Award-winning artist Alan Lee was one of the lead concept artists on The Lord of the Rings movies, and the winner of an Academy Award for Best Art Direction Set Decoration for The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King in 2004 and was nominated in 2003 for The Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers for the same category.
The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook is a collection of about 150 of the drawings done by Lee relating to The Lord of the Rings. However, this sketchbook relates more to the books than to the movies, with only the set design, statues, and weapons, and the sketch of Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel and Ian McKellen’s Gandalf (for McKellen’s Foreword) standing out as movie images for me. The sketches of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry are obviously purely book-based concepts. The sketches of Frodo and the other hobbits are clearly sketches done before the casting of the move and not based on the actors who eventually played the roles. The sketch of Cate Blanchett is beautiful, and unfortunately increased my disappointment that Lee had either not done sketches of the other main cast members, or chosen not to include these, or perhaps been restricted by copyright or other red tape in exactly which sketches could be included. I’m sure I’m not the only one who anticipated sketches of Legolas, Aragorn, and the Hobbits in addition to the concept art.
This book is not a how-to. It is a coffee table art book meant to be looked at and read rather than studied. But fans of both fantasy art in general, and Lord of the Rings in particular, will soak up this book for the pleasure of enjoying great artwork, and may want to get out their pencils and sketchpads and try to copy some of the illustrations just for fun.
As a “sketchbook”, the majority of the illustrations are pencil drawings, but a few watercolour paintings are also included.
The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook by Alan Lee is available from Amazon.com
You may also enjoy Myth and Magic : The Art of John Howe - John Howe was the other lead conceptual artist working on The Lord of the Rings movies.
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