fantasy when it starts to be too much... well, too far away in fantasy, if you get what I mean. Some years ago I tried watching the Fellowship of the Ring and run away after the first 30 minutes. I simply couldn't be bothered. I just got utterly bored with the beginning... but now I managed to watch the first film until this guy appeared and I suddenly found the whole thing a lot more interesting and somehow ended up watching the whole trilogy. After some hours I got used to all the weird creatures and it was actually a lot more entertaining than I expected. Well, might be accurate to point out that I've hardly ever been so much against watching any film than I was in this case.

Anyway, even if I still don't really have any clear opinion of the movies, I simply wanted to draw this character. He's one of those that I immediately liked and was pleased to see the character remain as likable throughout the whole trilogy. It's rare to see such an honest heroic character portrayed with such ease and depth without making him at all annoying. Even if he's so logical and honest you cannot quite get into his head. There's just something so admirable about his forthrightness, straight shooting way of handling things. Almost all movie characters, good or bad, are somehow manipulative nowadays. This one really was miles away from that. A delightful surprise that gave me a sudden unexpected strike of inspiration.

It was impossible to find a reference that I would have really liked... I tried my best to avoid all those pictures that everyone always draws and on the other hand I couldn't spend weeks finding a suitable photo because I wanted to draw him now. I know it's sketchy but it was never meant to be anything else. Once again my usual digitally enhanced pencil drawing.