Customer Reviews

The Art of The Lord of the Rings

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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.

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.

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!

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.

what an amazing world in the books "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R.Tolken, and I would thank Mr.Jackson very much to create them become true with his trilogy moves "The Lord of the Rings". I love those moves,love them so much.they take me into such an superb world.I will remember them in my all life, do you? if you are a fun of them, you will be love them too.

After three art books for each movie in the LOTR trilogy, Gary Russell collects "best" artwork from all the movies, favorite works of the artists themselves, and his own favorites. Most of the views featured here are broad, dramatic landscapes, outdoor scenes of various citadels and battles, although there are some studies of fantastic creatures and costumes. Many of these pictures are better and/or different than movie scenes of the same subject. For instance, there are some quite imaginative studies for the mountain Paths of the Dead that were never incorporated into the movie. There are very satisfying studies of Lothlorien and Fangorn which, in my view, exceed the beauty of the movie scenes. There are views of Rivendell, but, so far, I've not seen a depiction of that place which fulfills my own INDEFINITE idea of how it ought to look.

(The landscape setting is fine, an exceedingly marvelous dell in a chasm riven by waterfalls. But there is something about the roof-lines in some--not all--views of Rivendell that I dislike. There is one huge, heavy, quadrangular massive roof, and there are widely outstretched horizontal lines that seem to compete too strongly with light, up-pointing Gothic-type roof-spires. Since Tolkein referred to Rivendell as the "last homely home," maybe there should have been a great hearth somewhere. A banquet scene, which might have contributed to a warm, homey atmosphere, was planned but was left out of the final film. The drawing of Rivendell which is placed opposite the Forward of this book is closer to how I might imagine Rivendell should look, if only because it shows smoke coming out of a chimney. But, I'm not really sure that the Fire element belongs in the very Watery Rivendell of the movie. Most of all, for me, along with the watery atmosphere, the serpentine quality of the tracery motifs that are repeated everywhere throughout Rivendell feels excessive.)

Besides, of course, the artwork of Alan Lee and John Howe, I'm really taken with the work by "visual designers" Paul Lasaine and Jeremy Bennett appearing at the beginning of the collection. All these guys are just fantastic geniuses. I can't find adjectives superlative enough to praise their art. I'm so glad all these works of LOTR art have been saved and published for the relish of fans who really enjoy and appreciate them.

Now, this all depends on your taste of art and what you're expecting.

Most of this is concept art, drawings, paintings, digital paintings and maquettes. So they are exploring different ideas and versions of say, Frodo, or a cave troll, Caras Galadhon, etc. etc.

So if you're looking for 'movie art', that is, art that is accurate to the movie, you might not want this book. You shoud check out the LOTR Visual Companion Series by June Fisher which has a lot of pictures from the movie and various LOTR stuff and people. LOTR Weapons & Warfare is a must have.


That being said I love this book. I do recommend it if you love art or LOTR - or if you're like me, both.

This is a great book about the artwork created for "Lord of the Rings" that one will enjoy reading over and over again.

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

This isn't out yet, but expect to see more of what they cut out, then put back in, for the Extended Editions and the best of what we've seen so far. On a side note, THOSE are MUCH better films. We haven't seen any Osgiliath. Should be great either way. I know: 'Don't judge a book by it's cover' but even THAT'S tres-cool.