I hadn't fully mourned the loss of MY Lord of the Rings until now.
Peter Jackson's films were amazing and definitive and I love them, however it wasn't until I tried to read through the books again that I fully understood how definitive they were. Millions of dollars and hundreds of talented artists fleshed out Tolkien's world in a way my imagination never could. As I read I found that every character and location had been replaced by actors, Weta's sculptures, New Zealand's beautiful landscapes. It's all great, but it broke my heart to realize that mine was gone.
This image is one last hurrah. One last artistic foray into my own vision of the story when Middle Earth was the Canadian Rockies I grew up by, the soundtrack was by Loreena Mckennitt and the players were all made up.
It was funny and sad to see that even this attempt to recreate my image of the characters was tinted by the films. Oh well, I'll always have them tucked away on a shelf in my mind.
15 comments:
Love your illustrations!
And I really know what you mean. I am currently reading the Hobbit for my first time, and I just now reflected on what my experiences have been so far. All the dwarves in the book, are half made up and half influenced by the hobbit animation movie. (its been a while since I've seen the animated movie, so I've forgotten what they looked like)
Bilbo is also half made up and mixed with the animated version.
But Elrond, Gandalf and Gollum are totally a mix of the live action version and the animated version.
This is all without purposely trying to see them as one or the other. And I've just made that realization now.
The Goblin King was completely original in my mind (don't remember him in the animated movie at all). His goblins looked like the ones in the movie.
Glad you brought this up! But sorry you've made that realization!
Keep up the great work!
Same here. Now the books are so... beige :/
I like it babe. Thanks for sharing
I also know what you mean :)
Beautiful! You've realley managed to capture the atmosphere!!!
Word. My mom and I just watched the trilogy after reading The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I'd previously read those books and seen the films (in that order), but my mom, as a newbie, hadn't yet had her version of Middle Earth replaced by Peter Jackson's version.
We decided that when enough time has passed, we'll just have to read everything all over again. It will never be like it used to be, but returning to the books is where it's at. So, apparently, is making awesome illustrations. Great work!
I believe I prefer your take to that of the films.
I had a moment just like this as well. Sort of a bummer.
You know I haven't read the books yet :( sacriledge but i have a hard bound beautiful copy that I will read to my kids (one day) by then I may have forgotten the films or I may just piggy bag off their imagination.
Beautiful artwork. Like others have said, I for one like your take better than Jackson's (at least so far as 1 image can be compared with 3 films).
I've pretty much taken a vow never to watch the movies again. They were nice, but I have so many problems with Jackson's interpretive choices that if I'm going back to Middle Earth, I'm going back to my vision on my terms, not his.
Just remember you still have Tom Bombadil and his lady.
This is one of many reasons I always try to read the book(s) before I see the movie, whatever movie it may be.
Omnomnomnom :D So good.
Try harder. But I get what you're sayin. This is still really nice. I like the atmosphere.
in mourning too...:-(
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This is so beautiful. I'm one of the lucky ones -- as a New Zealander who first read the trilogy when I was 9 and The Hobbit as a teenager (yes, I did it the wrong way around), I grew up imagining it in terms of the landscape around me. And then, having someone actually film it that way was almost unbelievable.
I still use my own mental image of most of the characters when I read the books now. But I always had a great big elf-shaped gap in my mind when I tried to picture Elrond. He was the only character I could never, ever get a clear physical image of, so I'm glad the movies filled that in adequately for me.
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