The Withywindle Willow
Title: The Withywindle Willow Graphite pencil, fineliner and grey brush pens on A5 sketchbook paper, 2024 This drawing started from a piece by Tolkien himself. While writing the chapter “The Old Forest”, he sketched Old Man Willow in pencil and coloured pencil: an autumn tree with yellow leaves, its roots spreading towards a quiet, marshy pool. The coloured pencil softens the menace of the drawing, but the wriggling roots and arm-like branches hint at a tree that can move. tolkienestate For my version I kept the bones of his composition, with the willow on the left and the water opening up to the right. Then I changed almost everything else. Where Tolkien’s willow is gentle and golden, I wanted something heavier and darker. Hammond and Scull note that his tree doesn’t look as enormous as the hobbits found it, so I let the trunk take over the page, twisted and knotted, with its weeping branches hanging like curtains over the scene. The hobbits, by contrast, are tiny. Wikipedia At...