My first manipulation
completely from scratch.
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My second manipulation; Heart of the Forest.
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My third manipulation 'Woodland Wonder' is my vision of a young
vulnerable Legolas down near the Lake that Cassia and Sio
Describe in "Remember How to Smile".
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My 4th manipulation
"Spent" was inspired by the fighting spirit I have always
imagined him to have and that has been so wonderfully captured in
Cassia and Siobhan's writings.
This is the Dabble that I wrote to go with it:
"A moment of peace, A mere respite before the relentless tide of
darkness returns. Is there no end? My Arrows are spent and I fear
perhaps my spirit too... But no; I will not surrender to
despair. Too much has been lost, too many have died. I will
be true to hope. One brief moment of rest and I will begin again.
"
"Spent" by Cactuskim
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My 5th Manipulation "
Captured" is inspired by a scene in "Return" by Cassia and Siobhan.
Aragorn has been separated from Legolas by a ......... and he has been
captured by ........... *Wink* if you want to fill in the blanks,
you will have to read the story. ;p
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My 6th manipulation 'Captured BB'
is inspired by a scene in "Black Breath" by Cassia and Sio...
Legolas is just about to get his first 'Treatment', you
will have to read the story to find out what that means. ;p
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My 7th manipulation, 'Stalking' is inspired by the scene in
Cassia and Siobhan's story "Return" where Aragorn and Legolas are
stalking the giant spiders in Southern Mirkwood just before
revealing themselves.
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My 8th manipulation 'Forgive me' is inspired by a scene in
"Traitor" By Cassia and Siobhan. Legolas has been badly
hurt by others and in order to tend to his injuries,
Aragorn has been forced to cause him even more pain. The
emotional trauma caused by this is more than either one of them
can deal with and at this moment Legolas is unable to even look
at his dear friend.
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My 9th manipulation is inspired by a scene in "Between
Darkness and Dawn" by Cassia and Siobhan. I have tried to
recreate what Yrin would have seen when he went to check on Aragorn in
the Ice cell at midnight.
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I have titled my 10th manipulation "Wistful". It is inspired by
the scene near the end of Cassia and Siobhan's story "Between Darkness
and Dawn". Legolas has just returned home, and he gazes in
wistfully at his father who is working, and unaware yet of his son's
long overdue return... afraid to break the peaceful moment, but
longing to at the same time.
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'Estel' is my vision of what I have always imagined a younger
more innocent Aragorn would look like... to me this face is the perfect
Estel as we have heard him described in the Mellon Chronicles.
I created this portrait by blending one Partial Aragorn face into
another Aragorn picture. I was mainly interested in creating a
suitable face and upper body for my next manipulation 'Home' but
I liked the results so much, that I Decided to keep this
version also as a stand alone piece.
If anyone wants to see the original images that this was made
from, they are posted in my Photobucket account. The
link is at the bottom of the page.
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This picture 'Home' was inspired by the home coming scene at the
end of Cassia and Siobhan's story "The Stars of Harad". It is one
of both mine and the author's favorite homecomings.
I originally created my previous image 'Estel' with the idea of
recreating this scene. I have used that figure, but I have
made many changes as you can easily see.
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I created this picture 'Holidays' to show one of many warm and happy moments
shared between close friends... they couldn't have always have been in
trouble and danger right? ;P
The inscription that I wrote is more than just a holiday
greeting, it is my way of saying thank you to all of the
wonderful friends that have warmed my heart and kept me sane throuout
the years.
Thank you Mellyn-nin.
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Hummm... the figure in this picture was created with another
manipulation in mind, and you will be seeing him with
considerable alterations in my future manipulation "Respite" ,
but he was just too fine looking not to share with all of you as a
stand alone piece, so I gave him his own background for this version.
What's his story? *Shrug* Not much. ;p. What the
heck, even a Ranger in the wild has to clean up once in a while
right? :P. The working title for this one is "WSR" I will
let you guess what that stands for.
BTY, Starting with this picture, I have now upgraded my
software to Photoshop CS2.
