As anybody who visits the CoE Gallery can see, Tolkien’s books have inspired several artists, both professionals and amateurs. I asked a few artists that I know about their Tolkien-related artwork.
Anke Eissmann
For Anke, everything started with the animated LotR movie by Ralph Bakshi, which she first saw in 1991. Shortly after that, she read The Lord of the Rings, which had a huge impact on her and inspired her to create artwork related to the book. By now, she has read most of Tolkien’s published works, including some of his literary essays, and is also familiar with the Professor’s own artwork.
She draws her inspiration from all of the books; though, for her, autumn, winter and spring tend to be LotR-seasons, while in late spring and summer she concentrates more on The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. Of single stories, she very much likes the “Narn i Hîn Húrin” from Unfinished Tales, and the “Lay of Leithian” from The Lays of Beleriand; also, she finds the “Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth” from Morgoth’s Ring one of the most moving pieces Tolkien has written. She still always finds something new in the LotR, and as for the other books, she feels that so far, she has only scratched the surface – those stories might yield yet several paintings.
Of races and characters, hobbits are close to her heart, because of their earthiness, humour and vitality, and the fact they are so similar to the people from the area she comes from. She’s also fond of the Gondorians, and there’s hardly any doubt about her favourite single character among them: Faramir.
As for other artists’ style, she has a problem when an illustrator limits the reader’s own imagination too much by “nailing down” a scene. If the illustrator gets all the details right, and sticks close to the book with the description, this may work; but if not, the reader is faced with a dilemma: the illustration looks “real”, but the book says it should look different. Therefore, she prefers illustrations to be fairly naturalistic in style, while still retaining their artistic flavour (e.g. by elaborating the special qualities of the medium they were created in, like making the brush-strokes in an oil-painting visible, or creating a wet-in-wet, abstract background with watercolours), thus suggesting to the reader that in all their realism they are only one possible version of how the scene or the character may look, and based on the artist’s interpretation as well as the descriptions in the book.
Her preferred medium at the moment is watercolour, which she considers very appropriate for book-illustration because of its subtlety, its painterly quality and unpredictability, which enable the illustrator to suggest rather than dictate, and thus leave room for the reader’s imagination.
Some of Anke’s older paintings which still, after many years, have a special meaning for her, are “Lúthien prepares her escape from Hirilorn”, for the details of the leaves, the composition and the colouring; “Beren recovers a Silmaril”, for composition and especially lighting; and “Escaping from the Black Riders”, again for composition, and Frodo’s expression. One of her more recent paintings, “And she comforted him”, which was inspired by a scene in an online RPG, may become a similar favourite, because she’s quite happy with the way Faramir turned out in that one.
The Pyre of Denethor, by Anke Eissmann
Courtney Brady
Peter Jackson’s LotR movies made Courtney discover Tolkien. She started to read The Fellowship of the Ring right before the movie was released, and was at “A Knife in the Dark” when she watched the movie for the first time. At first she was quite at a loss: a lot of what she had just read was cut out of the movie, she had a hard time understanding some of the words that the characters used, and she was also really confused by Galadriel’s temptation. But, by the time she saw FotR a third time, she had read all the three books and now understood it perfectly. She knows of Tolkien’s various other works from reading Tolkien message boards, but the only other book she has read by him so far is The Hobbit.
She gets her inspiration from The Lord of the Rings, and her favourite characters are Frodo and the hobbits in general.
As for the best art style or medium to portray Tolkien’s world, she has no preference; she enjoys even the dreaded anime, and thinks that each artist brings something unique to the art of Middle-earth. Herself, she prefers to work on Prismacolor pencils.
Courtney’s personal favourite of her own works is “Frodo Claiming the Ring” because she likes that part of the book and thinks that she got his expression just right.
Goldberry, by Courtney Brady
atalante_star
Atalante first read The Hobbit at about the age of nine and loved it. She got hold of a copy of LotR as soon as possible, then read The Silmarillion a year or so later. By now, she is fairly familiar with Tolkien’s complete production, except for things like the Father Christmas Letters and Mr Bliss; she has read them too, though. The Silmarillion, on the other hand, she knows “back to front and inside out”.
