Customer Reviews

Myth and Magic: The Art of John Howe

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John Howe and Alan Lee are the indisputed masters of "Lord of the Rings" artwork. And this fantastic compilation of Howe's artwork, of all kinds, is a wonderful collection of artwork by an immensely talented artist. (And a cute part at the end has photographs of Howe in armor)

A great deal of the book is devoted to Middle-Earth and J.R.R. Tolkien's works. There are the creepily reptilian dragons, spiders chasing hobbits, the majestic Elves, several different incarnations of the Balrog and its battle with Gandalf, the black-armored and evil Morgoth, the dwarves dining in Bilbo Baggins' hole, a misty Treebeard, Smaug asleep on his glowing gold, the Dark Tower of Mordor with a hissing Fell Beast in front of it... all sorts of goodies. The pictures come from book covers, book illustrations, game boxes, and so forth.

But Howe's artwork is not just for "Rings" and Middle-Earth. Oh no. There are sketches (uncolored) and previously unpublished artwork. There are illustrations from picture books like "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Rip Van Winkle," Howe's fascination with armor and Arthuriana, which includes lots of solid horses, armor, and sword-wielding knights; his illustrations for books by Anne McCaffrey, Robin Hobb, Charles de Lint, Guy Gavriel Kay, Jan Siegel, Margaret Weis, a compilation of Merlin-related stories, and much more.

Howe's artwork has a lot of variety, and many of them look almost like photographs. While you can tell that they're paintings, they're frozen in one second, often in the middle of an action scene. So you almost expect them to start moving. He uses light and shadow expertly, such as in the pic where we see Smaug on his gold -- under his wings, the golden reflection of his treasure is lighting up his face and scales. Or when he is shown attacking Laketown, where everything is dark and shadowy except the fire.

When the "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy was given the go-ahead, Howe (along with Alan Lee, ) was hired by filmmaker Peter Jackson to help with the sets and landscaping and other designs. Now Jackson has written a foreword to this book, in which he talks about what a fan he is of Howe's artwork (and was, even before the movies!), and how his artwork served as a guide of sorts to how certain things should look. (Such as Ian McKellen's "Gandalf" look, which was based on Howe's famed picture of the wise old wiz) And the afterword was by fellow artist and friend Alan Lee, who describes how they met in New Zealand in 1998, starting work on the movies, and praises Howe for his energy and skill.

This is a fantastic read for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's works, not to mention people who enjoy good artwork and fantasy/SF pictures. A lush, fantastical book of dragons, halflings, Elves and suits of armor. Marvelous.

Plus factors: John Howe rocks!!! The details are astonishing. Just look at the medieval gear and his gothic landscapes! Looking at his gorgeous works are inspiring. It not only gives you a kind of in-the-moment draw to the pic, like you were actually witnessing an event real-time, but also has an attractive gloom to it (eg, the gray architecture of 'The Dark Tower' & 'Shelob's Lair'). Go get it!! A very good value for money.

Not so plus factors: I was expecting an insight of Howe's process of completing his artworks, his inspirations, the materials he used etc, and curiously enough, dimensions of the artworks and art mediums weren't stated. Only the title, source and year were.

Felt the text was brief, short and poured little light on his masterpieces (there were some, like the furniture in Bag-end and such)... Also, I hoped badly that the pages would be filled from page edge to edge with full glossy pics, but some artworks were reduced to a size no bigger than a Post-it! I understand that the publishers want to display as much of John Howe's works into the book, but I wouldn't mind paying twice as much for a better visual spectacle. I'd purchase Myth & Magic 2, if it existed!

Come to think of it, Myth & Magic is, afterall, a portfolio of a remarkable artist. Too many words would have killed the book. Just remind yourself to enjoy the works and forget about being an art student for once.

This book shows how it should be done.

If you had to condense decades of brilliant art work into one volume this is about right.

It is obvious that the volume was put together with love. The paper and color are good, and the pictures (why most of us want to buy this book), are many, varied and quite often large.
** (Lesson for "Realms of Tolkien" editor: There are many double and single page spreads, with no white space!)

For the person who wants to know about John Howe, (not just his Tolkien work), there is quite a bit of information, although I would have liked to have seen and read more about the technical side of how he works.

