The Art of the Lord of the Rings

by Gary Russell

Book Overview

A dual-edition full-color book for the millions of fans who have taken The Lord of the Rings to heart through the celebrated ?lm trilogy. Many of the images included in this volume, depicting pivotal... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618510982
• ISBN13: 9780618510986
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 223 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 9.0" x 11.2"

Customer Reviews

a must have

this book is a must have for any lord of the rings fan. the art is so beautiful and all the captions are interesting. you will not be dissapointed in this book

hidden treasure

Its a comprehensive book of the best concept art for LOTR, some of which wasnt included in the previous volumes. The background paintings are a must have. I suggest people purchase this book rather than the other volumes, as it covers all 3 films.

BREATHTAKING ART

Owning all of the Boxed sets of the LOTR's trilogy I found myself utterly fascinated with the various documentaries on the discs about the making of the film. Especially with the art designs..the paintings, storyboards, miniatures...Here are men who are supremely talented artists whose paintings and drawings would never been seen by most people were it not for the DVDs and books like this. This is high art...Gorgeous and breathtaking and on a par if not surpassing the works of people like the Hildebrandt Brothers who have been long known for their paintings of Middle Earth. Next to people like Alan Lee, the Hildebrandts work seems child-like in its intent. The painting of the Nazgul looking down like a vulture over the town of Bree, just waiting is marvelous. The Nazgul, their wriath images revealed to a startled Frodo when he puts the ring on atop Weathertop, Treebeard, Shelob...the fantastic pencil drawings. These films created literally thousands of masterpieces of fantasy art. Just a fantastic book and at over 200 pages it's not some fluff marketing item, but a book for serious fans and collectors.

Artful

In the foreword of "The Art of The Lord of the Rings," Gary Russell reveals that he always intended to create a "best of" book, after doing the previous books for the hit movie trilogy. Now that all the extended versions are out, and everybody knows the ending, this Best Of collection proves itself to be just as useful as Russell's previous books. As the previous books have had, Russell takes a look at all sorts of concept art for the films: There are storyboards, intricate pencil drawings, paintings, and action shots. Some of it was previously unreleased, like a picture of Gandalf the Grey looking over an army. Quite a few of the pictures are almost identical to the film, especially the digital shots, which are 100% realistic. And there is even a gallery of maquette models, including trolls, Shelob, mumakil, Treebeard, the king of the dead and the intricate Easterling armor. The difference between this and Russell's prior books? Here, Russell divides the artwork by artist, rather than by subject. As a result, readers can get a better idea on what the assorted artists specialized at, and their different concepts about what "Lord of the Rings" should look like. First and foremost are the legendary Alan Lee and John Howe. Lee's artwork is very vivid and action-based, and his color pictures are almost like photos. Howe's are mostly black and white, extremely detailed, and are more delicate than Lee's more muscular style. Without a doubt, these guys were the bedrock for all the concept art. But there are quite a few other artists included, and each has their own style and focus. Christian Rivers and Ben Wootten seemed to specialize in armor, beasties and menaces, while Warren Mahy tended to focus on the grotesque and gruesome, such as the orcs, the dead men, and uruk-hai. And Daniel Falconer did a little of everything, including ship designs, radically different designs for the ent Treebeard, and lots and lots of armor (both past and present). Russell ends it with small shots of the ending credits of ROTK, which was made of delicate pictures of each actor in costume, as "we would wish to remember them." It's a bit saddening, but as he reminds us in the foreword, there's always "The Hobbit" someday.

.....................................................All Art

This volume is so Beauty Full - although not as good as "The Art Of The Return Of The King", nor "The Lord Of The Rings, Weapons And Warfare" - and have so many New pictures and final concepts of the movies that were NOT in the other three The Art Of... I recommend for people who really are addicted to the movies like me! I have all the movie books of this marvellous trilogy! All of them have different pictures! There are 17 LOTR movie books such as The Art Of (4 with this one) + Visual Companions (4) + Official Movie Guide + The Making Of The Movie Trilogy + Weapons And Warfare + Gollum, How We Made Movie Magic + Photo Guides (5 different ones including The Two Towers Creatures)!!! For curious people I recommend also There And Back Again, An Actor's Tale by Sean Astin with Joe Layden and The Rough Guide To The Lord Of The Rings! Also The Songbooks (Piano/Vocal/Chords) of The Fellowship Of The Ring, The Two Towers and The Return Of The King! At last inside the DVD The Evolution Of Gollum there is another beautiful book - You can find it in The Two Towers SEE DVD Gift Box! If you like these movies get all the movie books of The Lord Of The Rings before they run out! I don't think that all the editions are going to last forever!