The Hobbit Sketchbook & The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook

Alan Lee does some really spectacular illustrations. I quite like what he did for the recent Children of Hurin,Beren & Luthien and Fall Of Gondolin books. And his contributions to the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies are well known. It was interesting to read his commentary about the making of the films from his perspective and to see the illustrations that go with that. Some of the illustrations were used in the 50th Anniversary of the Lord of the Rings as well. I preferred the Lord of the Rings movies to the Hobbit movies. And one thing that stood out in the Hobbit Sketchbook was the dwarves. Alan Lee's characterizations of Thorin etc. was much closer to that I thought they should be than what eventually made it's way in to the films. Lee's illustrations do not have any of the overly ornate beards and hairstyles that ended up in the films. I thought those were very distracting. Alan Lee's dwarves were much more "traditional", and looked much more like the dwarves in Lord of the Rings. I don't know why Jackson decided on the look he went with. But maybe he wanted to differentiate between them more visually than just hood color and fat Bombur. The presentation of the books is very nice. It's more deluxe than the average printing. But it doesn't come close to the definition of "Deluxe" as exemplified by the other Harper Collins slipcased editions like the Lord of the Rings or even the latest Beowulf Deluxe Edition. And Transatlantic shipping to Minnesota takes a toll on a shipping box, especially when the only packing is some brown paper. So the corners of the slipcase got a little roughed up. I didn't read the description carefully (I just order everything Tolkien all the time anyway) and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Hobbit Sketchbook was a signed/numbered edition! That's pretty cool, I think. All in all, this was a worthwhile purchase and a fine addition to my bookshelf. It was a quick and interesting read that could be perused again, maybe while watching the films.

This was a Christmas gift for my husband who is a Middle Earth fanatic and adores the artwork of Alan Lee. The two volumes are hessian cloth bound and printed on high quality paper with partial maps of Middle Earth as end pieces and a ribbon marker. Alan describes his inspirations and working methodology behind his creations. Each page has liberal amounts of examples of both finished and preparatory sketches. There are also several finished colour pieces. He now considers this to be a very valuable contribution to his ever expanding library of things Middle Earth. The two volumes are also encased in a thick sturdy slipcase.

A must have, truly delightful set of hardback books signed by the author, Alan Lee. These hardbacks come in a lovely hardback cover slip covered with one of Alan Lee's drawings. The inside is full Alan's drawings and the text reflects on his use of art to accompany Tolkien's books. A must-have for all Tolkien fans. If you only buy one Tolkien book this Xmas then get a copy of this one.

Just like the Lord of the Rings movies themselves, a once in a lifetime event, come both the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit sketchbooks by Alan Lee. Both books are bound in cloth and beautifully presented in a hard cover box sleeve. Inside among the many sketches and watercolour paintings are Lee's backstories on the characters and landscapes he has drawn, and what his inspirations were at the time. The books are laid out in chronological order and Lee's narration will take the reader on the same journey as the movies. I also own John Howe's A Middle Earth Traveller sketchbook, and I couldn't be more inspired by these two men who contributed so much to the Middle Earth universe and thus to my childhood. Take a seat, put on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, and lose yourself in these books.

Beautifully composed. Bought as a gift for my daughter. It's now her new pride and joy.

Beautiful cloth bound books, detailed illustrations

The quality is amazing. Well worth the money

Sadly my experience of this release is less pleasing than others report. Mainly because of the slipcase which is far from deluxe, not only in construction but the decision to print the marketing blurb on the slip itself is as far from deluxe as possible. The construction of the slipcase is very poor and over time will damage, the choice to wrap the boards with a gap to create a triangular finish is a really bad choice and the slip moves because of it. The books themselves are nice, they are not a deluxe product but nice. The cloth is very ordinary and until recently would not be described as deluxe. This is not a £75 item. It is not deluxe and sadly again it demonstrates that HarperCollins idea of deluxe is vastly different to most book collectors. A real shame, especially as Alan Lee's contribution is fabulous.

Sicher hat man einige der Bilder schon gesehen, allerdings nicht in einer so schönen und qualitativ hochwertigen Zusammenstellung. Bindung, Papier, Druckqualität.....bis hin zum Schubert stimmt hier alles!

Os livros são muito bonitos são Em tecido com o box bem resistente e com Ótima impressão O escrito das capas são em dourado com um adesivo Por cima do tecido sendo que cada um deles tem uma imagem diferente, mas é um adesivo. Quanto ao conteúdo dos livros é magnifico... cheio de imagens, esboços, aquarelas, cenários em perspectiva e muito mais. Ô livro O Hobbit realmente está assinado por Alan Lee. é o item obrigatório para quem é fã do mundo de Tolkien e admira o trabalho de Alan Lee. Os livros vieram muito bem embalados e se tratando de algo um pouco mais caro a amazon teve o cuidado de embrulhar em bastante plástico bolha. Minha opinião: gostei muito dos livros do acabamento das imagens e tudo mais, sera uma otima fonte de inspiração pros meus desenhos. Porém esta edição só vale a pena se você estiver procurando algo mais luxuoso de colecionador mesmo, se tiver apenas interesse no conteúdo dos livros sugiro que opte pelas outras 2 opções que são separados e um pouco mais em conta

Love it. Reckon you have to have this in your Tolkien collection 🥰. Very well made books.

Absolutely beautiful illustrations! An absolute joy to own, perfect representation of Tolkien's world!

L'édition est un métier et nous pouvons pardonner à des petits nouveaux débutant dans le métier. Mais quand il s'agit de la maison qui édite officiellement les œuvres ainsi que le produit littéraire autour de l'univers de Tolkien, on est en droit d'attendre un poil de sérieux. Le contenu est sublime, avec une impression très correct des illustrations avec tout ce qu'il faut pour ravir un fan de Lee. Un beau boulot. Mais pourquoi un tel ratage dans le coffret ? Des illustrations collées en couverture de travers , voir qui débordent totalement du cadre prévu, un coffret qui a été rattrapé par un bande de papier vert cache misère alors que tous les coffret de cette collection sont parfait, un coffret fourni sans suremballage de protection. Bref, à 90€ le coffret qui n'est pas bien volumineux, c'est une belle erreur d'édition. Pour info j'en ai commandé 3, 2 sur Amazon et 1 ailleurs pour vérifier si ce n'était pas une contrefaçon ou une simple erreur qui peut arriver, mais non, tous avec les mêmes problèmes.