Artist Alan Lee spent six years producing 2500 drawings to bring to life the 400 sets and myriad characters that would be involved in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. In The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook, he shares his insights into the movie-making process as well as copious amounts of the sketches he made during it. Two examples are below.
This book is fun. Peter Jackson (director) said Lee's art had a lyricism about it that he wanted to capture in the films; I think he succeeded, and I'm glad he did. I've long been a fan of both Alan and John Howe (the other LOTR artist); their works evoke a memory of something lost, a longing for restoration, and often have an
impression of depth to them. I was surprised how many of Lee's drawings were precisely portrayed in the films: they took his sketches and used CG (or the props department) to bring them to life. His work, combined with Tolkien's story and Jackson's "understanding of the text, and of the possibilities of cinema," has made for an amazing experience indeed. Well done all around.
I had hoped this book would feature more finished watercolors (Lee's specialty and my favorite); most of the work is sketches in various stages of completion. But it is a sketchbook, so I shouldn't have expected otherwise.
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