Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Drawing inspiration from Tolkiens own drawings are a fun challange. He was not as great at historical costume as he was at worldbuilding, it seems.

This drawing is based on Dwalins description in the hobbit (with a shorter beard) and on Tolkiens sketches.

The cap is based on viking examples, with a base of leather with wool sewn onto them. It was a hard battle between this design and a knitted, later period cap.

The jacket is lined with short sheep fur, and is of green wool cloth, with buttons made from gold or bronze.

The breeches are of standard middle earth design, but these are not tightened with bands.

The socks are sewn, made from striped wool cloth.

The boots are of dwarven design, made with black leather and tarred to resist water better.

The belt is of leather with engraved gold plates on.

What do people think? This is just a sketch, but i hope i can inspire other people.



https://m.imgur.com/a/1c0moak

I for one really dig it. It's actually quite refreshing to see a familiar image 'reconstructed' to be a bit more realistic with more details (Osprey military books have the same appeal to me). How about a dwarf with a backpack next? I'd be interested in seeing your takes on other Tolkien cultures whose material culture is similarly minimally-fleshed-out (Rohan, Gondor, etc).

As someone working on a Dwarf persona, I would also love to see a backpack.

Thank you, ive been fighting long battles with Elrond about what he should wear. Tomorrow i can post a gallery of all my middle earth sketches so far.

I'm also glad to see an interpretation based on the source material that challenges the now de rigueur portrayal established by the LOTR films.

Looks good, I love the patterns on the mittens

are the "gold plates" on the belt intended to be brass, or actual gold? if they're actual gold then that's a serious status symbol

They are gold plates, as Dwalin was described as wearing a golden belt in the book. It is likely it is an important family artifact, passed down from father to son. Genereally dwarves would likely wear brass plated ones, or more simple leather belts, with tin embroideries.

Thats what i think, at least. I dont think tolkien talked much about belts except Dwalin having a gold belt, so we have to fill in the gaps.

https://imgur.com/a/Rj0x7gS

I cant seem to get the pics to show up here, so ive included the album of the pics instead.

The dwarven backpacker is based on the tolkien sketch of the dwarves and smaug.

He is wearing a shorter jacket then the one Dwalin is wearing, might be lined with fur this one too, but i do not know. The colour is yellow, based on that one of the dwarves had a yellow hood. It might be made if yellow cloth or chamois leather, which is yellowish and was a popular material for jackets in 18th century sweden.
The hand-woven ribbon are sewn onto the jacket, maybe woven by this dwarves mother or sister.

The breeches are here tied around the stockings with an other pair of ribbons, it is popular to do this in swedish folk costume. The breeches themselves are made from gray wool cloth. I would make them from swedish "wadmal" which is a processed wool cloth where it has been felted post-weaving to resist water much better.

The socks or hoses are gray with red stripes, likely by by dwarven women. It is not knitted, but sewn from striped wool cloth.

The backpack is of leather, i struggled with finding a satisfying design based on the proffessor's drawing. But i got it after first making a model in paper to get the construction right. I was inspire by Sami backpacks when making it. Might go into te construction more if you people want it.

The mittens are based on knitted sami ones, but i played around with the idea of fur-lined leather ones, painted with patterns.

The shoes have soles of wood, or layers of glued Birch bark. They are tarred to resist water better, and can be replaced with new soles if needed. The rest of the shoe is black leather, with a 1700s-ish design, as tolkien drew the square-ish.

The cap is a simple birka-based viking one, with a leather base and covered with wool. It is likely made in the same material as the breeches, and could have been sewn together. The tassle is a ribbon, similar to the other ones on the dwarf.

The thorin sketch here is mostly me playing around, im not satisfyed with it.
Same for elrond, ive been playing round with giving the elves or Rivendell greek-inspired clothes, but im not sure if it looks good.

Those are awesome!

I really like the direction you're going - I think you're getting quite close to the Professor's mental image there.
The plaque belt especially is interesting. I've been looking at metallic belt plaques for other things recently, and I can easily see something like this in a dwarven context:


https://raymonds-quiet-press.myshopify. ... fdcf&_ss=r"

.... excepting perhaps a series of plaques along the belt, illustrating various scenes from - for example - the first founding of Erebor, prior to Smaug. Or perhaps Moria?
I fear I've not dipped into the dwarven notes: I assume the Professor left notes detailed enough for some work like that?

Regarding WETA, the one thing I think that really worked with their dwarven stuff was *texture* - all those knitted woolens and burned leathers brought things to life. I can see the same kind of "flavoring" working here.


edit - hrm. Seems we've had a software update and I don't know what to do anymore.

Im basing it on this bronze panzerbelt made by a friend of mine. I agree with you that it is likely that they have images of great importance to their owner, could be larger events or just ones family history.

I agree with you on weta, while i dont share their design choices in middle earth i do really love the work they have done on the material side. I would love to have access to the hobbits concept art bools, if anyone has them because. Allt of it is really useful as inspiration, especially on the material side.

Im most often designing things as if they were real things, i for example always think of the material of what i am drawing. May it be wool, or a cotton-linen mend.

Right now im looking for some dwarven patterns and such, as i am trying to draw some common housegoodd for the dwarves (and maybe rangers).

To those who want to make a dwarven cap based on my drawings, as they are based on viking age finds. I would just attach a tassle at the top: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MFq ... p=drivesdk

https://imgur.com/a/yAO6lRW

Other drawing! This time its of dwarven winter gear. These things might have been worn by the dwarves of the hobbit, as these are quite more more "breeish" then the older Erebor and Iron hill fashion.

Te knee-long coat is of green cloth, lined with sheep fur, or goat. It has two bronze buttons, to hold it together. It is trimmed with woven ribbons similar to viking age ones. (Also used until the 1900s in sweden)

A pair of long breeches in gray wool is also included, longer then usual ones these look more like trousers.

A pair of wool socks are worn too, might be knitted , naalbound, or sewn?
The mittens are similar, likely knitted but they could be sewn with painted patterns.

The hood is similar to the one worn by most people in middle earth. It is based on the bocksten one, with a shorter back and with a tazzle added.

The boots are Dwarven, made from black leather and cured with tar water that is added for them to become water resistent. Quite a square shape, similar to colonial designs but more simple. The red ribbon was likely added later by the dwarf itself, to make it look nice. It has runes stamped onto it, to show what shoe-maker made them.

The belt is of leather, with small brass plates sewn onto it.

https://imgur.com/a/yAO6lRW for such a image heavy site there seems to be a problem with getting them to show up.

This stuff is awesome, such well thought out ideas, interpretation and kit there's so much info in here already that my brain is in overload just from reading it


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This might be of some help to you:
[EDIT] I moved the "how to embed images from imgur thing" to a different sub-forum, on account of feeling guilty for posting something so off-topic on such an interesting thread, You can now find it here: https://www.ranger.budgetauthenticity.o ... =11&t=4303

Fantastic concept art! Very true to the source...it's beautiful, really. Ditto x1000 on a backpack!

other design.