Middle-earth Journeys

I (finally) updated the Calendar of the Month feature for February on my website:

www.angelfire.com/tn3/tolkiencalendars

You can now find 13 illustrations with a common theme: the 1977 centerfold by the Bros Hildebrandt and 12 by Colin Williams. In order to do any more of such "theme" Calendar of the Month features, I am going to have to go through all of my calendars and compile a list of each illustration . . . no small task as I have collected about 240 of the 271 calendars that I have been able to catalog! Wish me luck!

Thanks all for visiting.

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

That's a great idea - I've been intending to do something very similar with themed art essays here, comparing all the different Treebeards for example. I've already started that one but haven't had enough time to finish it! But I've gathered all the illustrations together. Well.... it's a start.

I do love the Hildebrandt 'Unexpected Party' painting.

Good luck finding more themes - sounds like one heck of a challenge when you're limited to specific use in calendars!

Added a new calendar to the catalog (and my collection): the Pocket (France) "Calendrier 2008 Collector." It has a single Tolkien-related illustration within: "The Fellowship of the Ring" by John Howe. It was a bonus for purchasing Pocket books at Christmas.

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

Discovered a new (previously unknown to me) Tolkien calendar: "Calendrier 2002 Tolkien". Issued in France (curiously, I think it is a Pocket issue as was the preceeding entry) and a unique format in my collection. Find it in the 2002 or French sections at:

www.angelfire.com/tn3/tolkiencalendars

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

Updated the CotM for March at:

www.angelfire.com/tn3/tolkiencalendars

Hope you like it.

Spring is coming!

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

Jos van Zijl is a very interesting artist. I'm not so keen on his people but the landscapes he conjours up are wonderful. I love 'Orthanc' (September) which is really well visualised. The towering clouds in the background really add to the mood. I also like the way he has shown Osgiliath as it was before it was destroyed (June). It's great to see something that I don't remember anyone else painting. April really has me puzzled though. I can't see the caption clearly - it looks like Sauron but we are looking at a monstrous fish. What is is, Parmastahir?

Hello Iolanthe -

Yes, April's illustration is titled "Sauron". I'm afraid that I don't get it!

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

That's really intriguing . I'm going to be puzzling over that one all day now .

I know it is a long time since I was here... but I finally saw Alan Lee and did an interview with him. I have asked all the suggested questions I got from all of you and here are the results.

Beren!! good to see you on the forums again and many, many thanks for posting this interview. I've printed it off to take a proper look when I have time later today, but the bit I've read so far is fascinating . . . !

What a wonderful interview Beren! Thanks so much for sharing!

It's lovely to hear from you again. Beren . That interview is wonderful! Thank you so much for asking him about the borders - I agree that the starker style suits the nature of the book, and thanks for the question about the constraints of spacing illustrations regularly through the book. It seems that it's not a contraint at all, but something he relishes. A good answer and very enlightening.

It's very interesting to learn that he did the layout for the Sketchbook himself. That explains why the illustrations work so well with the placement of the text - I thought it was masterly when I got my copy and now we know why.

I'm also glad you asked him about the website. I've been wondering about that a lot too!

Thanks Beren .

I've had a chance to read this now and thought the interview gave a great insight into Alan Lee's working practices as well! Really interesting that the original sketches for CoH were done A2 size, for example, and then pro'd down for publication. And I like his analogy that illustrations througout a book have to fit the text in the same way that music on a movie soundtrack fits a scene!

I must say, that in preparing the questions, I first came back here and took the questions you all had proposed. Then I added the onces I wanted to know about... I hope I have succeeded in asking some interesting questions, and covering both inspirational sources, his working process, the movies, use of Photoshop, collecting, ...

It was a four hour drive to Paris and I woke up very early in the morning to be able to do the one hour interview at midday. It all went perfect and Alan arrived right on the correct time. I was very nervous, but from the moment Alan walked in I relaxed. He is so charming and nice! He really took his time to answer all my questions and the hour was over in an instance. I think that it took me two days to realize that I had done an interview with Alan Lee. It is a day that I will remember for a logn time to come!

Thanks, Beren! It was a great interview; Mr. Lee must have been pleased to talk with someone so knowledgeable. I thought the discussion about whether he was an artist or an illustrator was really insightful.