Talks with Tolkien artists: Sempern0x

I'm Lisa, 21, from Belgium. I'm in my first year of college right now studying to become a high school teacher for English and history. Those were the two subjects I was best at and the ones I was most interested in as well.

I wanted a bit of an outlet for my drawings. I used to have account long ago, but I started all anew when I started to draw more seriously. The very last drawing that's in my gallery is a bit of a 'remnant' from my old style.
I don't really remember why I chose this username. I guess I was still in my emo phase and decided to make 'always night' into Sempern0x, don't ask me why the 0. I don't know.

I was already drawing elves before I got to know Tolkien's work. People kept on telling me to watch it. I finally did when I was 13 or so when it was on tv. I only got to see The Fellowship right until Bree back then, but we had the DVDs at home so I decided to watch them on my own them. I immediately fell in love. I loved how rich the world felt and how every character already felt so familiar at a first watching.

For Lord of the Rings I was definitely extremely influenced by what I'd seen in the movies. I kept trying to recall how the characters had looked in the movies. And for characters that weren't in the movies I just kinda imagined further on what I already knew.
But for The Hobbit and The Silmarillion I backed off a little from that singular vision and started to imagine more of my own things.

As I am quite a history nerd and willingly read history books in my free time I had no trouble reading those books. I loved it.
My knowledge is a bit muddled at times since I have a chaotic mind. So I tend to go back to the lotr wiki a lot to check that what I put out isn't wrong.

I honestly couldn't choose. Even characters I don't particularly like I still admire for their complexity. Though I guess among my favourites are Finrod, Haleth, Nerdanel, Éowyn, Faramir and Aragorn.

I draw only in my free time. I'm just a student so I have to really watch my time and energy for drawing. But I've always been drawing. My mom says it's like I must've once picked up a crayon when I was little and I never let go of it anymore. My style has been influenced by quite a lot. The way I draw hair is still like when I drew manga. There's tidbits of every piece of art I see that somehow ends up in my own drawings. Technique-wise I mean.

Randomly, really. I go through my references folder and select a picture I like and somewhere along the process I decide what character I feel most like drawing in that moment. Goes for my entire drawing process, the hair, the clothes, the jewelry and the colors. I don't have enough patience to take a long time planning everything.

To be very honest: I just never really practiced drawing anything else. I'm trying to draw more varied poses and to slowly go to full bodies, but it's going slowly as I need the energy and motivation to draw more.


My playthrough with my human Inquisitor Gorgo is one I illustrate a lot even when those drawings don't always end up on DA.
Other things that inspire me are Mass Effect, Skyrim, The Witcher, Narnia, Trudi Canavan's works and a whole lot of k-dramas and k-pop. History is also a huge factor since it's what helps me to think of clothes and hairstyles to draw.

My favourite art technique is the one I use now, though I'm not sure how I'd describe it. Once I find a way of drawing/colouring I like, I tend to stick with it for a long time too. But I'm always willing to learn new stuff and make progress.

The only tip I'd have is to just experiment with lots of techniques and styles and create whatever makes you happy!

14. Could you give us a link or thumbnail from your gallery of
- a picture that fits your current mood?

My last picture so far and one where I spent a really long time getting all that embroidery on her clothes...

My friends were definitely a great support as well as people I know on Tumblr who encourage me. I always feel motivated when I read comments or tags wherein people say they like my drawings! On DA I haven't really interacted with people enough to really pinpoint someone...

16. Is there some artist(s) at dA you know, who doesn't have as much attention as they would deserve? If yes, could you give us some thumbnails from their gallery?