Fridays at the Mathom-House:

Happy Friday! I meant to get this posted up last week . . . but didn't. This week's Mathom-House will be featuring the amazing illustrations of Sceithailm, who has a gallery full of amazing stuff over at deviantart.com. All of her work is great, but to me, her depictions of Middle-earth are the cream of the crop. The texturing she works into the fabrics and skin of her characters is amazing.

Jump past the break to enjoy a feast for the eyes!

Friday at the Mathom-House: Magali Villavenue Redux

That's right. It's Friday and the time has come to celebrate your freedom from the workday by looking at some awesome Hobbit and Lord of the Rings art by Magali Villavenue. This is the second time we've post some of Magali's work here, but we couldn't resist showing off more of her stuff because a lot of her recent work has been Hobbit-themed and, well . . . her art is just really, really good. Jump past the break to see more Hobbit-y goodness.

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Magali Villeneuve

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a ‘mathom’.

–The Fellowship of the Ring; Prologue 

Friday is here and superb Middle-Earth art has arrived! Today we'll be showcasing the Lord of the Rings artwork of Magali Villeneuve. All of the art on display today comes from the new Lord of the Rings Card Game by Fantasy Flight Games. And if you're interested in seeing more of Magali's work once you've looked through what we have here, head on over to her blog to see a bunch of other amazing artwork.

There's a ton of pictures here, so I'm not gonna comment on each and everyone. Instead, I'll just give a brief overview of why I like this artist so much. First and foremost, Magali has real talent . . . her art looks good enough to be included in a Tolkien book, which you don't see often these days. Second, Magali's artwork is filled with detail, which is what first caught my eye. Just look at Bifur, below. There's scrollwork on his hood, breath misting in the air, and his axe looks good enough to have come straight from the armories of the Lonely Mountain.

All in all, these images are good stuff. Enjoy!

Bifur of Erebor

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Otis Frampton

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a ‘mathom’.

–The Fellowship of the Ring; Prologue 

Friday! Another week is over, the weekend is looming and its time to head on over to take a pit-stop here at the Mathom-House, where there's a whole lot of awesome-ness in a hole in the ground to celebrate! This week we'll be looking at the Hobbit/LOTR artwork of Otis Frampton. I stumbled on this guy's work a few months ago and couldn't get over just how good it is. His art has an amazing, stylized look, yet the details don't suffer for it. Frampton also does a great job of imbuing his images with atmosphere. Take a look for yourself:

Bilbo and the Dragon

The thing I like best about this first image is the sheer size of Smaug . . . the guy is HUGE, and Frampton did a great job of making the dragon's tail disappear into the haze of the chamber. Like I mentioned above, effects like that lend a sense of depth and atmosphere that make this picture really fun.

More great art after the break: