You might notice that this newsletter looks different, and not in a good way. (You might also have noticed that last week's newsletter never arrived at all!) We've been back and forth this week with our webhost after an upgrade broke our email system. The only way, right now, that we can send the newsletter is via plain text. Hence it look rather ... plain.

That being said, they've fixed most of the problems ... we hope. However, when using the site to send messages or make requests, do be aware that the system is a bit shaky right now. If you're messaging or making a request of the mods (like a new character tag) using the site and we don't take care of it in twenty-four hours, feel free to follow up. Just reply to this email or use our address moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org. It is emails sent via the site that are impacted.

Now onto better things, namely gorgeous art and how it is made!

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Ringed by wordless faces, the portrait room in an art museum has a certain hush to it. There is the human face, many times over, a deceptively simple theme. Yet within those faces, lines hint at past pain. Eyes flash from a face defined by age or youth. The best portraits seem to capture just a moment in a story passing on either side of that brief second in time. It is possible to imagine what happened leading up to the portrait and what transpired after.

The impeccable, impressionistic paintings of Ylieke seem to belong in such a gallery. Although Ylieke describes her work as centered on storytelling, these are not complicated action scenes. Instead, it is the eyes, the hands, the faces of her characters that speak to what they are feeling and experiencing in that moment, leaving no doubt that there is a rich story happening on either side of it. In our latest Tolkien Fanartics column, firstamazon caught up with Ylieke to learn more about her technique, goals, and beliefs as a fan artist.

Interestingly, Ylieke describes her own work as, "not so good at drawing emotions," with which this viewer would strongly disagree. However, no matter what you creative form of choosing, Ylieke's careful look at her own work and approach to art might be useful advice:

"Sometimes illustrations just don’t come out as they were envisioned. The best course of action in this case is to finalize the work as well as you can and move on. The next work will be 0.001% better."

You can read firstamazon's interview with Ylieke here: https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/6965

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Around the World and Web, announcements from around the fandom: https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/atwaw