The scene
In the tunnel of Torech Ungol Frodo raises the Phial of Galadriel and Sam crouches behind him, with heavy grey webs across the dark. It is the standoff, before the sting. No horizon and no sky, only the black and the light.
The style
A dark, rough oil painting: heavy shadow, a single glow of light, and a monster half lost in the black. Frightening on purpose.
The inspiration
From The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien (1954), the chapter Shelob's Lair. The look comes from Goya's Black Paintings (c. 1819 to 1823): thick rough oil, a near-black ground and a monstrous figure lit from below.
How it's made
A print of a digital artwork in the style of a rough, dark nineteenth-century oil painting, not an original. Each carries my printed Chapter & Scene signature.