Alan Lee





Alan Lee

Author profile


born
August 20, 1947 in Middlesex, The United Kingdom

gender
male

genre

influences


About this author

Alan Lee is an English book illustrator and movie conceptual designer. He was born on 20 August 1947 in Middlesex, England and studied at the Ealing School of Art, specialising in illustration, and has illustrated a wide range of books, including Faeries (with Brian Froud), The Mabinogion, Castles, Merlin Dreams, The Black Ships of Troy and The Wanderings of Oysseus.

He is best known for his award winning work on The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien - having done illustration work for both the books and the Peter Jackson directed movies. As of 2011, he is working on The Hobbit movies, based on Tolkien's book, again directed by Peter Jackson.

Tolkien's work has inspired him ever since he read his books at an early age. Alan Lee is also insp...more


Average rating: 4.01 · 25,357 ratings · 1,602 reviews · 45 distinct works
The Lord of the Rings Sketc...
4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 avg rating — 989 ratings2 editions
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The Return of the King (Lor...
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4.43 of 5 stars 4.43 avg rating — 158,151 ratings — published 1954 — 234 editions
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Castles
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4.37 of 5 stars 4.37 avg rating — 73 ratings — published 1984 — 3 editions
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The Hobbit
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4.13 of 5 stars 4.13 avg rating — 652,825 ratings — published 1937 — 95 editions
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The Two Towers
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4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 avg rating — 162,685 ratings — published 1954 — 225 editions
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The Fellowship of the Ring ...
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4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 avg rating — 522,301 ratings — published 1954 — 47 editions
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The Lord Of The Rings
4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 avg rating — 12 ratings2 editions
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The Mabinogion
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3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 1,708 ratings — published 1410 — 80 editions
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The Lord Of The Rings
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4.38 of 5 stars 4.38 avg rating — 130,501 ratings — published 1954 — 5 editions
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Castles
4.5 of 5 stars 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings
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“I first read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit when I was eighteen. It felt as though the author had taken every element I'd ever want in a story and woven them into one huge, seamless narrative; but more important, for me, Tolkien had created a place, a vast, beautiful, awesome landscape, which remained a resource long after the protagonists had finished their battles and gone their separate ways. In illustrating The Lord of the Rings I allowed the landscapes to predominate. In some of the scenes the characters are so small they are barely discernible. This suited my own inclinations and my wish to avoid, as much as possible, interfering with the pictures being built up in the reader's mind, which tends to be more closely focussed on characters and their inter-relationships. I felt my task lay in shadowing the heroes on their epic quest, often at a distance, closing in on them at times of heightened emotion but avoiding trying to re-create the dramatic highpoints of the text. With The Hobbit, however, it didn't seem appropriate to keep such a distance, particularly from the hero himself. I don't think I've ever seen a drawing of a Hobbit which quite convinced me, and I don't know whether I've gotten any closer myself with my depictions of Bilbo. I'm fairly happy with the picture of him standing outside Bag End, before Gandalf arrives and turns his world upside-down, but I've come to the conclusion that one of the reasons Hobbits are so quiet and elusive is to avoid the prying eyes of illustrators.”
Alan Lee

“I keep drawing the trees, the rocks, the river, I'm still learning how to see them; I'm still discovering how to render their forms. I will spend a lifetime doing that. Maybe someday I'll get it right.”
Alan Lee

“When I draw something, I try to build some kind of history into it. Drawing an object that has a certain amount of wear and tear or rust; or a tree that is damaged. I love trying to render not just the object, but what it has been through.”
Alan Lee



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