The Art of Jeff Murchie

This is my concept from Lord of the Rings Online for Amarthiel, the Witch Queen of Angmarim. She is an elf that has been corrupted by Sauron and rules Angmar, a dark kingdom north of mordor. Her face has been marred and she wears a mask to cover her long lost beauty.

I just thought I'd start posting some old concepts I painted for Lord of the Rings Online. I had a lot of influence from Celtic, Viking and Roman historical armor for this character. I was constantly flipping through Angus McBride historical illustrations for reference while I worked on Lord of the Rings Online. I wanted this character to feel strong and stout and added layer upon layer of fur, cloth, metal and leather.

My wife and I bought a funny stuffed animal of a cat that was patterned with pink and white fur a couple months ago for my niece's birthday. She loved it and of course drew a picture of it for me. She is quite the young artist already! I asked if she wanted me to draw her anything and she said she wanted me to draw a pink cat as well. My niece Camille is very much a princess so I drew a cat that I thought she may appreciate.

Reepicheep. "Welcome, in the Lion's name. Come further up and further in." (The Last Battle, Ch. 16)

One of my favorite characters from the Chronicles of Narnia. My version of Reepicheep includes his sword, classic golden circlet and feather. I added his musketeer costume. I painted this character a few years ago but I went back in and cleaned the image up a bit. I still may clean a few areas up still. It's hard not to put in an extra 15 minutes here or there to polish an image.

There is rarely an occurrence as a concept artist where you would actually be asked to design a pink and purple alien, so I decided to paint one on my own time. I don't know what to call this guy....but I love to draw creatures composed of bizarre shapes and colors in my free time. Alien creatures, more than fantasy monsters allow an artist the freedom to go truly crazy with interesting shapes and colors. Fantasy creatures still need design elements that are easily recognizable.