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This picture is called 'Sometimes when I close my eyes' In Cassia and Siobhan's story "Stars of Harad" Aragorn tries to
make sense of the images that he sometimes sees in his head as he tries
desperately to remember a past that is lost to him. One of those
memories is that of a 'golden haired elf laughing by the side of
a lake'.
This tantalizing memory is actually a vision from another story in the
Mellon Chronicles which I will be recreating in my next picture
'Respite', but I decided to share this part of it with you in
this altered form as the memory flash from 'Stars of Harad'.
I have taken the title from this line in 'Stars of Harad';
"Sometimes when I close my eyes, I see so many faces...I don't
know who they are."
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'Respite' is the image that I created the figures in my last 2
pictures for. This picture was inspired by the opening scene in
Cassia and Siobhan's story 'Vilya'. A wonderful moment in
time between 2 friends that is so beautifully and vividly
described in this story... nothing like a romp in the lake to get the
day (and the story) started. ;p
I have titled it 'Respite', because it is a brief moment of peace
and happiness after the events of 'Mistaken Identity' and before the
storm in this story hits... *EG* the storm and other things. ;p.
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'Whatever Happens' was inspired by a scene in Cassia and Siobhan's story
"Dark Visions"... One of their many notorious cliff hangers.
Legolas is very ill... you will have to read the story to find out why
;p... and Aragorn is sitting on the side of the bed holding his hand
and talking to try and comfort him as Legolas gets weaker.
The title of the picture is taken from this passage from the same scene:
“And I’m glad you’re
here Estel,” Legolas whispered quietly, his eyes beginning to
glaze. “Whatever happens...” he coughed slightly and shifted his
position. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Then the prince
seemed to drift away and his eyes unfocused, staring into space.
His hand slid limply out of Aragorn’s and fell back to his side.
A nearly paralyzing zing
of terror shot through Aragorn’s heart as he groped after the prince’s
limp hand with fingers that had been burned in the same attempt not so
long ago. But this was no vision now, it was real. Horribly
so.“
*Evil Grin*
Hey, I told you this was one of their cliff hangers! Now
you will just have to go read the story to find out what happens. ;p
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This picture gives you instructions to get to my picture Captive
of Darkness.
Captive of Darkness is a picture based on the story by Cassia of the
same name. It is emotionally intense and deals with a very dark
and painful episode in Legolas' life.
Because the subject matter in both the story and this picture is
such a sensitive matter, I have placed a warning page between
this page and the actual page that houses this picture. Please read the
warning very carefully and if you then wish to see the picture,
follow the instructions that are given in the picture.
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'Keeping Vigil' was inspired by a scene from Cassia and Siobhan's story
“Stars of Harad”.
This is the first evening after
Legolas/Tyndle (disguised as a human) finally finds Aragorn amongst the
slaves, and also discovers his friend's memory loss and realizes
that although he has found his friend, he is still lost to him
for the time being at least. Unable to help him in any
other way, he keeps watch in the evening from afar sitting
leaning against a tree hidden by the foliage and watching the
tent where his best friend is staying oblivious to his watchful
presence.
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'Come Back' was inspired by a scene from Cassia and Siobhan's story
"Siege of Dread". Here is a short excerpt from that story:
"...The cut to the prince's chin flowed freely
and dripped down his jaw line. There was so much
blood there he couldn't tell how bad the wound was and
was almost afraid to check. Legolas' eyes were closed
and Aragorn felt his heart clench inside of him.
Shakily, he reached out and placed his hand over the
prince's heart gingerly, feeling for the heartbeat
that he prayed would be there...."
Well, Since Cassia and Sio love to leave us on a good cliff
hanger, I think that I should honor their wishes and leave it
here... you will just have to read the story if you want to know how
they got to this point, or what happens next. ;p
BTY, they are about to have company, you can see it
approaching if you look carefully.
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This picture of our favorite Elf and it's message are my tribute to the
wonderful friendship that Cassia and Siobhan have created and shared
with us in their stories.
