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The Marquis de Leech

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3 hours ago, AlpenglowMemories said:

I feel like this is the best depiction of Ulmo we've gotten yet. Granted, my mind  immediately goes to the Nasmith rendition of this scene - the one that has a very pulp 70s/80s feel to it....

Searching around online, I found this one, which I quite like:

https://img00.deviantart.net/c092/i/2015/105/b/5/ulmo_appears_before_tuor_by_leone_art-d7yzkj1.jpg

A shame that Tuor's standing so awkwardly.

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I like both of those,  though I think Lee's recent version reigns supreme. Generally speaking, Tolkien art tends to have spectacular architecture and natural worlds, but is often inconsistent on the people depictions. Nasmith is the worst offender of that. There's some bizarre looking images of the Fellowship out there from him.  It's a shame because of how wonderfully he captures the environments. 

Also, any update on  what this book contains? I'm trying not get too excited about new material. 

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19 hours ago, AlpenglowMemories said:

I like both of those,  though I think Lee's recent version reigns supreme. Generally speaking, Tolkien art tends to have spectacular architecture and natural worlds, but is often inconsistent on the people depictions. Nasmith is the worst offender of that. There's some bizarre looking images of the Fellowship out there from him.  It's a shame because of how wonderfully he captures the environments. 

Also, any update on  what this book contains? I'm trying not get too excited about new material. 

There is still no further insight into what's in it, outside of what we discussed back in May.

On the topic of that Ulmo rendition, it is indeed gorgeous. For me it rivals and probably surpasses the Nasmith one, which I would still put second.

http://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/ulmo-appears-before-tuor/

 

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I think there's a good reason why Nasmith's ASoIaF artwork doesn't have any characters in it. It's not his forte, although I have some fondness for his Tom Bombadil that strongly resembles Patrick Rothfuss.

That does remind me that of the Big Three Tolkien artists, two of them have done ASoIaF as well (Howe did the limited edition of Clash of Kings). I'd be interested to see Lee take a crack at it.

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Nasmith, Howe and Lee are all so very good at what they do, Tolkien fandom is blessed to have such great work being produced by them. 

Nasmith and Howe are my favourites on the whole. That said Lee's more recent work appeals to me much more than his earlier work, so all the illustrations he's done for Beren and Luthien and Children of Hurin, quite excellent, as well as all his stuff that is in The Hobbit Chronicles artbooks by WETA. Highly recommended those books btw, great work by some of the WETA artists that are lesser known to us.

BTW for those interested, pretty cool new book released on Tolkien, aims to be very inclusive, lots of new stuff in it apparently, titled Maker of Middle Earth.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1851244859/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

As for artists, Donato Giancola has a book out with his Middle Earth paintings. I have it. Some of it is very good but on some others the faces are really off. His face of Gandalf is different for each painting for instance. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2018/08/master-his-universe-warnings-jrr-tolkien-s-novels

Dismissed as reactionary fantasy and even labelled fascist, Tolkien’s novels told of the corrupting influence of power. He deserves to be taken seriously, now more than ever. 

Interesting read, especially in a time when the Stormfront types are crawling out of the woodwork. (I remember finding their "Saruman is the Jewish Elite" thread a long time ago, yeesh) and LOTR seems a work either unfortunately embraced by far-right or sometimes even given to them by the left. 

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On ‎8‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 6:33 PM, AlpenglowMemories said:

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2018/08/master-his-universe-warnings-jrr-tolkien-s-novels

Dismissed as reactionary fantasy and even labelled fascist, Tolkien’s novels told of the corrupting influence of power. He deserves to be taken seriously, now more than ever. 

Interesting read, especially in a time when the Stormfront types are crawling out of the woodwork. (I remember finding their "Saruman is the Jewish Elite" thread a long time ago, yeesh) and LOTR seems a work either unfortunately embraced by far-right or sometimes even given to them by the left. 

As far as I can tell, people who enjoy LOTR come from all sort of different political persuasions.

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17 minutes ago, SeanF said:

As far as I can tell, people who enjoy LOTR come from all sort of different political persuasions.

I think when you look at the extreme ends, it's probably true that the far right has interpreted Tolkien as being much more in their favor than the far left has. Authors of the more outspokenly left variety, such as Michael Moorcock and China Meville, have both at various points espoused the view (with some considerable vigor, at times, and little nuance) that Tolkien's work is unabashedly politically regressive (Meville has since pulled back on his most intemperate remarks).

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1 hour ago, Ran said:

I think when you look at the extreme ends, it's probably true that the far right has interpreted Tolkien as being much more in their favor than the far left has. Authors of the more outspokenly left variety, such as Michael Moorcock and China Meville, have both at various points espoused the view (with some considerable vigor, at times, and little nuance) that Tolkien's work is unabashedly politically regressive (Meville has since pulled back on his most intemperate remarks).

When I read Michael Moorcock's essay about "Epic Pooh", I had the impression that he'd read a completely different version of the Lord of the Rings to mine.

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I don't know if this has been mentioned here but Is GRRM throwing shade at Tolkein?

Quote

Most of the stories you hear about dragons are fodder for fools. Talking dragons, dragons hoarding gold and gems, dragons with four legs and bellies big as elephants, dragons riddling with sphinxes...

 

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On ‎7‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 10:18 PM, HelenaExMachina said:

I promised myself I wouldn’t buy it but damn if that isn’t gorgeous. Alan Lee is always quality but phew!

I love both, especially the picture of Gondolin, which reminds me of the Alhambra.

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2 hours ago, kleevedge said:

I don't know if this has been mentioned here but Is GRRM throwing shade at Tolkein?

 

Not at all. George loves Tolkien. It's just having fun with the tropes he chose not to use.

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