Meeting Alan Lee was most assuredly one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The evening, however, didn’t begin as such. After a horrid day at work, I braved weather that would have made Bilbo groan with musings on his hobbit hole and met my fellows at what we thought was the correct theater in Chelsea. We only then discovered that the Alan Lee event was to take place down the block. We apologize most heartily for the error, but the information passed around on this event was incorrect. Shame on you Moviefone! We did make it in plenty of time. And, upon arrival, along with one of our esteemed friends from Houghton Mifflin, Mr. Lee was there welcoming fans.

As a writer, to say I am at a loss for words to express the intensity of meeting this extraordinary artist and human being, is rather cliché. Yet, to meet the single person, aside from Tolkien himself, who has so vastly shaped my imagination is truly overwhelming, and quite remarkable. My first collector’s edition of The Lord of the Rings, given to me when I graduated high-school, was the Centenary edition illustrated by this master artist. To have him simply walk over to our seats, and those other Alan Lee enthusiasts sitting around us, and modestly introduce himself, was astonishing. Before I get into my humble transcription of this most remarkable evening, I must take a moment to not only thank Mr. Lee for giving us so many years of his wonderful art and for taking the time to speak to us and to his other fans, but also to thank our friends at Houghton Mifflin for the opportunity to meet Alan Lee and present him with a small token of our gratitude: a lifetime membership to Heren Istarion. And, finally, to thank one of our members, Dennis Reulbach, for helping us with his impromtu skills of photography. I apologize for any error in the transcription of Mr. Lee’s direct quotes. I did try my best.

“Peter Jackson had been scouring the earth looking for this man: Alan Lee. As soon as we heard that, we knew the films were in good hands,” said our friend, Corporate Vice President and Director of Market Trade & Reference for Houghton Mifflin Company, Bridget Marmion, as she formally introduced this amazing artist. Alan Lee, as humble a hobbit as you would like to meet, began by asking the audience to please “let him know” if he droned on a bit too long, or made our “eyes glaze over,” since he had never taken part in anything like this event before: speaking to a mass number of people about his art on the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings was uncharted territory.

Born and raised in London, he spoke about how he has been enchanted by myth and folklore since early childhood. Inspired by Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, master illustrators of the 19th century, book illustration became his passion. Some illustrated works his brush graced were The Moon's Revenge and Faeries. In the mid 1980’s one of his illustrated works, Castles, was picked up by British publishers of Tolkien.. And, speaking of Tolkien, he had first read The Lord of the Rings at the age of 17. But, it was this book, Castles, that allowed Mr. Lee to explore many ideas that led to his illustrations of Middle-earth. Later on in the evening, he referred to this book as the germination for ideas concerning the anxiously awaited Helm’s Deep and Minas Tirith.

Castles piqued the interest of the Tolkien Estate. When Mr. Lee approached them about illustrating Tolkien-related projects, the primary concern of the Tolkien Estate was that the Hobbits be well represented. Pencil drawings were submitted to Christopher Tolkien, he was pleased, and Alan Lee began a lengthy career shaping our world’s visions of Middle-earth.

The eighties and nineties saw Alan Lee working on early stages of Ridley Scott’s Legend, as well as on early production drawings for Hallmark’s Merlin. But, how did he move from illustrating Middle-earth to living Middle-earth? As he was sitting in his studio, more than four years ago, he received a package from Peter Jackson inviting him to become involved in the project. Mr. Lee immediately telephoned Jackson and accepted the job. Little did he know that almost five years later, he would still be involved with The Lord of the Rings, with yet another year of post-production to look forward to for Return of the King.

Background being dispensed with, the lights were dimmed and the magic was revealed in the form of slides right from pages of Mr. Lee’s personal sketchbook for The Lord of the Rings, along with hundreds of the thousands of drawings he did for the films. Not to sound cliché, but this evening truly was a visual journey through The Lord of the Rings, with special “sneak peeks” into The Two Towers.