There is quite a bit of his non-Tolkien work, which I found really interesting and just as good, (artistically) as his Tolkien stuff.

If you like the work of John Howe this is the book for you!

The only way to improve it would be to add another volume, (hint to the editor...).

Now if they could just do the same thing for Ted Nasmith...

I shall just get right to the point: if you are fascinated by the world of Tolkien or just like to read books with some extraordinary fantastic art, this is the book for you.

This book shows you a collection of the art of John Howe, a well-known artist of fantasy art, and someone who designed a lot of visual aspects in the Lord of the rings movies. It contains lots of artwork that has to do with the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, but also some of Howes other work with various subjects.

I can really recommend this almost everybody,because it's just fun to have this for the pretty pictures. The impressive things are not only the detail, the design and the colorscheme, but also the fact that the work really seem to show a certain greatness and movement. They make you believe that those moments were keymoments in the history of some other world.

This a MUST-HAVE.

If you haven't got this book yet and you are into fantasy art, don't hesitate and buy it. Trully fantastic artwork. John Howe is without a doubt one of the best illustrators of the world. He was one of the concept artists of Peter Jackson's The Lord Of The Rings movie trilogy.

I got the three volume version of Lord of the Rings with all the Alan Lee illustrations. It's a great set, the one that ought to be on the shelf of every Tolkien fan. (Really, of everyone!) But this book ought to be right beside it. Howe's more vibrant colors complement Lee's subdued greytones, especially in those scenes calling for the darkest dark (The Bridge of Khazad-Dum, surveyed several times in this book) and brightest flame (Mount Doom, for instance). The Tolkien-inspired work is separated into three chapters representing The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings respectively. In between those chapters are numerous representatives of Howe's other commercial work, which is of equal quality even when serving books I'm not familiar with. But the Tolkien work is the real attraction here.

This book is full of beautiful pictures with a wide variety to styles. I strongly recommend it.

As one of the foremost fantasy illustrators of the past twenty years Canadian born John Howe has done more to define the look of J.R.R. Tolkien's world than almost any other illustrator, apart from Alan Lee. He captures in vibrant and dramatic images the grandeur, beauty and majesty of Middle Earth, in both calendars and on book covers alike. But he is so much more than just a visual interpreter of Tolkien's fantastic world of Middle Earth. Getting his big break in Time Life's: The Enchanted World series in the mid 1980s his art has graced the covers of some of the bestselling contemporary fantasy authors, and has even illustrated books on ancient mythology, legend and fairytale. On top of that he's also written and illustrated several delightfully enchanting children's books!

His magical art for the book A Diversity of Dragons, or his book on medieval armour with its complex and detailed illustrations has cemented his already well earned reputation. Occasionally John Howe tries his hand at science-fiction illustration, but only when he gets the chance. Though of course he is with good reason most famous for his art exploring fantasy, myth, legend, folklore and fairytales. This book is a stunning portfolio of some of the most significant and beautiful masterpieces that have marked his career thus far, and an exploration of what inspires him (like ravens or horseshoe crabs!) as an artist. With revealing commentary from some of the many talented people he has collaborated with over the years, this insightful volume explains why he is so sought after as a fantasy illustrator. There is even a fascinating chapter on his passion and hobby; creating medieval arms and armour for a reenactment society in Switzerland, where he also now makes his home. In recent years Mr Howe worked as one of two chief concept artists on Peter Jackson's epic film versions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the other being Alan Lee, and I firmly believe the creative input of both men gave the films an aesthetic credibility they might not of otherwise had. While many of the pictures in this book are a little bit too small and hence fail to do justice to his jewel like art, and while I also think the text is spread a little too thin as well... one can't really complain. So as one of my favourite contemporary illustrators I was very pleased when this long overdue book was finally published and would definitely like to see a second portfolio of his work published someday, especially considering how much new art and design he's created since the publication of this book.

i recommend this book not only to fantasy art lovers but also to tokien fans, since most of the movie costumes and scenery were inspired by john howe's piantings

Finally, a compilation of Howe's fantasy, and 144 pages, at that! I admit that this review is premature, but I am totally excited to snag this new arrival...