Reviews

The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien by Wayne G. Hammond

evamadera1's review

5.0

I absolutely loved this book as I knew that I would. The authors attend to every possible detail in the artistic works of Tolkein. His ability to capture his imagined world in art astounds me. This book is a must own for all fans of art and especially all fans of Tolkein.

secrethistory's review against another edition

4.0

This book is so close to being perfect. It's a beautiful art book filled with what I believe is every found piece of art Tolkien made for The Hobbit. I learned a lot about Tolkien--I didn't even know The Hobbit had illustrations (though since starting this I picked up a copy with some of them), or that Tolkien was a fairly talented artist. He's strongest with landscapes and towns, but not very good with human figures, as he'd be the first to admit. I was extremely impressed with all of the more finished pieces.

Yes, just the more finished pieces, and that is what stops the book from being perfect for me. The Art of The Hobbit is extremely in depth, and includes some pieces of paper Tolkien barely sketched on. These pictures left me yawning, honestly, and I didn't find them worth reproducing for entertainment purposes. For the Tolkien scholars amongst his fans, I'm sure these are extremely interesting and important, but for me they simply weren't.

This truly lovely art book has, in addition to gorgeous full color reproductions of Tolkien's art, context and textual comparisons between different stages of the artwork, which I found extremely interesting. It's good fun to see the art progress, but I was really pleased to read about why Tolkien made some of the changes he did. Besides a few somewhat boring bits, I found this book to be wonderful. I would recommend it to any fan of Tolkien, and especially to the more serious ones looking for drafts of his art.

morgana_'s review against another edition

informative medium-paced

4.0

heypretty52's review against another edition

4.0

I enjoyed reading some backstory on the illustrations and the reasons they came into existence. I really love the line drawings of Bilbo's hole.

emtobiasz's review against another edition

5.0

Borrowed from the library on a whim from the New Books shelf. Mostly illustrations of the steps Tolkien took to create each of his illustrations for The Hobbit. Short descriptions point out changes along the way, along with adjustments made for publishers. The art style is truly beautiful and inspirational (I had no idea Tolkien drew his own illustrations!) and the cover design of the original hardcovers (cloth covers and dust jackets) makes me insanely jealous. Why don't they make books that pretty now?

littlenyssa's review against another edition

5.0

Tolkein’s artwork for the Hobbit. Very pleasant on the eye. Looks different from my own imaginary Middle-Earth, (which resembles the movies) but this art is Tolkein’s own and gives a new understanding of the world he created.

vor0nwemartijn's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

5.0

kittyg's review against another edition

4.0

This is a book I picked up as research for my Dissertation and I have to say it's well worth the read even if you're not writing a dissertation about it. This book collects a vast amount of Tolkien's original artworks (which he himself was highly critical of) and shows them right from the inception (pencil lines sketches) right through to the final Ink or Watercolour illustrations that made it into the print versions of the book. I found it to be a fascinating look at not only Tolkien's art, but an insightful tale of how the book gradually became the final product and the various mistakes, edits and revisions to the artwork and maps along the way.

I loved being able to find out the quotes which related directly to the images (as these were frequently referenced) and see exactly what Tolkien was thinking when he began the illustrating process. He never truly wanted to be an artist and never fully considered his work to be of a high quality, but he tirelessly revised and reworked to get the best images he could (not being one for people it was usually landscape and architecture-based) and you can see the naive passion and love he had for the world through them.

I also found that the way the book is written and laid out is concise and easy to follow with images being displayed in chronologic order from inception to final piece and then each being related to a certain chapter/place in the text. The way it was laid out allowed the reader to follow the way that Tolkien discovered and invented his sets and worlds and really gave a sense of the magical place he imagined Middle-Earth to be.

On the whole it's a solid, wonderful book with some stunning images and great original artworks. I would highly recommend this if you have a particular liking for the Hobbit, J R R Tolkien or knowing exactly how the process of making this renowned little book began. A great 4* read.

mercurieus's review against another edition

5.0

What a wonderful journey it was reading this book!

It took me some time, but i have finally finished it. I was always a big fan of Sir Tolkien's work but never actually finished one of his books to completion. And now that I have I can't wait to start the rest of them.

The book is writting from a narrated point of view and for a book written so long ago i didn't really mind the older use of language. 5 stars!

bexpendragon's review against another edition

5.0

Adventure, quests, magic, danger: all the elements of the perfect fantasy reside in the book.