Emily Austin
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emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Emily Austin
@emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
950 followers 220 following 82 posts
She/her. Artist, graphic designer, Tolkien illustrator.
Married to @tacol0rd.bsky.social. 💜 travel, Jane Austen, inclusive faith, community solidarity.

emilyaustindesign.com/hello art prints, commissions, & design freelance.
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emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
A delight to hear @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social and @madelinemiller.bsky.social speak last night about translation, interaction w/ ancient texts in the contemporary world, and about resistance to tyranny in every age.
We’re excited to read both women’s writings with our baby Sylvia… never too early!
a view of an auditorium stage from a balcony during the event Q&A time. The event was held at St Mary’s College in South Bend, IN. On the stage in two armchairs are the moderator and featured speaker Emily Wilson. The other featured speaker, Madeline Miller, attended the event virtually, and appears behind them on a screen.
February 12, 2025 at 2:40 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Oooh, I’ll pull an oldie out of my archives. This tiny sketch of Tintern Abbey is from 2018. We visited again this year while it was under repairs (which was actually cool to see as well!).

Tagging:
@miriamellis.bsky.social
@mgcoco.bsky.social

#artshare
A small watercolor painting showing a corner of the picturesque ruin Tintern Abbey. We look down a green corridor with pillars on the right side, and face a window showing more green behind it and blue sky above (there is no roof).
January 30, 2025 at 1:57 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Next feature from my shop sale, winter Hobbiton cards!
emilyaustindesign.etsy.com/listing/7384...
Image shows a stack of four cards with my illustration “A Very Snowy Hobbiton” on it. The painting includes a series of three hobbit homes under a single hill. They are blanketed with snow and cheerful light spills from their windows. A full moon shines over a blue evening sky. In the foreground, a tiny hobbit mom and child are walking to one of the homes.
November 27, 2024 at 10:40 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Everything in my shop is 20% off thru December 4, so I thought this week I’d share some of my favorite items. First up, this poster illustration of the Prancing Pony Inn, a collaboration with @shawnemarchese.bsky.social & Alan Sisto—I am very proud of it!
emilyaustindesign.etsy.com/listing/1613...
Image shows a photo of my illustration of the Prancing Pony Inn as laid out in physical poster format. See next image for description of the artwork itself! Under a deep velvety night sky, four hobbits ride up towards the Prancing Pony Inn with its famous green sign. It’s a stone building with a thatched roof and ivy climbing the walls. Golden light spills out of the windows and front door. On the hills above, the shadow of a Nazgûl is just visible overlooking the scene.
November 25, 2024 at 8:43 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
People of Bluesky. Let’s get to know each other better. What is one of your favourite movies?

Quote share your answer in a gif!

#filmsky 🎥
A gif from the animated film Song of the Sea, showing the selkie girl Saoirse diving into the green-blue sea with the other seals.
November 18, 2024 at 2:15 AM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
A few snaps of a commission I have been working on *very* slowly over the course of this year. It’s been challenging to develop a composition that feels true to the introductory scenes of the Old Forest in FOTR but I think the results will be rewarding in the end.
Image shows a pencil sketch (foundation of a watercolor) depicting four hobbits and their five ponies at lower left, crossing the open space between the Hedge and the Old Forest. The forest’s trees loom over the right half of the image atop a slight rise in the ground. A closer shot showing some of the trees on the edge of the Old Forest, again in pencil. There is a suggestion of several light shafts filtering through the gnarled branches.
November 16, 2024 at 12:37 AM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Still working on posting here the same day as Insta. So (one day late), my Hobbit Day share is this new piece I’ve done of Frodo and Sam under the gorse bushes, based on a passage from LOTR Book 4, Ch. 7.
Painting shows Sam, facing viewers and looking back towards Frodo, who is closer but faces mostly away from us. The pair hold hands as they walk through a tunnel of thorny, yellow-blossomed gorse bushes, Gollum creeping in the distance ahead. The image is very tall and narrow to show the tunnel of plants, and is composed in dull yellows, browns, purples and greens under a faint light.
September 23, 2024 at 9:27 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
At the William Morris gallery in Walthamstow; a highlight was paging through an 1896 edition of the Kelmscott Chaucer. I took a photo of this page for the initial “E”. Great little free museum!
Image shows a page from the Kelmscott Chaucer, specifically beginning the prologue to the Wife of Bath’s Tale.
September 4, 2024 at 12:31 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Today is the final day to get 25% off in the shop over at emilyaustindesign.etsy.com! Grab some fantastical prints, cards or bookmarks at a great price while you can. 😁⁠

#emilyaustindesign #indianaartist #fantasyart #tolkienbookmarks #hobbitchristmas #eagleandchild #inklings #hobbitjewelry
A selection of my Middle-earth bookmarks arranged in front of a stack of books, including The Fellowship of the Ring, The Hobbit, The Story of Kullervo, The Dark Fantastic, and The Ladies of Grace Adieu My hand holds a 4x5 inch print of my watercolor depicting the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford. The pub is flanked by leafy trees and other buildings. Image shows my necklace which features a vertical rectangular pendant with a hobbit hole. The door is yellow and a tree grows above it. Two stacks of my winter notecard designs nestle against tissue paper. One shows a snowy Hobbiton scene and the other shows Rivendell on a wintry night there is a full moon in the sky on both paintings.
November 30, 2023 at 6:33 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
On #smallbusinesssaturday I want to thank everyone who has made a purchase from me this year!
It truly means the world that you enjoy what I create.