She finds the early Silmarillion stuff the most inspiring, especially the character of Fëanor, though she tends to end up drawing Rohirric things more. Elves are her favourite race; they are everything she likes to draw – elegant, beautiful, graceful, very Art Nouveau-esque.
Of the different styles and media, she shuns too obviously digital work for Tolkien, although she knows that digital art takes just as much imagination and detail as traditional work. She just prefers traditional media for Tolkien’s traditional world, and likes seeing the obvious process of creation in pencil strokes or brush marks. She likes Tolkien’s own illustrations, and from those, especially the fairly simple, almost whimsical ones; actually, she would even say Tolkien is her favourite Tolkien artist. She simply adores Alan Lee’s watercolours, and after saying she dislikes digital work, she also loves Jenny Dolfen’s traditional-mixed-with-digital watercolours.
The Reckoning of Rivendell, by atalante_star
Her own favourite medium is pencil, though she is slowly venturing into gouache.
Of her own works, she likes especially “Reckoning of Rivendell” because she thinks it matches Tolkien’s world well, and the “Music of the Ainur” series because they put into pictures the way she sees the concept of the Music, which is so hard to put into conscious images. Her latest project – based around Middle-earth heraldry – might become a similar favourite.
Rosearialelven
Rose decided to buy The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings after seeing the first Peter Jackson film. Then she acquired The Silmarillion, and at the moment she has most of Tolkien’s works. She is most familiar with the LotR; she found The Silmarillion a bit hard going, and tends to look at the other works as references and hasn’t fully read them yet.
The LotR is her main inspiration, and she finds especially The Return of the King very enjoyable. Her favourite people are the Rohirrim, for their strength, inspiration and independence.
She can’t name any style or artist that would especially do right for Tolkien’s world; but, if she had to choose, she would have to go for Ted Nasmith, because she loves the detail and feels he captures the essence of Tolkien’s world. Her own favourite medium is watercolour.
If she had to choose a favourite of her own works, she would choose “Bill the Pony”; she hopes she caught something of his character and sadness at being sent home.
Bill the Pony, by Rosearialelven
Maija Pietikäinen
Maija’s first experience of Tolkien was the Bakshi cartoon, which she saw when she was nine. Shortly after that, she borrowed the books from the library because she wanted so badly to know how the story ended… In addition to The Lord of the Rings, she has read The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, Unfinished Tales, and parts of the History of Middle-earth series. So far, she hasn’t read Tolkien’s children’s books yet, nor any of his scientific essays, but she’s planning to read them too in time.
Of the books, the LotR has definitely inspired her the most; she thinks it’s just magical. None of the other stories has had a similar impact on her so far, although she also finds Valaquenta and Ainulindalë very inspiring, probably because of their similarity to Kalevala and other mythical texts.
Maija can’t name any single race that she would find especially inspiring; of the characters, Sam, Gollum, and Éowyn are her favourites. And, she loves the Ents. She is deeply moved by the whole tragedy of their race: disappearing of the great forests, losing the Entwives, and some of them eventually losing themselves by becoming treelike. Actually, the fading of the Ents affects her more than the fading of the Elves.
The Mirror of Galadriel, by Maija Pietikäinen
She prefers the traditional, realistic styles of art, not only for Tolkien illustrations, but also in general. Alan Lee’s watercolour illustrations are closest to her own idea of Middle-earth: very natural, not in too bright colours. One style she dislikes for portraying Tolkien’s world is anime/manga; to her, it feels utterly wrong to portray the characters from the LotR in this cartoonish and often humoristic style.
Herself, she prefers graphite pencils. She’s never really liked working with colours; she feels that she rarely manages to match them so that she’s happy with the result. On the other hand, she loves playing with shadows, and graphite is perfect for that; it also enables the artist to put in a lot of detail. Recently, she has started doing more ink drawings, because simple black-and-white art is more readily accepted in magazines for printing reasons. In a way she likes it, because with ink one can get even more dramatic shading; but, as a negative side of that medium she points out the inability to erase if something goes wrong.
Of her own Tolkien illustrations, she names “The Mirror of Galadriel” as her favourite; she had the image in her head for years, and was very happy when she finally managed to capture it on paper.
by Morwinyoniel
