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Title: Myth and Magic: The Art of John Howe by John Howe, Peter Jackson, Alan Lee ISBN: 0-00-710795-1 Publisher: Harper Collins - UK Pub. Date: March, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: gotta be good
Comment: Finally, a compilation of Howe's fantasy, and 144 pages, at that! I admit that this review is premature, but I am totally excited to snag this new arrival...
Rating: 5
Summary: Visions of fantasy
Comment: John Howe and Alan Lee are the indisputed masters of "Lord of the Rings" artwork. And this fantastic compilation of Howe's artwork, of all kinds, is a wonderful collection of artwork by an immensely talented artist. (And a cute part at the end has photographs of Howe in armor)
A great deal of the book is devoted to Middle-Earth and J.R.R. Tolkien's works. There are the creepily reptilian dragons, spiders chasing hobbits, the majestic Elves, several different incarnations of the Balrog and its battle with Gandalf, the black-armored and evil Morgoth, the dwarves dining in Bilbo Baggins' hole, a misty Treebeard, Smaug asleep on his glowing gold, the Dark Tower of Mordor with a hissing Fell Beast in front of it... all sorts of goodies. The pictures come from book covers, book illustrations, game boxes, and so forth.
But Howe's artwork is not just for "Rings" and Middle-Earth. Oh no. There are sketches (uncolored) and previously unpublished artwork. There are illustrations from picture books like "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Rip Van Winkle," Howe's fascination with armor and Arthuriana, which includes lots of solid horses, armor, and sword-wielding knights; his illustrations for books by Anne McCaffrey, Robin Hobb, Charles de Lint, Guy Gavriel Kay, Jan Siegel, Margaret Weis, a compilation of Merlin-related stories, and much more.
Howe's artwork has a lot of variety, and many of them look almost like photographs. While you can tell that they're paintings, they're frozen in one second, often in the middle of an action scene. So you almost expect them to start moving. He uses light and shadow expertly, such as in the pic where we see Smaug on his gold -- under his wings, the golden reflection of his treasure is lighting up his face and scales. Or when he is shown attacking Laketown, where everything is dark and shadowy except the fire.
When the "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy was given the go-ahead, Howe (along with Alan Lee, ) was hired by filmmaker Peter Jackson to help with the sets and landscaping and other designs. Now Jackson has written a foreword to this book, in which he talks about what a fan he is of Howe's artwork (and was, even before the movies!), and how his artwork served as a guide of sorts to how certain things should look. (Such as Ian McKellen's "Gandalf" look, which was based on Howe's famed picture of the wise old wiz) And the afterword was by fellow artist and friend Alan Lee, who describes how they met in New Zealand in 1998, starting work on the movies, and praises Howe for his energy and skill.
This is a fantastic read for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's works, not to mention people who enjoy good artwork and fantasy/SF pictures. A lush, fantastical book of dragons, halflings, Elves and suits of armor. Marvelous.
Rating: 5
Summary: A great book for those who love beautiful fantasy art.
Comment: I shall just get right to the point: if you are fascinated by the world of Tolkien or just like to read books with some extraordinary fantastic art, this is the book for you.
This book shows you a collection of the art of John Howe, a well-known artist of fantasy art, and someone who designed a lot of visual aspects in the Lord of the rings movies. It contains lots of artwork that has to do with the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, but also some of Howes other work with various subjects.
I can really recommend this almost everybody,because it's just fun to have this for the pretty pictures. The impressive things are not only the detail, the design and the colorscheme, but also the fact that the work really seem to show a certain greatness and movement. They make you believe that those moments were keymoments in the history of some other world.
This a MUST-HAVE.
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Title: The Art of The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings) by Gary Russell ISBN: 0618331301 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Spectrum 10: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art (Spectrum, No 10) by Arnie Fenner, Cathy Fenner ISBN: 1887424725 Publisher: Underwood Books Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: More Fantasy Art Masters: The Best Fantasy and Science Fiction Artists Show How They Work by Dick Jude ISBN: 0823031276 Publisher: Watson-Guptill Pubns Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Art of the Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, Gary Russell ISBN: 0618212906 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 12 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The People's Guide to J.R.R. Tolkien by TheOneRing.Net, Erica Challis ISBN: 1892975904 Publisher: Cold Spring Press Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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