"Ungoliant and the Two Trees" by Dreamflower

[dreamflower]

B2MeM Prompt and Path:: Purple Path, Prompt--the Darkening of Valinor (Square Six)
Format: Art, Mixed Media
Genre: Collage
Rating: G
Warnings: n/a
Characters: Ungoliant, Laurelin, Telperion
Pairings: n/a
Creator’s Notes (optional): My first piece of art for the 2017 B2MeM
Summary: Ungoliant attacks Laurelin and Telperion

"Ungoliant and the Two Trees"



Mixed Media collage, using cardstock, scrapbooking paper, acrylic paints, embossing powder, Mod Podge(TM) and calligraphy.

I used acrylics to create the sky on the background on a 12"x12" piece of canvas-textured cardstock. Then I used scrapbook paper, sponged with metallic gold for Laurelin and metallic silver for Telperion. I cut the trees from a pattern I made, and glued the trunks to the background, making sure to intertwine the branches in the center. I used gold and silver embossing powder for each of the trees, and set it with a heat gun.

Then I used a pattern I made for a spider, and cut it out of black cardstock, which I placed at the bottom, partially covering the Trees. I used a sponge and black acrylic paint to show the darkness coming from Ungoliant.

Finally, I used a piece of grey scrapbook paper to write the quotation:
But Ungoliant sucked it up, and going then from Tree to Tree she set her black beak to their wounds, till they were drained...

Comments

[shirebound]

What a horrific event. Nicely done!

[dreamflower]

It was so horrible! I tried to get the effect of how the darkness came upon the Trees.

[zdenka]

I like this! I especially love the gold and silver glow around the Trees.

[dreamflower]

Thank you! I knew that glitter would not give me the right effect, but then I remembered I had some gold and silver embossing powder. I shook it onto the paper with a dry paintbrush, and then set it with the heat gun. It took a few layers to get it right.

[kayleelupin.livejournal.com]

Horrifically done! (Heh! I find myself thinking of Virtuella's "Orcs at School" over at SoA when saying things like that! :D ) The Trees are beautiful, but oh, what a frightening event!

[dreamflower]

Thank you! I wanted the beauty of the Trees to shine even through the darkness Ungoliant was spewing forth as she sucked up the Light.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

A very powerful artwork.

[dreamflower]

Thank you, Linda.

[elwenlj.livejournal.com]

Very dramatic contrasts with the black lower half and the colourful uppper half of the image and I like the balance you brought with the insertion of the quote. You've got me wanting to break out my embossing powders now.

[dreamflower]

Thanks! I did want to balance it out, showing that the Trees were not yet wholly overcome, but also to show how inevitable Ungoliant's power was.

I used my embossing powders a lot on my polymer clay projects, but it's been a long while since I used them on paper, I'd nearly forgotten that's why I had them in the first place!

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

This is awesome! The spider is terrifying. I think the colours are great and would hang this in my house! :)

[dreamflower]

*blushes* What a compliment! Thank you so much.

[liadt]

Scary with the spider rising up to the trees!

[dreamflower]

I'm glad the scariness comes through! Thank you!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

That is a beautiful representation of something horrible - a real skill.

[dreamflower]

I knew it would be hard to show the beauty of the Trees as well as the horror of Ungoliant--I was so afraid that the elements would not balance out.

Thank you so much!

[foxrafer.livejournal.com]

This is wonderfully atmospheric; it's great.

[dreamflower]

Thank you! It's such a keystone moment in the legendarium, I wanted the nature of the event to show.

[independence1776]

That is neat!

[elleth]

Very nice! I love how Ungoliant herself is part of the darkness rearing up to engulf the Trees, that's properly terrifying emotionally, and beautiful in the compositional sense.