Alan Lee (1)Kirja-arvosteluja

Desde su publicación en 1937, varias generaciones de lectores han sucumbido al hechizo de El Hobbit. Esa magia se reavivó sesenta años después, cuando Alan Lee recibió el encargo de realizar una edición especial ilustrada, y sus delicados dibujos a lápiz y hermosas acuarelas se han convertido para muchos en la visión definitiva de la Tierra Media de J. R. R. Tolkien.

Alan Lee nos revela, por medio de imágenes y palabras, cómo creó las maravillosas ilustraciones que acabarían por servir de inspiración a la trilogía cinematográfica de Peter Jackson y le proporcionarían el codiciado Oscar de la Academia.

El Señor de los Anillos. Cuaderno de bocetos nos brinda un fascinante periplo por la imaginación del hombre que retrató con imágenes la visión de Tolkien, primero sobre el papel y luego en las tres dimensiones de la gran pantalla.

Este libro contiene primeros esbozos y más de 150 dibujos, algunos de ellos inéditos, producidos para las películas, así como muchas obras nuevas creadas especialmente para este libro.

It's a wonderful book! It not only presents beautiful art of Alan Lee but also documents his work on the Lord of the Rings movie sets, paying tribute to a host of people working on visual aspects of these movies, from miniatures makers to gardeners.

First things first, the art is amazing. Book presents only a fraction of over 2500 drawings made by Alan Lee during the production of the movies and I loved the selected pieces. Some allow to admire how tirelessly teams of people worked to faithfully translate detailed drawings to real objects, others show explorations of ideas that were discarded in the process, and some are a testament to a franctic production schedule, showing that the artist had to deliver what was necessary and skip the rest. There are also several illustrations made for books, where readers can see the process that allowed to find their final shape.

The second theme of the book is craft. Alan Lee is a devoted reader of the source books, following Tolkien's inspirations and studying Norse sagas, Celtic myths, and medivial history. I loved how humble and open he is when writing about his skills. For instance, he openly states that drawing anatomy, be it humans or horses, is still a chalenge for him and he will cover difficult parts with shields or by adding foreground characters if he can't make them look right.

The last theme of the book is the participation in a 6 years long project where deadlines are tight, nights are short, and a lot of effort goes unnoticed in the final product. There is a deep sense of pride and satisfaction, but the author doesn't shy away from the difficult parts of this job. Even though I watched all the extras on DVDs I was not aware of how engaged he was in the production and post-production of the movies.

It is a great book for any LOTR fan, books and movies alike, as well as for artists who'd like to understand how work on a filmset could look like. Probably, there won't be any filmset like this one anymore, which makes me sad and at the same time grateful for the fact we experienced the LOTR movies being made.

Loved it. Amazing.

Not surprised this has a high rating because the kind of person who would pick up this book is of course gonna love it. Very nice and cozy, and gives me the same feeling that watching the extra material on the DVDs: that the great tragedy of my life is that I didn't get to work on these movies in any capacity.

Los castillos más famosos de las leyendas, los mitos, y la fantasía a través de las sugerentes ilustraciones de Alan Lee.

Beautiful sketches.

Gorgeous book, though.

This book was one of my favorites in my mother's personal library. From a very young age, I loved studying the illustrations and, later, reading the descriptions. As much as I loved the pretty faeries, I was fascinated even more so by the evil, ugly ones that terrified me (though I couldn't look away). So nostalgic for this book...

It's been many years since I read this classic volume of faerie lore by Froud and Lee, but it still is a complete delight. AS a more adult reader, its helter skelter compilation becomes more stark, but this random design choice pairs well with the equally helter skelter nature of faerie itself and gives the author-illustrators free reign to let their imaginations run wild. I really must delve back into Froud's work, as it is one of my favourite artistic sub-genres, and work a bit harder at getting my hands on more of Lee's work as well. Besides this volume, I really only know him as one of the early illustrators of Tolkien, but I am sure that he must have done a lot more over the years!

I know Alan Lee's work from his collaboration with Brian Froud (Faeries), but I had no idea that he was so involved with the artistic direction of the Lord of the Rings films! Seeing how bother projects are steeped in mythology I can see the correlation between them, and I applaud Peter Jackson for choosing Lee because his artistic range and style fit Tolkien's work so well. There is a balance between delicacy and harshness, war and nature, human and supernatural in Lee's aesthetic that gives his drawings and painting (and the films in turn) a sense of reality that many other artists may not have been able to capture. Incredible work overall!

I saw this in the library yesterday and remembered reading this book many years ago. I looked at the pictures again - this is a beautiful book! It was definitely worth looking at again.