My entire shop is still 25% off, so if you’ve been eyeing anything (such as this Prancing Pony print), now is the time! 😁 emilyaustindesign.etsy.com
My print of the Prancing Pony Inn framed and hung on the wall next to a huge Middle-earth map. Several Tolkien related books sit on a shelf below.
November 25, 2023 at 6:12 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Just added a couple mini fall paintings to the shop. 🍁

emilyaustindesign.etsy.com
Image shows a hand holding a small painting of a maple leaf in its autumn glory of red and orange, with yellow veins. Small dots of red and yellow surround the leaf on the white textured paper. The same painting at a slightly different angle. Behind it in the blurry background is a mass of yellow and green, from evergreens and the last of this year’s fall leaves.
November 23, 2023 at 5:04 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Here it is! I'm delighted to release a special run of poster prints featuring my watercolor painting, Arrival at the Inn, in partnership with Shawn and Alan from the Prancing Pony Podcast.
Now thru Nov 30, my entire shop has a 25% markdown; my biggest sale of the year! 🤩 emilyaustindesign.etsy.com
A top-down shot of one poster with two others peeking from beneath. They are all lying on a plain white background. My poster arranged with Alan and Shawn’s book Why We Love Middle-earth. The same art of the Prancing Pony Inn is on both!
November 21, 2023 at 3:36 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Something new is coming to the shop this week! Can you guess what it is?

Stay tuned 🍻✨
Close up photo shows just one corner of a piece of artwork. The details are obscured but bright light is visible and some fuzzy figures. The numbers “03/150” are handwritten under the image.
November 20, 2023 at 12:27 AM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
It's that time of year... Winter hobbit cards are back in the shop! ❄️🌙🌲❄️

To see all my card sets on Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/EmilyAu...
image shows a stack of notecards featuring cozy hobbit holes covered in snow with a full moon shining brightly. A hobbit parent and child follow a few footsteps in the foreground.
November 14, 2023 at 3:35 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
“…and their red berries in the autumn were a burden, and a beauty and a wonder.”

I’d like to make an illustration based on all of Quickbeam’s words about Rowan trees, for now this sketch will have to do for Tolkientober Day 16, Beauty.
A digital sketch showing a single rowan tree, laden with red berries shining out against the deep green of its leaves.
October 16, 2023 at 1:37 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Tolkientober Day 8: Guardian.
Yavanna, my favorite advocate for trees and growing things.
Watercolor, ink, and metallic paint, 2020.
This piece portrays Yavanna as a Black woman in 3/4 profile. Her eyes look at the viewer and her dark hair has highlights of blue, red, and gold. Flowers and leaves of gold and silver surround her, over a background of yellow and green.
October 8, 2023 at 3:49 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Tolkientober Day 5, Kingdom: here is my watercolor illustration of Cerin Amroth from ~ 2018.
This is a tall and narrow watercolor painting focusing in on the mound of Cerin Amroth. One central tree with a big gray trunk stands at the center. In its branches at the top of the painting, a round tent-like structure sits on a platform. Smaller trees ring around the central one. They all have brilliant yellow leaves. At the bottom of the painting, small trees with white trunks make a larger circle around the mallorn mound. These smaller trees have no leaves; nevertheless small white and yellow flowers form blushes of color on the green grass. In the background, a sea of other mallorn trees fade into low hills and a pale blue sky.
October 6, 2023 at 12:21 AM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Jumping into #Tolkientober a tad late with day 4, Jewelry.

“Or there maybe ‘tis cloudless night
and swaying beeches bear
the Elven-stars as jewels white
amid their branching hair.”
A black and white digital sketch showing two white trees against a pure black sky. Stars appear as myriad pinpricks between the bare branches, which arc around the top and sides of the drawing.
October 5, 2023 at 1:35 AM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
So very sad. I’ll be treasuring even more closely the photos I took on my visit—two years ago to the day tomorrow.
September 28, 2023 at 11:09 PM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
Happy Hobbit Day! Hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy some favorite food and drink, and maybe a chance to curl up with a good book or enjoy another beloved hobby. I got to go hiking with family which is definitely a favorite activity. Tonight I’ll raise a glass to Bilbo and Frodo! 🍻
It is a crisp, early Fall day. The sky is light blue. A golden-leaved oak tree sits atop a hill, dropping leaves here and there. A little lower in the hill is a round blue hobbit door, draped by crimson vines. A pathway of stone steps descends from the door and curves toward the viewer.
September 23, 2023 at 12:43 AM
emilyaustindesign.bsky.social
My most recently completed landscape inspired by Middle-earth. “Upon an Island in the Fog” captures the moment after the hobbits wake up on the hill with the standing stone.
My painting of a yellow sunset casting its final rays over a scene of hills engulfed in a carpet of fog. On the central hill, tiny figures cluster near a large standing stone. In the foreground several more stones frame the image like teeth.
September 13, 2023 at 12:14 PM