Azog

Here's a quickie (drawn in the bottom corner of a legal form, no less)

Would anyone believe me if I said I'd pictured Azog as being bald long before the Hobbit movie came out? If I can ever dig them up, I've got a handful of old drawings to prove it (now where did I put those damn hipster glasses of mine?) I don't know, it just seemed like a natural choice for the self styled orc-king of moria.

The character, as written in the books (however briefly) has a certain wild amusement and orcish gallows humor to him that I thought "unexpected journey" missed. that and, well, movie-azog was just a bit too… handsome. I understand wanting to invest a degree of ruggedness and strutting arrogance in the character (he certainly has that in the book) but in the movie he just seemed a little too sexy for his shirt, so to speak, which is not something I readily associate with orcs; for my own take, I see Azog as being something like a big male chimp; powerfully muscled, but in an ugly, brutal, distorted way. I usually tend to go with a very ape-like, subhuman interpretation for orcs, it seems a good fit for both their physical description - stooped, bow-legged, long arms, powerful gripping hands - and their role as regressed, degraded humanoids.

The proud, boasting orc chieftain has always been one of my personal favorite peripheral characters in tolkien's grand mythos, and whatever my problems with movie-Azog, I will admit it was exciting (at first) to see him get some screen time. I did a lot of sketches of him a few years ago for a fanfic webcomic series I was planning, centering around the war of the dwarves and orcs, mostly as seen through the eyes of a very young Bolg. the project was mainly intended as an attempt at portraying orcish society (which I imagine as something like a cross between prison society and wolf-pack society) and the orcish emotional landscape; a fascinating subject upon which to speculate. next time I'm digging through storage I'll try and grab some of them (though whether I'll wish to put up what is probably in many cases some pretty shabby work remains to be seen)

Part of the Weekly Tolkien Sketchblog

see also:

The Son of Azog turnermohan.deviantart.com/art…
Royal Cousins turnermohan.deviantart.com/art…
The Thinking Orc turnermohan.deviantart.com/art…
Orc Figure Study turnermohan.deviantart.com/art…