Las ilustraciones de este libro proceden de la mano de Alan Lee, el más mítico ilustrador de "El Señor de los Anillos" y toda su pléyade, y en las que Peter Jackson se inspiró para los personajes, ambientación, paisajes e imágeners en general que presenta en sus películas.

I'm finally getting around to reading the Silmarillion side tales Tolkien worked on but never published in his lifetime, and I can say this for certain:

This one is a lot smoother than Beren and Luthien.

In fact, it just comes across as a collection of quite readable short stories following the line of Húrin from the First Age fighting Melkor in the north with its dragons, balrogs, and orcs action to the later days when all the grey elves were cut off from their folk and had to deal with the rise of man.

Primarily, however, we get a very character-oriented tale of misunderstood heroism and bullish pride and survival in hostile lands. A tale of falling from a great height, winding up lower than anyone else. :)

Quite good. Fascinating. But I wouldn't really recommend this for anyone other than fans of LotR and the Silmarillion. It's quite readable, but the story might come off as ... something usual. :)

Fascinating text and illustrations - but no contents list, no index! And it would indeed be hard to devise these, as there are also no page numbers. So it's very difficult in this long, large book to find what you want. This reduces its rating for me from a full five stars.½

I've had this book (I think) since 2004, and I still read though it from time to time. It's basically an art book mythology encyclopedia. It shows beautifully drawn types of Faery "species", along with where they live, or tend to live, their powers, their temperaments, and so on. Mixed in are various stories and legends about the different Faeries as well.

A beautiful book that's entertaining for both children and adults.

Wow.

Whilst the other book I've read like this (Goblins!) might have been rather child-orientated and lack-lustre, this one definitely isn't. It has beautiful drawings that make me want to punch everyone around me for being so good, and the information is genuine folklore fact (if such a thing exists).

VIDEO VERSION:

Faeries by Brian Froud

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Faeries by Brian Froud is unique among any books I've ever read. The book is part reference manual, part artist sketchbook, part short story compendium, and some would dare say, part anthropological fieldguide. Faeries isn't a book that can be neatly tucked into a tidy description. Like the author Brian Froud, Faeries is truly in a class by itself.

Written and illustrated by Brian Froud and Alan Lee (mostly known for his conceptual design work on The Lord of The Rings films and his uncredited design of Legend by Ridley Scott), Brian is a world-renown fantasy artist and author of several books featuring his second-sight hypnogogic images of the realms of faerie. In addition to his wonderful illustrative talents, Brian Froud is also responsible for the conceptual design of timeless films such as Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. He also worked on the wonderful Jim Henson television series The Storyteller.

During the summer of 2003, I had the great honor of meeting Brian Froud, two days in a row. The first time we met was at the illustrious Labyrinth Masquerade Ball (which took place in Santa Monica that year) and the next time we met was at a little curio shop where he was doing a book signing, I believe somewhere over in Brentwood.

Wonderful gentleman. At the Masquerade Ball, I hung out with Brian, and his lovely wife Wendy, and I chatted with their son Toby for a time as well. Wendy is an incredible artist in her own right, helping design characters such as Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back and the gelflings Jen and Kira in The Dark Crystal. Wendy and I discovered that I actually used to take family vacations up near the little town in Michigan where she was born, Traverse City. We reminisced about that for awhile and had a great chat. We hung out for a good hour or so, just talking. That was when they told me about the signing the next day and invited me to come along. Strangely enough, no one seemed to recognize Brian or Wendy Froud, so they weren't being swarmed by people pleading for autographs or anything. We were kicking back in a little lounge area, all by ourselves, overlooking a wrought-iron balcony onto hundreds of people who were milling about on the dancefloor and socializing in other parts of the ball.

The next day, I arrived at the book signing about 2 hours early, because I wasn't interested in getting anything signed, but I simply wanted to hang out with Brian and Wendy again. And it was wonderful because, once again, no one had shown up yet. We had the shop all to ourselves on a quiet Saturday morning and we sat around having a charming conversation in this quaint and lovely little store for a good hour or so. And that was it. I never kept in touch with the Froud family. I never saw them or met them again. On two unassuming summer days in 2003 in Los Angeles, I just had one pleasant evening and one serene morning of hanging out with some of the greatest fantasy artists of my time.

I know what you're thinking.

You're wondering why the hell I'm talking about hanging out with Brian Froud when this is supposed to be a review of his Faeries book. What does my stupid Hollywood namedropping have to do with the book? Right? But talking about hanging out with Brian Froud does make for a legitimate review of the Faeries book, because his visionary talent ties into who he is as a person, as well as the artwork of the book. When an author like myself is writing a novel, that's a makebelieve story that may only reflect a fractional facet of my own personality. Faeries is the type of book that reflects an integral part of who Brian Froud happens to be. So, telling you that he and I shared a delightful discussion during a magical moment is very relevant to reviewing Faeries.

