Studying Elven Portrayals - Tolkien

One of the most famous portrayals of elves is in the film adaptations of Tolkien's novels varying from 'The Hobbit" trilogy to the 'Lord of The Rings' trilogy. Therefore, when I started to design the characters of the nymphs, I immediately had a look at the best place to start: Peter Jackson's interpretation. Again some elements which I think I can see in the Woodland Queen have possibly come from the Elvenking, Thranduil. She is bitter and has actually pulled her own people away from the world. I also really like all the different types of concept art and interpretations in the art provided throughout the clip. This hopefully should help me design the nymphs as a species on their own and also help me cast the actresses for the roles.

I think it was very interesting in designing the attitudes of the characters. Although this is part of finding an actor who can get into the personality of the character, I think this is also very important for the basis of character design in the fantasy genre. Another element which I love that I have already mentioned in my blog is the aspect of Thranduil's crown. I like the idea of having the Woodland Queen wearing a crown that highlights her superiority as well as cruel nature. This could possibly take inspiration from two of the most famous crowns/helmets in the interpretations of Tolkien's novels: Sauron's spiky helmet and Thranduil's branch root-like crown.

After having looked at Thranduil and Legolas, I decided to look at the other elf from 'The Hobbit' called Tauriel, who stimulated the love triangle in the film between Legolas, Tauriel and the dwarf, Kili.

I am aiming to follow Tolkien's ideas of developing a race of almost super-human creatures as the nymphs (taking inspiration from Tolkien's elves instead of the small elves and fairies that has become part of children's literature). I believe this might add more a sense of realism to the characters as well as perhaps a creepy element to them as they are more human-like and increasingly more powerful. The interesting ideas of Tolkien towards the Light Elves and Dark Elves will also hopefully be seen in the portrayal of the nymphs in 'Halfbreed', differing between the characters of the Woodland Queen with her bitter and manipulative personality and Melodie with her obedient and perhaps earthy personality. I also took a lot of inspiration from this video extract for the strong female characters and the develop of nature of the nymphs.