I go through a love/hate relationship with this painting and at the moment I'm starting to feel proud of it again although for months I hated the sight of it. It was the second one I started based on the Lord of the Rings movies (I have a tendancy to have several things on the go at once) but the only one that reached anything near completion. As artists we all strive to do the best we can and improve ourselves but in this case it backfired as even people who had seen my work before asked if it was a photo-manipulation. Although in a way the remarks were a kind of back handed compliment and not meant to be hurtful, it really upset me at the time as I'd spent well over 10 hours, probably closer to 15 hours painting this and ended up thinking 'why do I bother?'. On the plus side though it forced me to pick up pencil and paper and start drawing again to prove I had actually done it (plus I do still have it in layers). Needless to say the other paintings I started on the computer never did get finished as I lost heart with the whole thing. I may at some point go back and finish them, I don't know.
A few valuable lessons learned all round I think!
This painting will probably seem familiar to some of you and that will be because I do have it posted in other places.

Thank you all who have requested a print of this painting. As much as I appreciate it I cannot offer it for sale in any form as technically it is not mine to sell. Although it took me many hours to paint, the image I used as reference and the character belong to other people such as New Line Cinema, Tolken, Craig Parker, and so on. They own the rights not me. Sorry.