What about second breakfast?

i remember when i bought my very own complete 120-piece set of Prismacolor pencils.

Colored pencil has always been my drug of choice, but Prismacolor in particular for their soft core and almost oil pastel feel. i always wanted the brilliant, deep hues of paint but without the mess and with more precision. i started out with a small set, 48 or so, probably a birthday gift, but also collected them from my dad, an artist by trade. [Although in designing cars for the Big Three, he was more likely to use Prismacolor fine art markers, the smell of which i still find myself nostalgic about.]

i wasn’t satisfied with those 48+, though: i had my eye on the prize, the 120 piece set. Back in high school $150 was a lot of cash to drop on a box of pencils. i didn’t even have my first ‘real’ [re: retail slave] job yet.

i saved, [and i used a gift certificate and a Michael’s coupon], but eventually i bought them for my own. My precious.

And do you know what i did with that glorious, 3-tiered glossy black case of subtle wood aroma?

i put it on my bed and stared at it. For months, those pencils went without so much as seeing a sharpener. In fact, i did not use them to create the portrait you see below. i was like a fangirl who wanted her collection to stay mint-in-box. Trust me, i did eventually break the seal, and if you look at them today they are obviously well-loved. But enough about pencils.

Let’s get out our geek flags.

Those of you who know me personally will roll your eyes when i come out with this astonishing fact: i am a huge nerd. i found Fellowship of the Ring in my parents’ basement and blew through it in 2 days. In fact, i met the love of my life over an Elvish alphabet exchange. But that’s another post…

Pippin isn’t necessarily my favorite character in the epic saga written by an Oxford professor nearly a century ago. i did portraits of most of the movie characters at some point. He is, of course, a beloved one. Pippin’s dichotomy is the best thing about him. He’s silly, young, green, foolish, adorable (in the movie adaptation, at least), a drunk and a weed-smoker. And apt to get beaned in the head with flying apples. But when the world is darkest, he is surprisingly and endearingly melancholy, serious, and full of heart. He is the childlike innocence for which the world must be saved, sobbing over a lost friend, complaining about the noticeable lack of food while roaming the wild, and singing a song of death’s indifference to a corrupt king.

i was aware that Tolkien Gateway [a large not for profit Tolkien encyclopedia using the MediaWiki software] had found this image of mine on Elfwood [a fantasy art community that i belonged to in my early days] and was using it as their profile image for Peregrin Took’s entry. i was pretty flattered. They recently contacted me and asked for official permission to host my image and link it back to me, so… here it is, at the end of all things.