The first amazing image, I think was one of my absolute favorites. It was a picture of a real life book, that looked as though it would have been at home on the shelf of the castle/library from The Name of the Rose, or secreted away in one of the hidden vaults beneath the Vatican. With explicit reminders of the breathtaking Bibles commissioned in the Middle ages, this book was just one of the many. “Lots of books were created, in order to bring a larger depth to the world [of Middle-earth].” And, in stylized rune-like depiction on the cover was the White Hand motif of Saruman. Too bad flash photography was frowned upon. But, hopefully my words will do it a little justice. Even though we only saw two pages in the movie –those giving us the Doors of Moria and the Balrog’s happy smiling face—Mr. Lee didn’t know if Peter Jackson would have Saruman flipping through the book during any given scene, so multiple pages were illustrated. Throughout what I believe amounted to seven double-sided pages of original Alan Lee artistry, were Saruman’s philosophies and musings –concerning the breaking of white into many colors and the breeding of his new race of beings: the Uruk-Hai. All of these philosophies were translated into Elvish by one of the many talented and marvelous “chaps” that took part in the linguistic side to the film. “He would just sort of give it to me, already translated, of course, and I would copy it.” When an audience member asked Mr. Lee what a particular line meant, in reference to a beautiful kaleidoscope image of a white star, surrounded with shards of colors in a circle, inspired by Leonardo DaVinci, Mr. Lee said, “I haven’t the faintest idea. It looks intriguing, though, doesn’t it? Sometimes it’s just best to bluff. It’s all about the bluff.”

What came next on this marvelous journey were sketches for Bilbo’s Book, some sketches of the Fellowship, and outside cover. I cannot express how humbling this man’s art is, and how I, along with everyone in attendance on that rainy Thursday evening (along with hundreds who could not make it there) would snap these sketches up quicker than Legolas could blink if they came to print (hint hint Houghton Mifflin). Because, here is a breathtaking artistry that words cannot describe. Here also is a plethora of Middle-earth culture that shouldn’t be left to gather dust in some archive or warehouse. Every particle of everything drawn by Alan Lee has an ounce of his soul poured into it. The evidence was in ever slide and every painting every seen by him.

To get back to the slideshow…

What followed were a series of photos, I believe that were taken by Alan Lee on exploring locations for The Lord of the Rings. With regard to a picture, including ”Peter Jackson, John Howe, Alan Lee, taken on the hill that Mr. Lee affectionately called “Weathertop,” Alan Lee laughingly said: “There always seemed be nine of us for some reason. It just worked out that way.” The next picture was of “P.J.” and Grant Major, in a row boat upon what was to become the inspiration for the Dead Marshes. Mr. Lee told a brief story about how when the helicopter landed, “this sort of metallic thing was projected out of the marsh, flew into the air, and landed a few feet from us. It turned out to be a row boat and we began rowing around… but the idea of landing a full crew there was daunting, so the Dead Marshes were built.” Even so, the “hands on” approach of Director Peter Jackson and the hordes of others involved in The Lord of the Rings, including Alan Lee, John Howe, and Richard Taylor, contributed to the sheer depth and range of these films. The very fact that they were all in “the Wild” helped with their vision of Middle-earth. As Alan Lee mentioned while looking at slides of mountain ranges and the other places of wondrous purity that abound in New Zealand, “It’s a pity Tolkien didn’t live to see it.” I think he would have been pleased.

While viewing sketches of Hobbiton, Mr. Lee let out a mini-secret, “John designed Bag End and the Green Dragon. I did the other hobbit holes and gardens. …[Hobbiton] was one of the most enjoyable locations.” An audience member pointed out that the hobbit holes were shaped like an eye. But, Mr. Lee had to admit, as did many of us, that he had “never thought of that.” In Hobbiton, “there were 27 hobbit houses.”

We got to see some sketches of Bree, where an idea of a Hobbit bedroom was created by Mr. Lee, in keeping with the book. The room was complete with a double door (two halves), so that it gave the impression is was “built especially for hobbits,” but the idea and sketch were abandoned.

With the sketches of Rivendell, we were told that “P.J. never found a perfect location…. No where combined all the qualities: gorge, waterfall, woodland. Perhaps it was too ideal. …The set was built close to Wellington. … The statues polystyrene, then plastered and painted. … Thousands of sketches were done, every single detail was covered from every angle. These sketches are but a very few.” One aspect of Rivendell that Mr. Lee particularly enjoyed was “the Elven style of decoration, with lots of flowing lines… but with a level of permanence … as if they were there for thousands of years … of a civilization in its last stages leaving Middle Earth, with a sense of prevailing melancholy”

Another abandoned idea that we were privy to in its sketch form, was the throne of Elrond, set into a tree’s roots. “The idea of filming actors around all these tree roots was a little daunting.” Before it was built, “every tree was measured so that the Rivendell set could be built around this densely packed woodland.

