My Tolkien drawing for my favorite authors project. So here is my attempt to portray Valinor and some of the Valar more or less as I pictured them. I drew not only from the Silmarillion, but also from the Lost Tales, Unfinished Tales, Lays of Beleriand, and various others of those books where Christopher Tolkien publishes shreds from his fathers notebooks. Some of the older ideas were scrubbed but for the most part things were merely abriged in order to make the Silmarillion. This is of course done with colored pencil and I did ink it. Obviously I have not shown all the Valar because I ran out of room, so I'll portray the rest in a separate drawing.

So now for all the Tolkien fans, I wish to explain my rationalle behind my portrayal of the characters and setting.

From left to right: Manwe, Varda, Ulmo, Varie, Melkor, Namo/Mandos, and Vana.

Manwe and Varda are in their home on top of Taniquetil, which is very high up in the atmosphere and in fact almost beyond it. They are not my favorites among the Valar but they got a bigger shot because they are the leaders. In this scene Varda is responsible for the illumination being the maker of stars as she is. Some light can still be seen reaching up from the trees. The other scene depicts Valmar and an assemblage of the Valar in the process. Valmar is described as being "golden" and having domes and bells. The light is coming from Laurelin, not strait from above but mainly from the side. Of course the porch they are on also has its own illumination.

Manwe: He is described as wearing blue so I put him in blue (obviously). To be quite honest I actually pictured most of them as having simplistic costumes, but added more detail because I think that is what Tolkien intended, and because it looks better. Some of the Valar look more like elves, some more like humans, and some are just weird. Manwe I figured would be more like an elf.

Varda: Varda is the star maker so I gave her colors (or lack thereof) which reflect her element. I picture her as being black and white.

Ulmo: Ulmo happens to be my favorite of the male Valar. For Ulmo whenever he is described in detail he is said to wear silver mail and a helmet crested with foam. He reflects the colors of the sea which change as one goes down the length of his body making it look as though he is perpetually immersed in water.

Varie: Varie is the wife of Mandos, and they both tend to live in a dark, dismal, and somewhat creepy place. They are in charge of the spirits of the dead. In Lost Tales it is said that Varie built the roof of their house out of black bat wings, and the illumination is incredibly dim. So I thought "goth chic," and made her look that way. So she has the long black hair and pale skin which, as an added bonus, I also find very attractive.

Melkor: Melkor is portrayed pretty much exactly as I pictured him, which incidentally is about the same way I picture Satan (bottom center panel): [link] Kind of gives a whole new meaning to the term "White Devil." I know that during the 1600's and 1700's a lot of people in black Africa thought the devil is white. Personally I don't know, but I have my ideas. At any rate, this is Melkor in his "fair" form or perhaps his original form. He is described as desiring the Jewelry which the elves made for all of the Valar but him, while stating that he thought the Jewelry was worthless and that Iron was the best element. So here he wears iron adornments and a black yet somewhat foppish looking outfit. Here Varie and Mandos are "helping" Melkor make it to the assembly. He had to live with them for a while and I can imagine it must have been terribly boring, and it certainly did nothing to help his disposition.

Mandos: Mandos is described as being gloomy or brooding. It is said that he has a "dread" aspect but it is not precisely elaborated on as to what that is. Truthfully my mental image of Mandos was rather vague, but I pictured him as having somewhat grayish skin. I was somewhat stymied as to how to portray Mandos, since he was one of the ones chosen to round up Morgoth, and it was not because of his strength but because of his dread aspect. So it crossed my mind that Mandos is creepy looking. After that it was easy to arrive at the look that I had for him. Unfortunately I made his skin too dark, and it obscured his features while also making him look somewhat dirty or goulish. I was intending to go for a light gray. Quite a shame actually.

Vana: I always thought Vana was kind of worthless but I figured that I would draw her anyways. She is described as having blond hair and wearing yellow. I trimmed her clothing with red since she is often associated with the sun (while Lorien is associated with the moon) and gave her pale yet somewhat golden skin so that she would reflect her element. I had some other ideas that were pretty good for her face but I would have to do a close up to show them.

I intend to try to fit the rest of the Valar into another picture, but if anyone would like to see some of the Valar up close and in better detail then let me know because I might be willing to do it, or I could be persuaded to in exchange for something else.


My favorite authors project:

JRR Tolkien: [link]
CS Lewis: [link]
Isaac Asimov: [link]
Frank Herbert: [link]
Brian Herbert: [link]
Frank Peretti:
Edger Rice Burroughs: