The Art of the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

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That book actually has artwork in it. Tolkien did many illustrations for The Hobbit, and whilst they’re not exactly masterpieces, they show how he pictured his world. At least, in a way that his limited abilities would allow him. Tolkien was wonderful with maps and letters, but he could not create environment or characters very well. He was a master of the word, not the image. The point is, the images of the Hobbit are not fantastic pieces, but Tolkien did actually intend for them to accompany his works. Tolkien worked on making realistic artefacts to accompany his writing; he spent enormous effort on a facsimile Book of Mazarbul to resemble the burnt, torn volume abandoned at the tomb of the Dwarf-leader Balin in the subterranean realm of Moria; in the story, the wizard Gandalf finds the book and struggles to read out a substantial amount of the damaged text. [1] [T 4] Tolkien carefully stained the artefact's materials, actually burning in the burn-marks and tearing the paper to make it as authentic as possible. [1] He anxiously wrote to his publisher Rayner Unwin asking about the reproduction of the artefact. [T 5] The company however chose not to include an image of the book in the first edition, prompting Tolkien to remark that without it the text at the start of "The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm" was "rather absurd". [T 3] The Doors of Durin [ edit ] The first year was spent not understanding much, the second at odds with what I did manage to understand, and the third eager to get out, although in retrospect I certainly owe whatever clarity of thought I possess to the patience of the professor of Illustration. [4] Tolkien's maps, like his illustrations, helped his readers to enter his subcreated world of Middle-earth. The Hobbit had two maps; The Lord of the Rings had three, redrawn by his son Christopher Tolkien; The Silmarillion had two. These served multiple purposes, first as guides to the author, helping to ensure consistency in the narrative, and later to the reader through the often complex routes taken by his characters. [1] [5] Calligraphy [ edit ] The Lord of the Rings, despite Tolkien's best efforts, appeared with only one illustration other than its maps and calligraphy. This was The Doors of Durin, in the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, in 1954. [1] [T 6]

Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2011). The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-744081-8.

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The Knight With the Lion: The Story of Yvain ( Little, Brown & Company, 1996) ISBN 978-0-316-37583-2 Among the illustrations 101 are previously unpublished, and 42 are published in colour for the first time. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún · The Fall of Arthur · The Story of Kullervo · The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun

MacLeod, Jeffrey J.; Smol, Anna (2017). "Visualizing the Word: Tolkien as Artist and Writer". Tolkien Studies. 14 (1): 115–131. doi: 10.1353/tks.2017.0009. S2CID 171923300. Overall, what The Art of The Lord of the Rings conveys is a sense of a master creator at work. We get to see some of the tensions Tolkien experienced. He had a concept of the perfect ideal that he wanted to create; but he also felt the limitations of deadlines, money, publisher’s demands, his other jobs and family duties, and his own perceived limitations, particularly in the artwork. It’s interesting to see how often his publisher would request something from him, and he would first respond, “No no, I have neither time nor inclination to work on that right now”; but then you can see how the idea worked into his mind, and he would send another response, saying, “Ok, I think this should be done, and I will see what I can do by a certain date, but no promises.” There was always a higher standard, a more perfect realization of his idea, just out of his reach, and his creative process moved not in a smooth line toward that, but in fits and starts, periods of intense, productive work, and frustrating periods of no work at all. I’m sure in his mind this also fit into his theology—that there is a perfect Creator, and we are but “subcreators,” following after the perfect one as best we can. i. The Book of Lost Tales: Part One · ii. The Book of Lost Tales: Part Two · iii. The Lays of Beleriand · iv. The Shaping of Middle-earth · v. The Lost Road and Other Writings · vi. The Return of the Shadow · vii. The Treason of Isengard · viii. The War of the Ring · ix. Sauron Defeated · x. Morgoth's Ring · xi. The War of the Jewels · xii. The Peoples of Middle-earth · Index) ·Tolkien's profession of philology made him familiar with medieval illuminated manuscripts; he imitated their style in his own calligraphy, an art which his mother had taught him. He applied this skill in his development of Middle-earth, creating alphabets such as Tengwar for his invented languages, especially Elvish. [1]