What followed were sketches and pictures of Moria. One of the first was a “picture of Peter as a tiny speck upon the Moria mountainside, looking for the exit. PJ was very hands on.”
Mr. Lee discussed the specifics of Moria: “The Dwarvish architecture style was very geometric, no arches… a very crystalline style… very art deco, to offset the Elvish style which was very art nouveau. …The Great Chamber [of the Dwarrowdelf] was entirely computer generated. In the end, it follows the sketches very closely. …We actually built a few of these pillars. We built three. They were enormous…”

The subsequent slides were: “The steps toward Khazad-Dum… [they were] very briefly described in the book as a series of passages or stairs. But, that was all. So we came up with this idea,” The slide was a pencil sketch of what we later see in the movie as the precipice of stairs that the Fellowship flee across, with the flames of the Balrog in hot pursuit. “And, I put these cracks in the stairs, not knowing what use Peter would put it to… but he would always find some use and delight us all…”

When discussing the idea of Gollum, “He actually appears in the first film. When discussing ideas for how he would appear, we were playing around with ideas of him climbing up bits of scaffold, or flying onto ropes of buckets, but we actually came up with an idea that was sensible.”

With the sketches of Orthanc was my other favorite of the evening. The first slide was a pencil sketch of the Throne Chamber: “I plunked a wizard down in there… in a place where a crazy guy would feel at home. So I thought with all these great blank, glittering spaces, we needed an orcish cleaner with a mop and broom” And, lo’ and behold, to the right of the seated wizard in the center of the sketch (the wizard was done “before Chris Lee was chosen to portray Saruman”), was an orc, slop bucket in hand, mopping the floor! And who said artists don’t have a sense of humor?!

Another point that was made clear by Mr. Lee. “You’ll notice the White hand of Saruman on the doors. In the film, when they close on Gandalf, they were very clearly there, stopping him.” Further slides were of the gardens of Orthanc. With some relief to the tree-lovers in the audience, Mr. Lee spoke about the orcish spree of destruction that enrages the Ents: “the chopping down of the trees were computer generated. I enjoyed the paths from an overhead view, which were made to look like a magical symbol.” Again, Leonardo DaVinci and a medieval alchemaic idea could be seen in Mr. Lee’s influences.

Successive sketches were of Lothlorien: “Here we see the early stages of a flet. We made the flets to look like giant leaves.” Unfortunately, perhaps owing to a touch of sleep deprivation, I thought the early flets looked like slices of Swiss cheese. But, those were before Alan Lee and “PJ” hit on the idea of making them appear like giant Mallorn leaves.

“The interior of Caras Galadhon was a long process, getting the right mixture of organic. In the end the building had a flowerlike appearance, so they didn’t look like something from Swiss Family Robinson.” One way to relieve the pressure of getting Lothlorien “perfect” was when he began “concentrating on the trees rather than the architecture. And, slowly the architecture became more of a presence.” When showing sketches of Galadriel’s glade, and what amounted to a sketch of the clay model, the artist was asked (by the same frisky audience member who pointed out the similarity between a Hobbit hole and an eye) how much computer effects were used with the actors. Mr. Lee responded, “while Galadriel was augmented with some computer generated effects…they put a light show up behind her… Ms. Blanchett could have pulled off the moment without the aid of special effects… generally we tried to keep the actors separate from the computer.” But, he added, that “PJ… was highly effective” in his interpretation onto film.

When speaking of the Elven Armor, Mr. Lee discussed the “luxury of having Peter come in to see the drawings, story boards, that I, John and the other artists of WETA had at the end of each day. It was sort of like college. We’d put the designs on the wall and talk and discuss, and get very useful feedback from Peter.”

Various other sketches and pictures: “This is an elf..[another slide is shown]… “this isn’t an elf. It’s a Ringwraith as seen from the wraith world with their hoods off, and with distorted faces.” Sketches of Sauron’s helm from varying perspectives followed. “They’d built a very beautiful set of armor for Sauron, but the helmet was eluding them. So Richard [Taylor] asked me to do it.” The wizard staves: “Here are Gandalf’s, he had three because he keeps losing them.” And, Minas Tirith: “The whole Gondorian culture would have evolved into a sort of Byzantine state.” The sketches for the various Numenorian statues dotting the landscape at the breaking of the Fellowship: “You’ll recognize that huge disembodied head as it figures in the scene with Frodo and Boromir. We wanted to give Amon Hen a feeling of sort of Delphi: a ritual site fallen into ruin.”

