Chesley Nominees List". The Locus Index to Science Fiction Awards. Archived from the original on 4 November 2011 . Retrieved 7 January 2012. For his 1978 book with Brian Froud, Faeries, Lee was runner-up for the fantasy Locus Award, year's best art or illustrated book. [13]

HarperCollins deputy publishing director Chris Smith told The Guardian, “Like many young readers, I was enthralled by his charming and evocative illustrations that accompanied The Hobbit. These paintings, particularly the now-iconic image that appears on its cover, have become as beloved as the story they accompany. Yet the author himself was characteristically modest, dismissive of the obvious and rare artistic talent he possessed despite having had no formal training. This modesty meant that relatively little else of his artwork was known of or seen during his lifetime, and generally only in scholarly books afterwards.” New Line Cinema Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954a). The Fellowship of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 9552942. World Fantasy Award Winners and Nominees". World Fantasy Convention. Archived from the original on 22 September 2008. The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien is an art book edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, published in 2015. As he wrote The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien’s mental pictures often found expression in drawing, from rough sketches made within the manuscript to more finished illustrations. Only a few of these were meant for publication; most were aids to help Tolkien conceive his complex story and keep it consistent. Many do not illustrate the final text, but represent moments of creation, illuminating Tolkien’s process of writing and design. In addition to pictorial sketches, numerous maps follow the development of the Shire and the larger landscape of Middle-earth, while inscriptions in runes and Elvish script, and ‘facsimile’ leaves from the burned and blood-stained Book of Mazarbul, support Tolkien’s pose as an ‘editor’ or ‘translator’ of ancient records.Among the numerous works by J. R. R. Tolkien that he has illustrated are the 1992 centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings, a 1999 edition of The Hobbit, the 2007 The Children of Húrin, the 2017 Beren and Lúthien, the 2018 The Fall of Gondolin, and the 2022 The Fall of Númenor. [2] [3]

For the 60th anniversary edition of The Hobbit, Tolkien's 1937 classic, Lee won his second Chesley Award for Interior Illustration (he is a finalist eight times through 2011). [16]

The first year was spent not understanding much, the second at odds with what I did manage to understand, and the third eager to get out, although in retrospect I certainly owe whatever clarity of thought I possess to the patience of the professor of Illustration. [4] The Knight With the Lion: The Story of Yvain ( Little, Brown & Company, 1996) ISBN 978-0-316-37583-2 Influences on Tolkien's artwork identified by scholars include Japonisme, Art Nouveau, Viking design, and William Morris. Japonisme is seen in stylised features like Tolkien's mountains, waves, and dragons. The influence of Morris's book Some Hints on Pattern Designing, which Tolkien owned, appears in his designs for tiles and heraldic devices for The Silmarillion. [11] So as a few examples of what you will find- how Tolkien was able to create the Elvish script for the inscription on the One Ring. I especially enjoyed the various maps of the Shire or Mordor and the various stages of the world-building that eventually developed into the fully fleshed-out epic that is LOTR. Tolkien's artwork was a key element of his creativity from the time when he began to write fiction. The philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien prepared a wide variety of materials to support his fiction, including illustrations for his Middle-earth fantasy books, facsimile artefacts, more or less "picturesque" maps, calligraphy, and sketches and paintings from life. Some of his artworks combined several of these elements.

The Maps of Tolkien's Middle-earth by Brian Sibley ( Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003) ISBN 978-0-618-39110-3

J.R.R. Tolkien's complete artwork for his magisterial novel, published on the sixtieth anniversary of The Lord of the Rings I always assumed the two towers being referenced were Orthanc and Barad-Dur, but they are actually Orthanc and Minas Morgul. Orthanc is the more obvious of the two since the Hand of Saruman is beneath it. More subtly, the key to Orthanc is pictured on the tower. Minas Morgul makes a whole lot more sense than Barad-Dur once you find out that's what it is. There are nine rings on the tower, symbolizing the nine rings of the Nazgul. The biggest ring is for the witch-king of Angmar. Before becoming Minas Morgul, it was a Gondorian fort named Minas Ithil, meaning Tower of the Moon. It was white. The tower on the cover is white, and has a moon above it. Beneath it, the moon is being eclipsed., symbolizing the enemy occupation. Not all of the explanations are that in depth or enlightening, but some are. McIlwaine, Catherine (2018). Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth. Bodleian Library. ISBN 978-1-851-24485-0. bw): Cedric Gibbons, Edward Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason /(c): Paul Sheriff, Marcel Vertès