This commission was a very different one for me. I generally stick to landscapes, but when a client asked me to paint her favorite character from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings I jumped at the chance. Here is Eowyn confronting the Witch King of Angmar, Lord of the Nazgul upon the battlefield before the walls of Gondor. (I didn’t use the movies as a reference.)

It’s personally one of my favorite scenes in the novel. Eowyn standing defiantly before the wraith that just killed her uncle, King Theoden. She’s wracked with fear, sadness and anger all at once.

The Witch King warns her, “No Man can kill me.”

Then she takes off her helmet, golden hair in the wind and proclaims that he looks upon a woman.

Titled I Am No Man.

18×24 Oil on Panel.

I had no model so I cobbled her together from about 20 reference photos. The battlefield, strewn with dead orcs, burns as the wind which carries the ships up the Anduin fans the flames, smoke and dust of war.

I enjoyed this one, as I was able to be more free in my brush strokes in the battlefield behind her. Also, I added the Nazgul’s reflection in her shield. I wanted the painting to be about her, but still couldn’t resist slipping him in there.

Detail of the shield reflection