The art of the Lord of the Rings

I have always enjoyed and revered the Lord of the Rings. However, I did not take to Peter Jackson's adaptation. The casting was wrong for some of the protagonists, the direction lacked feeling, the pacing wrong and hurried at points while laboured in others.

Whether the film adaptations were faithful or otherwise did not bother me as I recognise that the film and the written word are two different mediums and would have to be tailored accordingly.

I do think that the art direction, a lot of which were based on well-known artists specialising in the Lord of the Rings were great in many instances. Thus, I bought these volumes at Basheer months ago for the conceptual art.

The artwork of John Howe and Alan Lee were known to the Lord of the Rings readers for their years of splendid visualisation. I have my own in my head, of course.