Enjoying the heck out of this game and have worked my way up the "Shadow and Flame" adventure pack. This game has inspired me to re-read all the Tolkien classics and take a new direction with my painting. Here's "Durin's Bane", 16" x 20", oil on board. I have a few more details to add when this current layer of oil dries.

Excellent painting! Love the colors you use here.

You are very talented sir.

ditto! wow, I didn't know that there were people with so much artistic talent on the forum!

Nice work! I wish I had this kind of talent.

Guys, I got this one.

Wow, just finished the "Shadow & Flame" adventure pack and didn't realize how much a premonition my illustration would be! I played an all Dwarf deck for the last three adventure packs and kept the Durin's Helm and Axe cards as hard won trophies to help me get through this last quest in the Dwarrowdelf cycle. Now it's on to "Heirs of Numenor"!

Fantastic, I can feel the heat!

It didn't have wings.

Excellent colour use! Do you have other paintings to show? Glad you enjoyed the scenario - it sure is both a fun and tough one.

wow, i'd suggest you to paint more drawings ^^

It didn't have wings.

"It stepped forward slowly on to the bridge, and suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall;"

Uh oh, the great Balrog wings debate is incoming...

Personally, I'm in the "no wings" camp because of this quote just before. Tolkien says the shadow looks like wings, and then uses this simile/metaphor later on, when he says the wings spread.

"His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings."

Excellent colour use! Do you have other paintings to show? Glad you enjoyed the scenario - it sure is both a fun and tough one.

Thanks for checking out my work. Sorry, this is my only Middle-Earth related painting so far. I've just finished re-reading the The Silmarillion and may tackle some of those subjects next.

Personally, I'm in the "no wings" camp because of this quote just before. Tolkien says the shadow looks like wings, and then uses this simile/metaphor later on, when he says the wings spread.

"His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings."

This could plausibly mean it "grew" wings of shadowy form or appearance.

Seriously, I don't care either way, but the wings tend to give them a more fallen angel look, which I like. Either way, he doesn't say they don't have wings. At most, they're not directly described.

Indeed, and that's exactly why there's such a big debate, because there's no definitive answer either way because Tolkien's language on the matter is open to interpretation. Note that I'm not saying the OP is wrong in painting the Balrog with wings because Balrogs have been depicted in art both with wings and without them, so there's certainly precedence for it. I'm just saying that I think Tolkien probably intended them not to have wings, but there's arguments both ways.

http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/TAB6.html

I'm in the with wings camp.

Mainly because I want them to have wings, but the arguement on point 3 in the link seems a bit far fetched imo.

Edit: whoops. Trying to copy that link again.

It can be fun to have these harmless debates. In my opinion the first line,

"His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings."

indicates that the wings are an illusion of the shadow. And the second line,

"It stepped forward slowly on to the bridge, and suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall"

just indicates that the shadow had grown.

I also made a painting of this scene and I gave the Balrog wings, just for the coolness factor. I don't think we'll ever know for sure if Tolkien intended the Balrog to have wings.

It actually doesn't really matter all that much because we know that even if he had wings, he couldn't fly with them cause if he could, he wouldn't have fallen into Khazad Dum. I think he may have had them, but he probably couldn't fly like is depicted in the illustration above. But on the other hand, part of the reason Tolkien is so good is because he is often slightly vague, leaving room for imagination. Not to say everything is subjective in Tolkien, but things like the wings on a balrog are not clearly objective.

It actually doesn't really matter all that much because we know that even if he had wings, he couldn't fly with them cause if he could, he wouldn't have fallen into Khazad Dum. I think he may have had them, but he probably couldn't fly like is depicted in the illustration above. But on the other hand, part of the reason Tolkien is so good is because he is often slightly vague, leaving room for imagination. Not to say everything is subjective in Tolkien, but things like the wings on a balrog are not clearly objective.

Taking the duck being not that big, as a prime example:

It needs to speed up on water to take off.

You won't see them hopping into the air just like that.

Now imagine this happening with something "man size & shape but bigger"

Wanted to show the finished painting. "Durin's Bane", 16" x 20", oil on board

Great! Congratulations!

+10!!!