Erebor Gate 3

Yet another take on the Front gate of the Lonely Mountain (just cant leave this one alone for some reason) trying to incorporate some lessons learned from the other two [link] [link]

I'm quite happy with the way this one turned out, the comparative squatness of the arch (or um, trapezoid) and the heaviness of the flanking pillars seems appropriately dwarvish. I've always loved the entrances to gothic cathedrals, in which the doorways themselves are recessed into these many-layered, elaborately carved portals, I was going for a dwarf version of that. I wasn't overly fond of those two huge kneeling dwarf statues in the movie, but these more rigid, symmetrical, and stylized relief sculptures are a bit more to my liking, as are those heavy bronze fire baskets sitting on the balustrades.

part of my weekly tolkien sketchblog