The "Lord of the Rings" Sketchbook [Rilegato]

I had been waiting rather impatiently since this book was first announced, 4 or 5 years ago. It has been promoted by the publishers as a " sumptuous, large-format" book featuring preparatory sketches and rejected drawings for the illustrated edition of " Lord of the Rings", in which Alan Lee's spectacular watercolors inspired Peter Jackson to hire him as conceptual artist for the film trilogy. His involvement with the films obviously held up work on putting the book together, and, in the meantime, the book took a turn in the direction of the film. The result is a mixture of sketches and drawings that were obviously meant as illustrations to the book, coupled with some designs for props, armor, etc from the film AND some drawings done on the New Zealand locations of a few of the actors in their rols ( MacKellan as Gandalf, Blanchett as Galadriel) and maybe even some drawn-from-life landscapes with additions to make them look like Middle-Earth scenery. An example of book illustration is the section devoted to Tom Bombadil and Goldberry; the pencil drawing of Tom's house is coupled with the watercolor developed from it for the book. But there are also drawings of Tom and two for Goldberry ! There are also some sketches for the unfilmed barrow-downs scene.

The big disappointment is the size. It's certainly not " large-format" at 8 x 10 inches, and it's hard for a book to be " sumptuous" when it's that puny ! Also, quite a few of the 20 " color plates" are merely black-and-white pencil drawings on tinted paper !

That said, the drawings ARE beautiful, and many of them have never been published. It certainly is a must for the Tolkien or Alan Lee fan.

There is a quote on the back of the book by Peter Jackson who says that Alan Lee's work is lyrical. And that it is. The work invokes the music, the beat, the poetry of Tolkien's storytelling.

Everything about this book exceeded my expectations. After reading the first review I was very pleasantly suprised by the size. The overall size is fine and the quality and number of drawings is immense. Even the small ones have amazing details and there is a joy of discovery and pleasure to be had on each and every page. Size is NOT an issue here.

What you fine on each page is text but also a number of drawings and or sketches. Each of which will take you back to the movies AND back to Tolkien. There are also many heretofor unseen sketches. In fact, in many ways after viewing and reading this book you will realize the movies where probably more visually Mr. Lee's doing than PJ's or anyone else's.

The color pics are WATERCOLORS, at least the ones I have seen. Mr. Lee uses somber colors for his watercolors. These colors are reproduced well. This book is an amazing work of art. It has been published and bound in Italy to exacting standards especially consdering the price. The cover is very cleverly done to invoke an aged sketchbook. Everything about this book is quality. And every page in the book is magic.

When an author creates a whole new world, as Tolkien did in the 'Rings' series, you can't help but get a vision of what world from his words. Tolkien's 'word pictures' have stayed with me for years - Hobbits live in holes in the ground, but not smelly, dank holes cherry and bright holes.

Mr. Lee was first commissioned to produce a set of drawings for the magnificant 'The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Edition' (Which is still available although it was published in 1991.) Just how he could take Tolkien's description and so perfectly the image that I had developed in my own mind has puzzled me for years.

In this book he shows how he developed what a hobbit really looks like in his cherry, bright hole in the ground. Indeed what does middle earth look like? He shows us. He shows us so well that when Peter Jackson was trying to see middle earth for his films he had Alan Lee to show him the way.

This book is a sketchbook. It shows how Mr. Lee approaches illustrating a book. Here is how he began thinking of hobbits, how he sketched out many, and as he puts it, [illustrating] is more of a process of editing out than attempting to delineate something that already exists as an image in my mind.'

This book is a marvelous description of a process that worked supurbly well.