The Art of Middle-earth by Angus McBride (article)

January 19, 2024 ~ joanne the geek ~ 6 Comments

*Gandalf stopping the Witch-King from entering Minas Tirith.*

Angus Mcbride was a British historical and fantasy illustrator who died in 2007. I chiefly knew his work from his illustrations of Tolkien’s world of Middle-earth that were used for Iron Crown Enterprise’s Middle Earth Roleplaying Game (or MERP for short) books and modules.

I thought I would share some of my favourite illustrations of his. Some of these illustrations are for certain supplements Iron Crown produced and are not based on scenes from the books by J.R.R. Tolkien.

*Cover art for the Rivendell module. Ringwraiths pass by Rivendell without noticing it.*

*Smaug devastates the town of Dale, which happened when he first came to Erebor.*

*Cover for the Dark Mage of Rhudaur Adventure Module.*

*The Fellowship. Cover art for the MERP Rulebook.*

*I always quite liked his orcs. This was the cover art for the Denizens of the Dark Wood Adventure Module.*

*Treebeard with Merry and Pippin at Wellinghall.*

*Cover art for the Far Harad Campaign Module. Set in southern Middle-earth.*

*Aragorn and the hobbits being attacked by Ringwraiths on Weathertop. Used as the cover art for the MERP Rulebook Second Edition.*

*Cover art for the Mouths of the Entwash Adventure Module. A mewlip attacks a man in a boat.*

*The Fellowship being attacked in Moria.*

*Cover art for Warlords of the Desert Adventure Module. Set in southern Middle-earth. A sand drake attacks a lone soldier, note there are probably other sand drakes nearby….*

*Gandalf confronts the Balrog of Moria.*

*Cover art for the Gates of Mordor Adventure Module.*

I really hope you enjoyed seeing these 🙂

Last Days (poem)

August 29, 2022 ~ joanne the geek ~ 2 Comments

Last Days


the only artist 
that is truly
appreciated
is a dead one

for there is a finite 
number of completed 
canvasses stacked in dry
cellars for the art dealers 
to handle

a live artist has too many
possibilities & versions
to try -
I have said this to Theo

*

I translate this world
landscapes, buildings &
people
with myself amongst it

see the shifting layers:
the cobalt blues, chromium yellows
emerald greens & vermilions
pressed into the canvas
the crooked churches, dark
cypresses, the sunflowers
I painted for Gauguin,
the pine trees in the asylum

*

every canvas is one less
variation, or piece of night sky
daubed with large white blots
of stars

I work in more & more of myself
until

I merge with the paints &
there is nothing left

*

Auvers is so real
the world is so real
but dull, unimaginative, 
lacking understanding

I write to Theo: We can
only make our pictures speak
& I am risking my life for it

*

I'm painting this canvas
of yellow wheatfields &
black smudges of crows
only there are pathways
leading to nowhere, no way 
to escape

the storm beckons


Joanne Fisher

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©️2022 Joanne Fisher

Tolkien’s Illustrations (article)

December 11, 2020December 11, 2020 ~ joanne the geek ~ 6 Comments

Not only was J.R.R. Tolkien a writer, but he could also draw. In fact it was a calendar of Tolkien’s drawings from The Hobbit that introduced me to his world of Middle-earth when I was six years old. So as I’m not really in the mood for writing at the moment, here are some of my favourite drawings of his.

This was the cover of my family’s copy of The Hobbit

Glaurung emerging from the Halls of Nargothrond

An illustration from Tolkien’s story Roverandom.

Also, I’ve added two further index pages to my blog so people can now easily access my Star Wars and Middle-earth related posts.

Please donate! 🙂

Artist Wanted

August 3, 2020 ~ joanne the geek ~ 6 Comments

a1622

I’m thinking of turning Aalen’s Saga into a small e-book. There may be some rewriting involved.

What I would like is an artist who could provide some art to go with it – I was thinking black and white line drawings. The main characters are a female elf, her wolf, and a female human.

There will be little money in this venture, as I have no money, but we could possibly come to an arrangement about sharing any profits made from this project, should there be any.

If any of this interests you feel free to contact me and we can discuss this further.

Please donate! 🙂

The Star Wars Art of Ralph McQuarrie

May 9, 2019 ~ joanne the geek ~ 1 Comment

The recent post I did for Star Wars Day made me think about doing a showcase of the artwork Ralph McQuarrie did for Star Wars.

There would probably be no Star Wars if it wasn’t for Ralph McQuarrie. He visualised George Lucas’s ideas for Star Wars and created images Lucas could show film executives to get them interested in the project. His images created the look for not only A New Hope but also for the other two films of the Star Wars Original Trilogy.

When I first saw his drawings (after seeing the films) to me they hinted at a Star Wars Universe that seemed stranger and more tantalisingly mysterious. At least that was my reaction to them.

I thought I would share some of his images that I really love from A New Hope. I might do another post showing his concept artwork for the other two films at a later date.

In this early drawing the characters look very different. There seems to be no Han Solo-type character (maybe the Jedi is an amalgam of both Kenobi and Solo), Luke is a girl, while C-3PO looks more like the robot from Metropolis (which was an inspiration for his look).

Another early drawing with C-3PO still looking like he came from Metropolis and R2-D2 seems to have a few extra attachments.

Luke looking out at Mos Eisley? The droids are there but no Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The Millennium Falcon in Docking Bay 94 almost looking exactly like the completed film version.

I think this was the first drawing McQuarrie completed. He created the look of Darth Vader with this image and it was his suggestion that Vader should be in a breathing apparatus which Lucas agreed with. He is meant to be fighting Luke Starkiller (or Skywalker as he becomes) in a match-up that didn’t end up happening until The Empire Strikes Back. I like how Starkiller is in some sort of strange outfit himself.

Pilot of a TIE fighter attacking the Millennium Falcon. This image was realised in the film after the Falcon and her crew escape the Death Star and are attacked by four TIE fighters.

The Rebel pilots at the Rebel Base on Yavin IV getting ready to take off in their starfighters to attack the Death Star.

TIE fighter and X-Wing dogfight over the Death Star.

Y-Wings attacking the Death Star. Note how the Death Star is not so smooth looking and seems to have some sort of opening in its pole.

I think this may be an image for The Empire Strikes Back, but I include it here because I love this picture and I have some sort of weird obsession with Star Destroyers. When I think of a capital starship I always immediately think of an Imperial Star Destroyer. There’s something about their angular wedge design I adore.

This was an early design for the Millennium Falcon but was rejected. It became the Corellian Gunship and you can see one briefly in Return of the Jedi.

This scene at the beginning of The Phantom Menace, the first of the Prequels, reminded me of the above picture. I wondered if it was a nod at Ralph McQuarrie‘s picture. By then Doug Chiang was doing the initial concept design. Ralph McQuarrie was asked but he declined (he also had quite noticeable shaking from Parkinson’s Disease by then).

Well I hoped you liked this article. If you want more like this let me know.

Please buy me a coffee! 🙂

The Fantasy Art of Bob Kehl

March 7, 2019March 7, 2019 ~ joanne the geek ~ 3 Comments

And now for something completely different….

I recently stumbled across Bob Kehl’s fantasy art on a Twitter post when someone posted three of his pictures featuring female pirates. I was intrigued and looked for more of his work. So I thought I would show here a selection from what I found.

Websites you can view more his art are his website and his DeviantArt site.