Misty Mountains Old

The Dwarven Song of Old Wealth. All 27 verses. In the halls of Erebor (The Lonely Mountain). 37x60. Words and runic alphabet by J.R.R. Tolkien. Illustration by M.K. Davis.

I had more details in mind for this one but as is typical these days, it was gathering dust on the drawing table. And hanging off of the drawing table! At five feet long and over three feet wide, it's honking big. But it perfectly occupies the wall over my stairwell. I had to tape a screwdriver to a bamboo cane to mount it.

The Tolkien atlas illustrates a much simpler, much more shallow Erebor. But where's the fun in that? I wanted a cutaway dungeon version more fitting for "hollow halls beneath the fells" in "places deep where dark things creep."

No attempt was made at consistency of scale or of even being reasonable with it, but what you probably can't see in this pic are many ladders, bridges, elevators, and tunnels. By the time I got to Smaug's heap, the notion of chalices and statuary in silhouette just didn't make sense anymore. But should I change my mind, I can always go back to it.

BIG THANKS to Mike Roberts for getting my initial layout printed on that wonderful paper. Don't know what it is but I wish I had a ton of it. It made a gorgeous clean print and has taken a lot of abuse without wrinkling or tearing.

Furlough is the Mother of Intervention

12 days into this furlough so far.  I s'pose it's time to seek supplemental employment. My portfolio at mkdavis.net is now freshly redesigned with a great html5 template from html5up, and a responsive, cross-platform lightbox.

Also, and more fun, I finally made good use of the YargCade domain and uploaded 5 cool Flash games!

Hook'Em

Hook'Em was an experiment that turned out to be one of the most useful things in the house when my boys were toddling. Seriously. Once you start it, all they use is the spacebar. The demo has only 2 of the 7 levels but if you chunk down the ten bucks for the full version, your younger kids will be occupied long enough for you to argue with Comcast, locate your sanity, maybe even shower. Guaranteed.

The full version also includes an Explore and Learn mode, which carefully explains to your little ones that they might not actually be able to pull in a whale with a rod and reel, and that some things are better left in the water.

Sharks!

Also a spacebar game, and nearly as attention-keeping as Hook'Em. In this case you get to choose between five sharks and basically eat everything you see. That's it. They love it. Clear a screen and if you carry a few things to the surface, a caged diver comes down. Ram his cage a few times and he soils his wetsuit. They LOVE that. Did I mention this is free?

Monster Maker

Choose parts to mix and match your monster, then send it out to gather more parts. Sick. Free.

Broomstix

Broomstix is not aimed at kids. Help 13 witches fly to the rendezvous point without getting hit by bats or eaten by the Great Pumpkin. It is rated PG for cartoon nudity and mild language. Free demo. Full version is in the works.

Shoggoth

Shoggoth is more of a toy. Eat things, avoid pain. My kids love it though. Free.

In Places Deep Where Dark Things Sleep

Details from another work in progress.

More Riddle of Steel Pix

It's framed now so the photos are a bit glare-y.

Update: prints are now for sale in the Etsy store!

May It Be - Calligraphy of Enya Lyrics

This one had been in my mental queue for years. I had lofty goals of detailed illustrations and personal elements but sometimes you just have to get an idea off the table to make room -- and go back to it later if you get a mind to. The song, if you don't recognize it.

CROM!

Thanks to Mikeyboy for posting a link to YargCade at CROM! Go there NOW for all your Conan Fandom goodness.

The Riddle of Steel

The Riddle of Steel is complete. Prints of the full-sized version (24x18) are now available for sale in the Etsy store.