I’m a BIG Lord of the Rings fan, stemming from the movies than the books (but yes I have gone through the books too - audiobook read out by Mr. Serkis himself). Since I found out Andy Serkis was going to be at a Melbourne Convention for one day only, I had the chance to make something with the premise that he would sign it and I would continue to have my artworks sign with “Approval level over 9000!”.
I loved his performance of the character Smeagol/Gollum - and thus I wanted to capture both essences of the character since it was a little unfair to only have the art work as only Gollum, since Smeagol was also an integral part of his character. I wanted to show the dichotomy of his 2 personas - Smeagol’s happy innocence, and Gollum’s scheming hatred - but using the same face, namely the eyes to make the distinction. And thus the split is there with Smeagol on the left, and Gollum on the right, along with the split between the names Smeagol and Gollum, trying to make a fusion with the similar letters of G O L in the names. I had also incorporated the One Ring symbol as the O just so it ties him to the Ring, since without the ring, he would have only remained Smeagol. It also works as a transition too, because he was Smeagol until the Ring corrupted him to be more Gollum.
Photo Op with Andy Serkis himself and my Smeagollum artwork!
And so, the artwork was completed and I had gone to see Mr. Serkis at the event! Alas, I was unable to secure signatures, however, I did the next best thing! Got a photo with the man himself whilst he held my artworks! I let him keep a copy of the printouts, I hope he likes it. I’m still going to try get this signed next opportunity I get though.