TO BAG END - A PERSONAL REFLECTION ON A PIECE LONG IN THE MAKING

To Bag End completed, or at least until I find reason to continue to refine it!

 By: Russell R Cera

  Nearly a decade ago, I began to illustrate the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.  I had just seen Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring in theaters and was in the midst of reading the first book of The Lord of the Rings. I was hooked, and the subject was the first thing to intrigue me enough to dedicate my artistic endeavors exclusively to.  Up until then, my portfolio lacked examples of my interest or ability in fine art, with most of my work coming by way of employment or contracted pieces for commercial purposes.

  Something just clicked, and I recall on my lunch break at work one day, beginning to sketch a small drawing of Gollum, which later I turned into a full size graphite piece.  Looking back, the image wasn't one of my personal favorites, however it was the catalyst for several more concept sketches of scenes I imagined directly from the novel.

  It seemed in the following years, while completing the novels and witnessing two more masterpiece films my thirst for Tolkien's work kept getting stronger.  In that time I would go on to complete two major color art pieces, first Back To The Shadow, a depiction of Gandalf facing the Balrog and There and Back Again, a collage of the events from The Hobbit.  These pieces took immeasurable time and patience to complete, especially the latter of which I must have spent every free moment working on.

 Naturally, I couldn't help but try to market my ability in my new found obsession, so I contacted the Tolkien Estate in hopes I might be able to sell one time pieces to would be enthusiasts. All the while I hoped to garnish a name for myself with the online Tolkien community, most notably theonering.net, aspiring to bring my craft to calenders or future publications.

  I also had the distinct pleasure of confiding in John Howe, renowned Tolkien artist and co-conceptual illustrator for Peter Jackson's films.  His incomparable style, especially for concept pencil work was exactly what I aspired to, and after attempting direct contact he graciously accepted. His words of encouragement as well as compliments for my work was and still remains one of the highest points of taking on the subject matter as a whole.  In fact, a very nice moment came, when John complimented a concept piece I created of Smaug the Dragon, while in the very early moments of his involvement on the film adaptation of The Hobbit.

   What I was starting to realize though, is that I loved the method of conceptual art over finishing full color works.  I would get lost in imagining how a particular piece of the text would look, translating it to my own vision on paper. The process was intoxicating, with all the creative energy going to conceiving or translating ideas over the tedious effects of rendering. The ideas were coming fast and furious and before long I was surrounded by pieces of artwork that were unfinished or had no sense of direction.

   Still, I knew that a portfolio of unfinished concept art for a subject that already had it's fine art masters, had already been translated to three major motion pictures and who's hysteria was beginning to quell was not taking me anywhere.  So I began my third full color piece, of which I picked from a slew of other ideas, knowing that I would not find success in illustrating Tolkien unless I dedicated myself to finishing the works into fine art pieces.

   The sketch I chose was called "To Bag End" a depiction of the Dwarf brothers Fili and Kili arriving at Bag End early in The Hobbit.  I enjoyed the idea that this was a quiet moment that had never been depicted before, rather than some major set piece or battle and it also provided an opportunity to recreate a lavish landscape in color.

Image at top shows progress of To Bag End by 2005.
Below image shows entire progress up until Summer
of 2011. 

  The imagery provided at left shows "To Bag End" in progress, from it's earliest color stages beginning in 2002 with the giant tree and Bag End's indicative round green door.  My intent was to utilize very saturated colors and detail, but in doing so, progress was incredibly slow.

  Over the course of another year, I danced around from one section to another as I had very little patience over long periods of time, concentrating then on Kili, the first of my two dwarfs.

 All the while I was sadly beginning to loose interest in my original intent, with the piece growing so tedious to me that I was not enjoying myself like I should have been. I moved on to other images and subject matter, and so "To Bag End" began to sit idle.

   Life was taking different directions as well, with the birth of my two children during this time, a relocation and new job, my focus and interests were admittedly going to more important things than finishing "To Bag End!"

   In all, the piece lied dormant for nearly five full years, sitting inside of a folder with it's progression halting with only a third of it completed. I consigned myself to the fact that "To Bag End" would never be finished and so I started to use it in it's partial state as an example of a work in progress. Although, I wasn't making any progress.

  Fast forward to 2011. With RJA Creations well into it's third year, I began to take an interest in finishing "To Bag End" again.

  Quite simply the reason was this.  Myself and creative partner James had begun to formulate full stories that we intended to turn into treatments for hopeful publication.  We soon noticed that we had more ideas than time warranted to create, and once again I found myself involved in  unfinished works that had great potential if only we could figure out a way to finish them.  The pattern was repeating and so I needed to break myself of the habit for losing energy when something more intriguing came along.

This photo shows progress of To Bag End by mid September
2011. You can see just how much more work was necessary and
how little I had accomplished from where I left off.

  The both of us had taken on personal projects for the year, and that down time from collaboration provided a window for me to finally fish what I started with "To Bag End".  I made it my mandate, in other words that the piece would serve as an example to myself that I would apply the same dedication to all of my other creative endeavors going forward.

   In May of 2011, I began again to move on to uncharted territory and develop the untouched areas of "To Bag End".  I laid out the background landscape and re rendered the road using Prismacolor pencil and acrylic paint.  Progress continued at a steady pace now, with the Dwarfs taking shape and reaching the far right corner of the piece by September.  Soon after, the sky was nearly completed and I had laid out the final details of the landscape background.

  The deal was that I had to dedicate at least three days a week to doing at very least an hour a piece of intensive rendering, with a target finish date of end of 2011.  As of November 16th, I had placed the finishing touches on a piece long in the making.  I sat back and took a deep breath... it was finally over!  Completing "To Bage End" was truly the end of a long journey to who's destination I thought I would never reach.  Quite possibly with the coming of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, I may find renewed interest in illustrating the subject and marketing the pieces for future publication.  Either way, I know now that all of my personal as well as RJA Creations works can and will be completed.  It only takes time, continued effort and a lot more patience than I am used to having!