The Art of The Lord of the Rings by Gary Russell

The Art of The Lord of the Rings Reviews

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  Sean Smart

  A beautiful book
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  Parka

  
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  Poppy

  I really wish I could draw.
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  Katelyn Jenkins

  Very good visuals (meaning, mainly pictures). An inspiring read and it was very interesting to see how ideas were developed for Weta's team at the time of LOTR's creation :)
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  Jaimie

  Having previously read Gary Russell's the Art of the Fellowship of the Ring and knowing that there are two companion volumes which focus on the second and third films in the trilogy I expected this fourth art of volume to be a sort of mashup of all three books and to contain much of the same content. Though I would have been happy to revisit some of the same contents, I was pleased to find that instead this book was meant to be an expansion and contain a mixed collection of a whole bunch of the artwork that didn't make it into the previous three books. Normally I prefer these types of books to focus on one subject (one movie in this case), but since the story of the Lord of the Rings is one long epic it is actually more useful to see the full range of design work produced over the development of the three films. Russell does organize the presentation of the artwork logically, though, focusing first on the overall visual effects team before featuring the two principle conceptual artists (Alan Lee and John Howe), and finally filling the rest of the book with the communal designs and efforts created by the Weta Workshop. This progression made the story of the creation of the films really come to life, as Russell and the artists discuss how the project evolved through the art design process and how their personal interactions with Tolkien's work shaped their vision. The epic story of the Lord of the Rings in movie form would have been nothing without careful treatment of the visuals, so I am glad that the incredibly hard work of the many artists who worked on this project is featured to wonderfully in Garyh Russell's books.
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  Phil Lemons

  I was drawn to this book as a fan of Alan Lee and John Howe’s art for Middle Earth. Reading about the thought process and how they used the art to create the magic for the movies was surprisingly interesting to me.
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  Sebastián Posada

  The Paul Lasaine visdec pieeces make it worth the purchase. Add the John How and Alan Lee conceptual drawings and this book becomes magic.
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  Kirby Davis

  A wonderfully broad look at how Peter Jackson, Alan Lee, John Howe, and all the other artisans at Weta developed into cinematic form the look and feel of Tolkien's Middle Earth.
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  Douglas Summers-Stay

  I enjoyed learning about the process-- how Jackson would say, you're all doing the same thing, go wild-- and they would make all these crazy designs like having the Watcher in the Water being a giant seal-- and then they would go back to almost what they started with, but pulling in a few of their favorite details from the wild designs. I think that's a good way to do creative work.
  I liked how respectful they were of the books in their designs.
  Some of the most interesting designs were for the Easterlings, who you barely notice in the movie.
  I liked how the armorers would come to the artists and say, look, you can draw this stuff, but you can't actually wear it in combat, the joints won't bend the right way, these spikes will poke the wearer... it made it so that there was a reality to the armor fantasy drawings often are missing.
  I always like the unused examples in these books-- it makes me imagine an entire alternate movie, where everything is a little different.
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  Serge Pierro

  The Art of The Lord of the Rings is a fine collection of concept art used for the production of the movies based on the trilogy. Alan Lee and John Howe, amongst others, are represented here and provide great insight into the inner workings of both the art and its use within the production. Nice pencil work and beautiful digital matte paintings are some of the highlights. Recommended for concept artists and fans of the series.
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  Mark Matzke

  concept-art lovers unite! and spend an hour or two with this tome
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  Federico

  A panoramic view on the arts of the film... with scratch, designs and in-work suggestions.... Good book to read and view, like the others 2! :)
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  Franc Evan

  Love the pencil sketches...
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  Orma

  Quando una ha delle amiche fuori come balconi, può anche capitare che le vengano regalati libri così...
  
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  Charlotte

  Personally I wouldn't call this an 'art book' due to the distinct lack of artwork inside it, a couple of sketches sure, but when I bought it on amazon, I was expecting what anyone would be if ordering an art of book. I was expecting a book filled with tones of concept art and not with mostly words...
  
  Other than this odd name choice which doesnt fit it, the book was interesting enough to peruse.