How Do You Envision Middle-Earth?

[The Saucepan Man]

This is rapidly turning into one of my favourite threads. I hope that many more BD'ers put up examples of their favourite (and least favourite) artwork. I have seen many of these images before, but it is interesting to hear what you make of them, why you like them etc.

Lorien I thought was going to be brighter, it was very dark in the film.

Gorwingel, I agree with you. I deliberately left Lothlorien off my list. I understand that Jackson & co wanted to make it a dark place, so as not to lift the tension too much. Also it ties in with the attitude of Gimli, and also the Rohirrim, towards the place - that it was an dangerous place to be shunned. But, I thought it looked rather like the film set that it was, and not at all like the golden place that I had imagined.

As for the visulaisation of the races, again the films largely reflect how I had originally imagined them. I agree, Bill, that the Hobbits should have larger heads (sort of human size but with smaller bodies), but the fact that they do not doesn't really show up except when we see the nine members of the Fellowship in a "group shot" at Rivendell.

I was not overly keen on the film portrayal of the Elves. As I have said on another thread, I always imagined them to be more "other-worldly" and less human-looking, rather than slightly effeminate with long blonde hair (sorry again all you Legolas and Haldir fans [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img] ). But then again, it would have been difficult to portray them much differently on film without more CGIs. And, anyway, I have never really seen any images of Elves which portrayed them the way I imagined them.

The rather evil-looking faces that Ted Nasmith gives to his Hobbits have always troubled me. I feel the same about Alan Lee's characters, who all seem to have rather hard features. But both do portray the landscapes and locations very well.

Bill, I like the colour and life that Darryl Sweet brings to his pictures, and the Eagle's Eyrie is great, although he does make Bilbo look a bit like a middle-aged accounts clerk, and isn't that Theoden in Thranduil's throne? [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

One thought that occurs to me is that, while views vary greatly on the artwork generated by Tolkien's works, the visualisation in the films seems to connect by and large with most fans of his work. I wonder why this is.

Anyway, I really am looking forward to seeing some more great artwork on this thread.