“The Silmarillion” - J.R.R. Tolkien

These are mock-up posters I made for a hypothetical film of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy work The Silmarillion–and also one of my favorite books. It tells the story of the creation of the world and the history of the Elves and is written so densely it’s like reading a religious text. I absolutely love it.

I had a few points of inspiration. The first was the art direction for the 2021 album Nurture by Porter Robinson. The next was the 2019 Ari Aster film Midsommar. The third was an “after the war” feeling, and the last was to simply strip back the look of the average Tolkien Film poster.

I took the photos for all three mockups and edited them in Photoshop to adjust the lighting. I then put everything together in Illustrator. 

I wanted to craft the image of something angelic that was tainted with violence, much like the slaying of the first elves in the story who would otherwise live forever in their edenic world. There are three stars scattered across each image to represent the three namesake Silmarils–three coveted jewels that shine with starlight. Each star has seven points to represent the seven elven sons of Fëanor who are bound to them. The vertical text in Tengwar is from the book cover, and the bottom text says “The Silmarillion” in Tengwar.

The blood was made out of gochujang and paint, and the still, flat look of the water was done with soy milk and blue gouache.

My favorite is the one with the single flower.