Book Accurate Balrog
Taking inspiration from a YouTube video by Jazza where he redrew monsters based off of how they were described from the books, I decided to take my own shot at it with the Balrog, or Durin’s Bane, from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings book.
The book described other features of the balrog that line up with it's movie adaptation by Peter Jackson including it’s flame-like sword, burning whip, possible wings and lots, and I means lots, of fire.
However, the way Tolkien describes the balrog in the book is much different from the more demon-like appearance Jackson gave it.
“It was like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater; and a power and terror seemed to be in it and to go before it.”
While the balrog still maintains it’s titanic build, it’s described as being less of a fiery beast and more of a shadowy flame wraith, almost incorporeal.
Inspiration
Overall Shape
How does one make “a great shadow” with a form that is “man-shape maybe, yet greater”? And more importantly, how can I do it if I haven't even read the books? I looked at fan art of book accurate balrogs in order to get a better understanding of what I’m working with. From what I have seen from fan art and Jazza’s video, there are some aspects that still carried into the balrog’s design from the movie. This included fire, wings, a giant flame-like sword and a burning whip.
This allowed me to get an overall idea of how to translate
