Defenders of Helm's Deep- Legolas

"[...Y]ou comfort me, Gimli, and I am glad to have you standing nigh with your stout legs and your hard axe."

Legolas, Helm's Deep

If I had to choose a single race in LotR to be my favorite, I'd have to choose the Elves. They're such a folk of contrasts- mixing beauty and childlike joy with an extreme melancholia and sensitivity. I read a good deal of Celtic literature, and Tolkien captured my vision of the Sidhe so well and yet made it his own; fitting perfectly with his professed desire to create "a mythology for England".

Legolas, along with his comrade Gimli serve the Fellowship (in particular Aragorn) as a sort of solid base. No matter what befalls the rest of the company, the Elf and Dwarf are there to aid. This makes perfect sense in Tolkien's greater cosmology as well- Hobbits, Men and even Wizards are the center of the Third Age, and it is theirs to sort out. The Elves and Dwarves have already made their peace with Middle-Earth, and have begun already to forsake it.

Now on to the figure! Yet again, it's from Games Workshop's Defender's of Helm's Deep pack. As with Aragorn, I've sought to portray a transitioning Legolas. He's got his traveling gear and clothes on, but has supplemented it with armor and a short sword from Theoden's armory.

The quiver is directly based on an Alan Lee painting, and I'm very happy with both that and the hair. The cloak is actually the same highlight color as the stone, simply with more blue tones underneath it. The similarity evokes the camouflaging cloaks of Lorien well.

The face has no washes on it, except for a light coat around the eyes. I'm trying to balance definition as opposed to the Elf''s fair skin, and I',m not quite sure I've succeeded. I'll go back and tinker with it later once I've given myself some time to approach it with more critical eyes.