Glorfindel and the Balrog: Visual Elements

I think I just wanted an excuse to talk about Glorfindel. Obviously I’ll talk about the visual elements as usual but...Glorfindel. This is the only piece that isn’t specifically The Lord of the Rings. This scene comes from The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth, like The Fall of Gondolin and such. Yeah, the stuff that no one understands when you have obscure references on your t-shirt. Some guy at work thought The Silmarillion was connected to Harry Potter. Just, no.

Line: The first thing that stands out is obviously the diagonal cliff face they’re standing on. Second is all the lovely curvy lines of the mountain in the background.

Shape: That mountain is just really fun to look at. It seems to have impressive mass.

Value: There is a nice contrast between the elements in the foreground compared to background. It’s obvious where the focus is.

Color: The red of the balrog’s mouth and eyes pops against the other colors, but it still doesn’t draw too much attention to itself.

Texture: The clouds or mist feel soft against the rest of the textures of the piece, like rock and skin or whatever the balrog is made of.

Space: If it is clouds we’re seeing, this gives you a sense of how high up they are and how much of the rest of the world we’re not seeing.

Time and Motion: Rocks are flying off the cliff face. They are mid-battle and the balrog has just struck a blow. *Spoiler* Glorfindel kills the balrog but dies. *Spoiler* Glorfindel comes back to life because he’s a badass.

"It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish." J. R. R. Tolkien