John Ronald Reuel Tolkien OC

July of 2010 • Requested by Oiza Baiye • Rockwell font by Monotype Design Office

Though this wasn’t the first piece in the style; the Tolkien piece is where the series truly began. My friend Ayinde Simon hosted an event called The Quotables Show where independent musicians performed, and visual artists created works based on submitted quotes by the audience. I had a small laptop that could be used with a stylus, and as I drew, my work was projected on a screen that displayed exactly what I was working on as I did it.

My friend Oiza came to the event, and submitted the very first quote,

Strider speaks these lines in The Fellowship of the Ring:

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”