A rather playful photo of sixteen of the art dept loading a battering ram onto a flatbed: “you’d think the props department would make a battering ram out of a material that could be handled by a couple of guys. But no, they went whole hog, and created a battering ram that could actually bring a castle down.”

More photos followed of the geniuses that WETA Workshop gathered to further create and deepen visions of Middle-earth. A particularly memorable “character” was a seemingly tall gothic/surfer type, tattooed and pierced with long raven dreds speckled with beads and bits of blonde, “ Here’s Stu…One of the armorists— With him it was sort of like visiting Vulcan in his forge.” With respect to the intensity and massive range of what these people accomplished there at what seems like the very edge of the world (from New York City at any rate), Mr. Lee commented: “the quality of detail sometimes you barely see, but it all lends to the feeling that you're really there… and it probably helped the actors… since so much detail escaped the camera.”

The closing sketches were of Meduseld and Edoras: “Tolkien had very much had in mind the Hall of Hrothgar [from Beowulf ] when he described this hall. … We found the most fantastic location for Meduseld in the South Islands. It would have been wonderful for Tolkien to have seen it, here at the foot of these mountains. It was just as he described it… The fantastic sculptors, the Mowri, really threw themselves into their work. They thoroughly enjoyed this new culture. Now, one is attempting to bring this Celtic Middle-earthly feel to his boat building business. Well, I wish him luck”. The very last sketch was Peter Jackson drawn as a hobbit. “I thought it rather appropriate for him to be one of Frodo’s ancestors.”

After the slide show, a short film on what’s coming up in The Two Tower’s was shown. This film, like the one on the DVD, began and ended with “PJ” driving in his car, speaking to the camera. Following this was the trailer. Alan Lee expressed slight chagrin, with a laugh of course, that “It [wasn’t] the new one.”

And, rather than close the evening on a lecturey sort of note, Mr. Lee ended with a nice lengthy Q&A Session with the audience. The first question was a rather un-artful attempt to get Mr. Lee to divulge some Entish specifics by feebly mentioning that “Fangorn isn’t seen much [in The Two Towers]. But, Mr. Lee wisely said, “Oh, you see Fangorn. Yes, you do see quite a bit of him in fact.”  Other questions that were much more, ahem, shall we say of a ‘better’ sort are to follow. I will make a confession though. I am not a person overfond of spoilers. When the trailers for The Fellowship of the Ring came on in the theaters way back when, I ran out, fingers stuffed in my ears. I wanted none of the uber-disappointment of Phantom Menace, so I shunned all imagery of the Jackson film. I am more open now, and have seen the TTT trailer all of 12 times. But, I am not a spoiler type, and I have great respect for the accomplishments of “PJ” and company on their interpretation of The Lord of theRings. I’m ready to hail The Fellowship of the Ring as one of the masterpieces of modern cinema. And, as Richard Taylor so aptly put it, “it’s only the first one.” And, after the flack we at Heren Istarion have received about the “Scourging of the Shire” and the absence of good old Bombadil, perhaps my patience has been like butter scraped over too much bread, if you take my meaning. So, the Fangorn question rather peeved me. I will apologize to the chap who posed it, if he’s reading this. Now that your humble co-chair has diatribed herself out, onto the wonderful questions.

How did Tolkien’s own art influence you?
It helped Mr. Lee with the ideas of Middle-earth, in addition to Tolkien’s descriptions, “Tolkien’s own art was very useful.”

Where are the sets now?
“ Most are no longer in existence. Most of them [the locations themselves] were cleaned up and restored to their original states. The sets were made of very vulnerable materials, polystyrene… But the miniatures are very much in existence. The museum in Wellington is displaying the miniatures –Richard and WETA hope to find a permanent home for the miniatures and all the thousands of pieces that were created.” I positively cannot wait, and if anyone would like to begin a petition to the government of NZ, or whomever who could fund such a museum, let us at Heren Istarion know and we’ll only be too happy to add our signatures.. and pass it around, of course… then we could have a Heren Istarion guided getaway to view all the movie stuff! Okay. I will calm down….Yes, I too am prone to funny fits…excitable little fellow…

Did you have anything to do with sketching for the costumes?
“WETA did all the hard parts. Anything that could hurt you or defend yourself with was done by them. I did do some sketches for Nigella, but she did try to get her head around them… the characters… herself.”