Faeries has been in print for over 20 years and for good reason. Faeries is an endless well of inspiration, influencing the imagination of tattoo artists and novelists alike. Brian Froud images have ended up on the hips of beautiful women and the Celtic legends have imbued novels like my own. The stories and faerie tales contained in Faeries are dreamy and compelling and stand as an enchanting combination of newly invented fiction combined with age old folklore. The artwork is enrapturing and every pencil-line, every brush-stroke promises to reveal new secrets each time the book is opened. You will constantly find yourself discovering a treasure trove of images and imaginings you never saw before. Imbued with the magic to constantly unveil itself to you, the book is something you will return to again and again. Because the images hold such richness and detail, everytime you read the book, it will feel like you are opening up to pages you had never noticed before.

Movies like Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal and Legend are loathed and derided by most of the world because most of the world is filled with zombies and devils and those who are dead to all magic. The few of us who love these movies and these worlds are of a different breed. Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal and Legend speak to a very particular and peculiar type of person. Those films are still cherished as the favorite movies of certain people, even 30 years after they were made. To me, that kind of ageless appeal correlates directly to the spirit imbued into those motion pictures though the magic of Brian Froud's vision. Brian Froud sees the world in a way that all of us instinctively understood as children, yet we soon forget. Brian has never forgotten. Brian never lost sight of how the world looked when we were still young enough to know that magic truly exists. Only when we become older do we become stupid and uneducated and robbed of our wisdom. As children, we are still insightful enough to recall what the world really looks like. That is why all of Brian Froud's artwork looks so familiar. From movies to television to books like Faeries, we have all seen these worlds before. We know them. We remember them. Somewhere in our collective subconscious, we remember when The Crystal cracked. We were there when the Skeksis and the Mystics appeared. We have been lost in that very same labyrinth before. We know those walls. We can still feel their texture.

How is it that we know those things?

Why do we remember that stuff?

How does Brian Froud recall enough to reconstruct those dreamscapes on movie sets and in the pages of Faeries?

Pick up a copy of Faeries for yourself and you'll start to find the answers. I'm willing to bet the images will all look a little familiar to you. You've seen these seelie and unseelie courts before. In dreams. In nightmares. In childhood memories you're not sure really happened or did you make them up? You know you've seen these creatures somewhere before. For some of us, you'll love a book like Faeries, because it always reminds you of home.

I loved looking at these beautiful drawings and reading the fairy tales as a child. My son loves looking at it today. A timeless book that provides a fascinating glimpse into a magical world I only wish were real.

A stunning look into the world of faeries brought to you by the incomparable Brian Froud and Alan Lee. Not only is it visually stunning but the "history" of Faeries contained within is fascinating. It is a must have for any fantasy lover.

Absolutely stunning illustrations and beautifully put together. Interesting (if possibly not really real...?!!) information about the world of faeries. I do beleive in fairies, i do i do..!

This was not only enchanting, but delightful as well. The illustrations are lovely. The author made it an identification book of sorts, not only defining various sprites, but also including tales from many parts of the British isles of faerie. A lovely and imaginative book.½

Incredible artwork from one of today's greats.

Whether we are aware of it or not faeries have, for as long as can be remembered, always played a part in the daily lives of men, women and especially children. For as far back as can be remembered there have been stories, ballads and legends of faeries and their ability to connect with the nature on the planet and the nature of man. Though not always with the most desired of results, for as many stories as there are of faeries bringing messages of love and friendship there are also stories of torment and death.

It is perhaps the dualistic nature of these elusive beings that has drawn so many to them and their kind over the years. Within these pages the history, wisdom and playfulness of faeries can be explored, and hidden within each image beauty and inspiration are found. But whether your seeking wisdom, inspiration, or just a simplistic beauty in their existence, Fairies is a guide to the impossible made possible, the magic in wonder, and to a race of beings who, having always existed, are seen not through the eyes but through the heart and mind.

Faeries, thirty years after the original, has been done up all new and golden, but there is more to this book then just a new cover. Inside this deluxe edition you will find more images, more stories and more faeries to take you deeper into the world of faery then you have ever been before. This magical book has so much to offer whether you are just curious about faeries, whether you are an avid faery lover, or whether you are seeking guidance from those elusive and captivating creatures. Not only a must for Brian Froud and Alan Lee fans but also for those with a passion for the faeries and for beautiful art.