J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator

An amazing history well told and illustrated.

Great artwork for the world of Tolkien

I have purchased this book for my 2 artists at home. Both are visual artists and avid readers. Tolkien not only inspired them to focus in the arts but gave them the inspiration to pursue it at a professional level. Tolkien has the creativity not only in writing but in visual arts as well. For any Tolkien fan out there, this is a book that would be worthy in the collections of everything "Tolkien".Let me address the questions posted by Amazon included in this review; it is somewhat an autobiography, illustrations, and the content is purely more of the creative interest rather than describing an adventure, characters, and story. Since I have to choose a non-relevant description, do not pay attention to it since it has nothing in particular to do with the book. Now, this book is entirely dedicated to the creative process, artists illustrations, creative rendering, and the careful artistry to reach the essence of storytelling. First of all, I'm a JRR Tolkien fan and loved his books. Not only was he a genius in his writings, he wasn't bad as a conceptual artist. If Einstein is for math, Tolkien is for arts. Having delved into this book, Tolkien earned my highest respect. It is not easy to write a book, much more to add conceptual artwork, and the complexity of the whole middle-earth series. The book is a must for an artist and who loved Tolkien's work. A collection worth keeping due to its rare contents of exquisite artwork. The eerie part of this is when 2000 years from now, the future will dig a copy of this and a copy of the Lords of the Rings and a new religion will be born. Just saying.

This book shows what the things in the Lord of the Rings actually are like. For this it is the author, Tolkien himself, has the claim to show what they were like. Some things match my conception, while others don't. For one thing, Hobbits clearly aren't human, and differ from they are shown in the movies and my own conception. And I didn't like the depiction of the dragon in the movie. The Hobbit, which clearly isn't like the author's conception, in fact. I have been a fan of the Lord of the Rings since I came across the Lord of the Rings in the shelves of the Cleveland Public Library before they were known, and read and reread it since, and this book is quite fascinating to me.

First let's start with the condition of the book.My copy was a hardcover that had been previously used as a library book, this meant that there was some clear wear and tear from previous uses. The edges of the hardcover are worn, but the spine and pages appear to be mostly intact. One-page has a small rip about 3/4 of an inch long, which I put clear tape over to prevent further ripping. One page is bent slightly where someone may have marked the page, there is not a lot that I can do to fix that, except bend it back and leave it alone.The dust jacket was taped to the hardcover, sine this was a library book, and the library number and location tags were also attached by tape. I was able to gently remove these tags and it looks much better. There is a stamp on the top pages of the book saying Denever Public Library; this is par for the course since it is from a library. It doesn't, in my opinion distract from the book, since how often are you going to be looking at the top of the pages.All in all the book came in a better condition than was stated by the seller.Content: It's pictures largely made by Tolkien himself, combined with commentary by the two compilers of the book. If you love Tolkien for The Hobbit or LOTR then that alone is enough reason to get this book. There are however other equally interesting sketches not related to those two books.

My sister is studying Tolkien for her master’s in English and she loves background material like this. Book has great high-quality photos. I gave this as a Christmas gift and she loved it!

The book does not only contain beautiful illustrations by Tolkien himself, but also tidbits of information about his creative process, especially about the stories he created for his children. A must have!

A good opportunity to sink into J.R.R. Tolkien's gentle majesty, via his visual art.

Imágenes cubren gran parte de la vida y obras de Tolkien las explicaciones de la evolución del arte de Tolkien son muy detalladas

O melhor livro sobre o tema, com muitas informações e detalhes, diferente dos livros a arte de o Hobbit e a arte de o senhor dos anéis onde o foco é aprender as ilustrações, aqui o foco é contextualiza-las. Recomendo muito aos fãs de Tolkien

Il libro è SPETTACOLARE.Di formato grande, rende giustizia a una grandissima mole di opere artistiche di Tolkien, alcune delle quali assolutamente inedite. Il percorso tra schizzi, bozzetti, disegni e dipinti del Professore segue un filo logico-cronologico: ogni dipinto è calato nel suo periodo esatto, raccontando e spiegando la vita di Tolkien proprio alla luce delle sue opere d'arte. Un volume incredibilmente affascinante, completo, ben strutturato, ben scritto, suggestivo, emozionante e talvolta persino commovente nello svelare alcuni retroscena della vita del grande Scrittore; indispensabile per chi vuole addentrarsi ancora di più in quella che non è una mera biografia del Professore, ma una vera e propria 'visita nella sua quotidianità', tra periodi diversi, gioie, dolori, pensieri e creazioni. Ampio spazio è dato, infatti, tanto ai vari periodi della sua vita, quanto alla sua creazione letteraria, con disegni e dipinti annessi.Un acquisto eccezionale, che seppur scritto in inglese, si fa apprezzare davvero moltissimo. Tra l'altro, un libro chiesto e fortemente desiderato dal figlio Christopher, che ha contribuito con la concessione di tutti i materiali pittorici, dei diari, aneddoti personali e materiale familiare di svariato tipo.

This book's 208 pages feature precisely 200 illustrations, 104 of them in colour, executed by JRRT in pencil, crayon, black and coloured inks and watercolours. Almost all of the monochrome images derive from black and white originals.The gallery begins with JRRT's earliest works - scenes of domestic family life, architectural sketches, paintings of rural and seaside vistas dear to JRRT's heart. Chapter 2 introduces the queer symbolic works and visionary paintings that JRRT moved on to as he began to gestate the world of the Silmarillion. Chapter 3 focuses on the very different material that JRRT produced to entertain his children: the series of letters purporting to come from Father Christmas, and illustrations for the tales of Roverandom and Mr Bliss.These lead us to JRRT's labours to illustrate The Hobbit, where his art probably reached its zenith. In their longest chapter, Wayne and Christina bring us not only the paintings and drawings that Allen and Unwin published, but also the many preliminary experiments that JRRT attempted en route to them, and also several examples of works by other hands that JRRT seems to have been inspired by.JRRT's Lord of the Rings art was, sadly, meagre by comparison, but this book shows us what little there was of it, ranging from a few more or less finished drawings (including his designs for dust jackets) to some hasty scribbles dashed off by JRRT in the heat of composition. Matters conclude with JRRT's late enthusiasm for elaborate multi-coloured doodlings on readers' letters and newspapers' crossword pages, as well as his elvish heraldry and his exquisite calligraphy. Wayne and Christine also supply an expert commentary setting images in their biographical context , complemented by meticulous notes, a bibliography and an index.This is the best book that I've yet seen about Tolkien's work with brush and pencil, superbly designed and printed on glossy paper throughout - his paintings are reproduced even more vividly than in the Bodleian's mammoth exhibition catalogue "Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth". No, JRRT was no Pauline Baynes or Alan Lee, and I don't think that any painting has imagined Middle-earth as gloriously as Peter Jackson's marvellous films , but this book is sure to deepen any Tolkien fan's appreciation of JRRT's idiosyncratic genius.

I've bought several of the original 'art of hobbit', 'maker of middle earth', etc 'art of lord of the rings' series Tolkien art books, this one is probably the best and for the money. The watercolours of Tolkien himself, whilst not the same quality, most closely match that of Alan Lee, which is why Alan Lee is often chosen to illustrate his books. This book is well worth it for archiving Tolkien's thoughts and ideas.