How has your role changed now that the art, sets, filming are done?
“Generally being on hand when any information is needed.” But everything isn’t done. As anyone following the footsteps of our amazing Fellowship know, post-production includes not only computer-generated augmentation and editing and what-not, but re-shoots, where sets, etc. may need to be rebuilt for all or in part. So, of course Alan Lee will be on-hand for at least another year, easily.

Another frisky audience member expressed his disdain for Sauron’s helm and armor. As he said it, “It just didn’t [blend] with what I had in my mind.” Mr Lee was asked to comment.
“Everything associated with Sauron was sort of converging on the beautiful and compelling but twisted. …As with the Black Gates when we see the Ringwraiths riding out…but that wasn’t me…you know, John Howe was Mordor’s chief architect. He would get a sense of [the darkness] and just run with it.” Very interesting.

What was perfect in your mind?
“Edoras. I kept finding myself getting drawn to it. Whenever I got a chance I’d pop down to there to sort of feel like I was in an ancient eating hall, until you looked up and saw there wasn’t much of a ceiling.”

What was the most difficult?
“Lothlorien, because it could have gone the most seriously wrong. Elvish design is the most elusive.”

My question Why do you feel Tolkien’s work keeps resurging every few years or so?
“It keeps coming back for the same reasons Homer and the Assyrian stories do: there is so much steeped in the archetypes of the mythology. When you read it, your pulse quickens, because Tolkien had his words tapped into that sort of archetype imagery. And I think it will always keep coming back.”

Can you comment on your beginnings, how you started drawing? Were you schooled? Where did you study?
“I’d always draw and I’ve always loved stories. I thought I’d always become an illustrator. I didn’t learn much actually until I left school.”

What artists inspire you besides Leonardo DaVinci?
“The Pre-Raphaelites, Early Renaissance Art, Bosch, Van Ike—they had a reverence for the life that they were drawing—every blade of grass was drawn with love.”

How do you decide what to draw?
“I try not to over design. There’s a temptation to over-design and use Tolkien’s words as a springboard into your own work. It leads to the unrealistic sense. But I try to stick to a simple, realistic view, this leaves you with a sense of his magic. I concentrate on the landscapes and try to imagine they were a setting for wonderful, magical events that might have happened years ago. Watercolor helps to lend to that sort of magical sense.”

And, so ended the wonderful evening, as Ms. Marmion apologetically ended the Q&A session, because Mr. Lee was to then sign autographs.

We at Heren Istarion were privy to spend a few moments with Mr. Lee after the autograph signing, along with our friends at Houghton Mifflin and TORN.

(right to left) Bridget Marmion (Corporate VP Houghton Mifflin), Megan Wilson (Public Relations Houghton Mifflin), Stephanie Simmons, Mr. Alan Lee, Jessica Burke(Co-Chair Heren Istarion), Anthony Burdge(Chairman Heren Istarion), Thorongil(theonering.net Staff) I opted not to pick up the re-release of Houghton Mifflin’s centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings, even though it was illustrated by none other than Alan Lee… and so beautifully packaged…. It was (and still is) a hard decision…but there’s always Amazon… Because, I had carried reverently protected from the rain, my own centenary edition that was hot off the presses way back in ’91. That had been my first collectors’ edition of LOTR and it had been that edition that I poured so many hours over, marveling at Lee’s paintings. It was his work that actually inspired me to paint. After Mr. Lee signed our Chairman, Anthony’s prized Heren Istarion flyer (that can be seen in an early incarnation in Parma Nölé 2, I believe… I say earlier incarnation because it hadn’t been yet graced with the signatures of Billy Boyd, Viggo Mortensen, and Mr. Alan Lee.),

Mr. Alan Lee autographs Chairman Anthony S Burdge's Heren Istarion Flyer, autographed by most of the cast and crew of the Lord of the Rings film and our Hobbit Secretary’s prized LOTR Movie Guide, alongside Mr. Boyd’s arrow pointing out Pippin in the line of the Fellowship…

Mr. Lee signed my book.

Mr. Alan Lee autographs Co-Chair Jessica Burke's Centenary Edition of The Lord of the Rings I can honestly say I had a tear in my eye. I never thought I would get a chance to meet someone who has so influenced my life. We were then able to slightly flummox Mr. Lee when we presented him with a lifetime membership to our humble society. The wonderful photos were taken by our friend and member, Dennis Reulbach. Again, I must apologize for any errors in transcribing this event. I, unfortunately don’t know shorthand and haven’t elven speed to help my pen along.