Tolkien's own illustrations (and more LotR art)

**Flinn** · April 06, 2022, 02:50 AM

https://www.tolkienestate.com/painting/#illustration

Just stumbled upon a recent new release of material. Some of it is already well known, but I could see quite a lot of "new" stuff which I suppose wasn't released before. A few of them looks really awesome.

**Cyclops** · April 10, 2022, 04:44 PM

Lovely stuff, its the authors absolute commitment to his imagined world that makes this stuff so magical for me.

Cyclops Jnr loves the illustrations in the Hobbit, he will gaze at Smaug (depsite warnings!) for ages , even delaying the story to do so.

The influence of William Morris and the fin de siecle fantasists (above all Syme, to my eye) is very clear here.

**Flinn** · April 11, 2022, 10:19 AM

I agree, there's so much of Tolkien's own soul in his illustrations that I very much dislike the fact that most of them have been ignored in the movies and other medias.

**Cyclops** · April 11, 2022, 04:52 PM

Originally Posted by Flinn

I agree, there's so much of Tolkien's own soul in his illustrations that I very much dislike the fact that most of them have been ignored in the movies and other medias.

Indeed, and above all Smaug. Ursula LeGuin describes Smaug as the greatest of all dragons, highly influential in her own excellent EarthSea dragonology.

Tolkien's illustration of the Conversation with Smaug is a perfect realisation of the authors imagination. Jackson does handle dark subject matter well (I thought his Balrog was the high point of his two trilogies, mostly faithful and very impressive) but his Godzilla Smaug (which meant the black arrows had to be exocets, bigger must be better!), humourless and sluggish, lacks the threat and glittering malice of the original.

Also the sheer amount of gold was silly, and no gems on his belly? The author left pictures, but no, once again Hollywood knew better.

The lovely symmetry of the trees on the Elf King's Hall illustration, the colours in the Eyrie etc may not translate to screen. Also I think Rivendell was also affected by other illustrators like Alan Lee (who to be fair does a decent job) and is possibly better known to many readers and viewers.

**Flinn** · April 12, 2022, 09:00 AM

I have to concur, I laughed hard at all that gold, completely unrealistic

Just saying.

28 January, 2022
Demand and supply
“The best estimates currently available suggest that around 205,238 tonnes of gold has been mined throughout history, of which around two-thirds has been mined since 1950. And since gold is virtually indestructible, this means that almost all of this metal is still around in one form or another. If every single ounce of this gold were placed next to each other, the resulting cube of pure gold would only measure around 22 metres on each side.”

However, I have to say that the acting of Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug was an absolute gem.

**Morticia Iunia Bruti** · April 12, 2022, 09:04 AM

However, I have to say that the acting of Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug was an absolute gem.

His voice...

**Flinn** · April 21, 2022, 09:42 AM

I just found this large repository of LotR's lore, which also includes a lot of related art.

It's from Ngugi.

**Narf** · April 21, 2022, 12:48 PM

Originally Posted by Morticia Iunia Bruti

His voice...

Yes.

Thanks for sharing his illustrations Flinn. Good Stuff!

**Earl of Memory** · June 21, 2022, 11:29 PM

How come I'd never found this stuff?! Thanks for sharing! I had only seen Ted Nasmith's and John Howe's work.
I think that Ted Nasmith's work is the most similar to his own style out of the two.

**Veteraan** · June 22, 2022, 04:03 PM

My Avatar is a 'Tolkien original' Earl, so I guess you have seen a Tolkien illustration before, without knowing that it is a drawing from the big guy himself.

**Roma_Victrix** · June 27, 2022, 07:17 PM

Nice, never seen these illustrations before. I love the Sauron one. Always good to see what the original writer intended with actual visual artworks like these.

That's +1 rep to you, Flinn! Also never realized that Veteran's avatar pic there was Tolkien's actual sketch of Sauron!

**Flinn** · June 28, 2022, 02:47 AM

Originally Posted by Flinn

I just found this large repository of LotR's lore, which also includes a lot of related art.

It's from Ngugi.

I'm totally crazy about this reply of mine. I knew I found a long post on Imgur from Ngugi with a lot of art in it, but it seems that I did not put the link here, nor I'm able to find it again on Imgur. I'm an absolute idiot

@Roma, thanks for the rep, I'm glad to be of help if I can

**Pinarius** · July 02, 2022, 04:18 PM

Lots of Tolkien related art: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Categ...ages_by_artist

**Pinarius** · October 27, 2022, 02:08 PM

AI "art":

**Darius.D4** · January 21, 2023, 01:12 PM

Tolkien had a great talent for many different arts, some of his songs and poems are very nice. But nowadays I would like a edition of the book Lord of the Rings that makes use of the modern graphics in a spectacular way. Like for example including illustrations/wallpapers from the LOTR movies. If anybody knows of such an edition can you post a link to the shop from where it can be bought?