Lord of the Rings - Sketches

In 1999, I had the good fortune of being asked to work on Peter Jackson's, Lord of the Rings trilogy. After initially turning down the job (I was under contract with DreamWorks at the time), my wife talked me into accepting the offer. So on July 18th, which in New Zealand is the dead of winter, we left our home in sunny Southern California, bound for Middle Earth.

Initially, I was hired to be a Production Illustrator. But later, I was asked to be the Visual Effects Art Director, as well as the Scenic Unit Director. I would be lying if I said it was anything less than a dream job!

Below are some of the small color roughs I did for the films. Visit my Portfolio Page to see some of my final illustrations. You may have seen some of these images in the "Art Of LOTR" books, but sadly, the color reproductions in those books were terrible. This is what they were supposed to look like.

Unless otherwise noted, these are all acrylic painting.

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