My Collection: The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook

When a relatively unknown director from New Zealand announced he was bringing “The Lord of the Rings” to the big screen and, not only that, he wanted to keep to the original material as much as possible, it was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm by the fantasy fan community. Over the years the production would post regular updates to the “lordoftherings.net” web site building up anticipation that it would be quite special indeed.

Peter Jackson wanted to be as faithful to the original material as possible but also pay attention to the fan community which he knew would be key to it's success. In this he recruited two famous fantasy artists as concept artists in the films: Alan Lee and John Howe. They are both well known in fantasy fandom for their visions of middle earth so it was a perfect fit.

In August 2005, Glasgow was host to the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”) where Alan Lee attended as “Special Guest Artist”. This was the second WorldCon I had attended in Glasgow so I was in my own element, very much getting into the convention community by attending loads of events, masquerade, the art show and, of course, the parties. I had thought it might be nice to get Lee's autograph but the queue during his signing session was so long that I reluctantly had to pass. I simply did not have the time to spend in a line waiting for the great man's monogram but I did catch his interview on the Saturday afternoon where he talked about his work on the three films as well as what it was like living and working in New Zealand, what he thought of Peter Jackson and his work on the more recent film, King Kong, also by Jackson.

On the Sunday of the convention I happened to spot Lee seated talking to someone in the art show hall. So, thinking quickly, I had to act fast – I ran over to the convention desk where they had convention merchandise for sale and bought his latest (small) coffee-table book, “The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook” which reveals in pictures and in words how Lee created the watercolor paintings for the special centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings book. These are the images that Jackson saw and inspired him in the creation of the films. The book is filled with more than 150 of Lee's sketches and early conceptual art showing how the project progressed from idea to completion. It also contains several full-page paintings reproduced in full colour, together with numerous examples of previously unseen conceptual art produced for the films and many new works drawn specially for this book.

Hurrying back with my prize, I was happy to see he was still there so I struck up a conversation with him about his talk the other day and kindly requested he sign my book. A few minutes into our chat a young lady artist approached Lee to tell him she was not familiar with his work. He dutifully started a sketch…in my book beside his autograph! A wonderful little sketch of the famous wizard Gandalf.

I sat quietly waiting while he continued talking to the young woman and drawing, mesmerized by his work. At the end he came out of it, like in a daze, realizing what he had done in the book in front of him and told me that I was very lucky indeed. I graciously thanked the great man and walked away, clutching my prize close as he continued to talk to the young artist.

I have had many books signed over the years. Some have been accompanied by small, witty sayings, others with even a small doodle, but this is the first I have ever received a signature accompanied, frankly, by a miniature work of art signed by such an amazing and kind artist. I will treasure it always.

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Later, when the second set of Peter Jackson films, the Hobbit trilogy, Lee would go onto follow up his “The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook” with, of course, “The Hobbit Sketchbook” which again features his art set in middle earth. This time I did not have it signed in person, so I have a slightly less personal autograph in my copy.