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'Mists of Time 2' is another in my series of pictures honoring the spirit of friendship
seen in the Mellon Chronicles.
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I have often though of all the times in Elrond's life when he is parted
from loved ones either because they sailed or he did. His
parents, his children, his Wife and even to a certain extent his
twin brother... once Elros sailed to Numenor, Elrond never saw
him again before he died... and of course, the way he feels about
leaving Aragorn behind in the Mellon Chronicles.
This third picture in my 'Mists of time' series is my tribute to Elrond who's heart will always be divided by the sea. |
'Dream' is simi-inspired by a scene in Cassia and Siobhan's story
'Stars of Harad' where in the beginning a very sleepy elf
collapses exhausted on top of his bed after a rather
unconventional and very late disturbance caused by the
Twins. I took a bit of artistic license and decided that "Bed
clothes" on a hot August night could be just a light pair of
leggings. ;p
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'Torn' Is inspired by the Mellon Chronicles in which
Aragorn must deal with the opposing forces of his love for Arwin
and the consequences of that love for both her and his adopted
family. it is a mixture of emotions that leaves him emotionally torn.
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This picture was inspired by a scene in Cassia and Siobhan's story "And
so the End", when Legolas reveals to Aragorn what their real fate
will be. I have taken the liberty of making it evening instead of
mid-day... it just seemed to fit the mood better.
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This is my portrait of Thranduil King of Mirkwood and father to
Legolas.
In the Mellon Chronicles Cassia has Elrond say to Legolas:
"I
could not look upon the son of Thranduil, and mistake him for
anything else." Based on this and my own personal vision of the
Elven king; I felt that I needed to find a face that would show
an unmistakable family resemblance, but also be distinctly different...
not easy with as distinctive a face as Orlando Bloom has...
So, I decided to create his face myself.
I did this by making significant alterations and changes to an image
starting with a picture of Legolas himself. If you want to see
all of the changes that I made, look at my next picture "Legolas
to Thranduil".
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'Legolas to Thranduil' was Originally going to be just a split image of the Thranduil
portrait that I created next to the Original Legolas image that I
started with.
Things are never that easy with me, and before I knew it I was
creating a portrait of father and son together in the throne room of
Mirkwood... Hey, it is much more pleasing to look at this way
than just two separate pictures side by side. ;p
Although I have added a bit of backlighting to make the new setting
work, the image of Legolas on the left side of the picture is the
exact same picture that I used to create his father Thranduil on the
right side of the picture... even the clothes are the same only altered
by me... a lot ;p.
BTY, The crown that Thranduil is wearing is a picture of a
Circlet that I made myself as a gift for a very good friend. ..
Yup, It real. ;p
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'Comfort' is a scene from Cassia and Siobhan's story "Betrayal".
At the moment that we see them Aragorn and Legolas have just been
interrupted in their effort to rescue Thranduil. Aragorn has
dragged Legolas into a small side chamber where they are cornered and
must hide to avoid discovery. Legolas is distraught at having to
leave his father in such dire circumstances, and Aragorn tries to
comfort him.
Point of artistic license: in the story Legolas is actually
facing the wall... Silly me, I thought that it would have greater
emotional impact if you could see his face instead of the back of his
head, So I turned him around. ;p
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Plot Bunny anyone???
I was working on a simple picture of Legolas when a Plot bunny jumped
out and bit me. Since I had Photoshop open instead of Microsoft
Word, the plot bunny became a picture... I will write the story eventually, I swear. ;p.
Why does Legolas have that impish look on his face and what is he about
to do?
Why does Aragorn have that look of bemusement and mild
disbelief?
Careful you don't get bit by the Mischief plot bunny! *Wink* If
you do, send me a link to your story and you can post a copy of this
picture with your story. :D
The small version is in my photobucket account at:
http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a153/Cactuskim/
Just look for the one labeled "Mischief Challenge".
While you are there, you can also see the image of Aragorn
before I gave him his little smile and a bit of a face lift. ;p |
