The images below begin with a few random concepts of Shelob’s (the spider) head and move onto some very loose exploration of shape and size. Eventually I begin working on Shelob, moving onto Sam and eventually the surrounding scene.
My intent was to make the encounter a bit claustrophobic, not only with the narrow width of Shelob’s lair, but by using the Phial of Galadriel (the light in Sam’s hand) as a way to vignette the image by concentrating the light in the center of the composition and fading to complete black around the edges.
