Alan Lee is an English book illustrator and film conceptual designer. He is best known for his artwork inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novels, and for his work on the concept design of Peter Jackson's film adaptations of Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film series.
Lee in 2016
Image: Alan Lee Signature
Lee's concept art illustration of Orthanc was closely followed by the set designers of Peter Jackson's The Two Towers to create a "bigature" of the tower for filming.
Illustrating Middle-earth
Since the publication of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit in 1937, artists including Tolkien himself have sought to capture aspects of Middle-earth fantasy novels in paintings and drawings. He was followed in his lifetime by artists whose work he liked, such as Pauline Baynes, Mary Fairburn, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and Ted Nasmith, and by some whose work he rejected, such as Horus Engels for the German edition of The Hobbit.
Tolkien had strong views on illustration of fantasy, especially in the case of his own works. His recorded opinions range from his rejection of the use of images in his 1936 essay On Fairy-Stories, to agreeing the case for decorative images for certain purposes, and his actual creation of images to accompany the text in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Commentators including Ruth Lacon and Pieter Collier have described his views on illustration as contradictory, and his requirements as being as fastidious as his editing of his novels.
Gandalf fighting the Balrog on the bridge of Khazad-dûm. Scraperboard by Alexander Korotich, 1981
Tolkien thought that Milein Cosman's illustrations unhelpfully resembled the fashionable Edward Ardizzone's work (example pictured).
Tove Jansson is better known for her Moomin characters.
Frodo and Sam guided by Gollum through the Dead Marshes