NSFW? PG, partial nudity, "Wings Over Water"

[wallace_trust]

In the 'heroic nudes' tradition. This pic is a rescue scene with romantic overtones and includes a small glimpse of Sam's adorable bare bottom, but there's nothing here that I would consider objectionable for a general audience. Your mileage may vary, of course :)

The image came about when I decided to do an iRay atmospheric study. This rendering engine works differently than anything I've used before and even simple things like clouds require a whole new approach. While I was experimenting with mesh vapor over water, I remembered an old fanfic I started and never finished. The original story was inspired by the tale of Elwing and went like this:

When Sam finally sailed West, Ulmo (Poseidon) got annoyed at yet another mortal trying to reach the Undying Lands. He stirred up a huge storm that put Sam's ship and crew in peril. During its height, a small white bird came fluttering out of the West to land exhausted on the deck. Sam saw it, hurried out onto the pitching deck to pick it up, and took it to his cabin. He put it on his bed and went back to watch the storm, but when he returned again, the bird had turned into Frodo! Frodo had heard the grumblings of Ulmo and, fearing for Sam's life, had taken the shape of a glowing white bird to guide his ship to harbor.

In an alternate version, the ship sank, but Frodo rescued Sam and flew him to safety. I eventually gave up on the fic because I didn't want their reunion marred by a sunken ship and crew, but it makes for a nice painting, even if I don't know where Sam's wings came from ^_^;

Comments

[baranduin]

Oooh, very nice!!!!

[wallace_trust]

Thank you so much! ^_^

My artistic progression is not a steady upward climb but more like a series of stair steps. Improvements like my handling of clouds in this one are coming suddenly and not gradually. In between are long plateaus where nothing much changes. How this all works is kind of interesting to me. :)

[shirebound]

Frodo had heard the grumblings of Ulmo and, fearing for Sam's life, had taken the shape of a glowing white bird to guide his ship to harbor.

That's incredibly sweet, and a lovely rendering.

[wallace_trust]

Thank you very much! :)

I've never forgotten the story of Elwing and I realized just a couple of days ago that's where all the winged figures are coming from. Also Luthien was a shape-changer, and for a long time now I have entertained a little reincarnation theory which explains the Beren/Luthien, Frodo/Sam parallel.

I'm currently trying to weigh whether I might be able to tackle the volcano scene "At the End of All Things," now that I understand iRay clouds. :)

[peripety]

Love the lighting in the scene! Very dramatic and effective. Lovely work!

[wallace_trust]

Thank you so much! :)

The lighting is entirely generated by an HDRI, which is a 360-degree panoramic photograph or rendering of a high-altitude cloudscape used as a light source. The topmost golden cloud layer is the HDRI, the second and third layers in descending order are simple mesh objects. Amazingly, no volumetric atmospheres were used in this, making it a pretty fast render on my older surplus machine.

[lizbennefeld]

Enjoyed your artwork. :)

[wallace_trust]

Thank you so much! :)