Tolkien Computer Art

So, I'm on deadline. Hence though I have a number of thing I've been wanting to write up and post about, they'll have to wait until I get done what I have to get done. In the meantime, expect some shorter, lighter pieces.

One such is that I recently picked up the January issue (#91) of IMAGINE FX (subtitled FANTASY AND SCI-FI DIGITAL ART). This is entirely outside my field of expertise and wd normally be outside my field of interest as well, but this issue's theme is illustrating Tolkien's work through digital art.

In addition to the cover art of Gollum and Bilbo (by Woonyoung Jung, an artist I'm not familiar with) there's  (1) an accompanying article about lighting such a scene,  (2) a review-article on Howe and Lee's work for the films (esp. the new film) -- good, but I already knew much of this from other sources, like the recent Weta Workshop book,  (3) a heavily illustrated article about Ilya Nazarov's work for one of the computer games (LORD OF THE RINGS: WAR IN THE NORTH),  (4) a piece by Donato Giancola (whose work I do know, having been impressed by his pieces for the ME:TW collectable card game) showing the steps by which he created a picture of JRRT at work in his study (he gets points for producing an image that Dr. Blackwelder wd be glad to add to his portraiture portfolio; his Tolkien is younger than in the familiar post-LotR photos),  (5) a piece by one Noah Bradley analyzing his sweeping landscape of The White City (Minas Tirith),  (6) a portrait of a Tolkienian elf by Corrado Vanelli,   there's (7) Nacho Molina's wonderful picture of Eowyn and the Witch-King and his step-by-step reconstruction of how he made the image.

Molina's Eowyn, an impressive addition to the already crowded gallery of illustrations of this favorite scene, get my nod for the best piece in the magazine. His Eowyn is both fully clothed and sensibly armored, two basics a surprising number of artists who illustrate the scene fall down on. I hope this image gets wider circulation than just this issue of this magazine; it's more deserving of becoming a poster than many I've seen.

Here's a link to the image (in somewhat sharper focus than the version appearing in the magazine):

http://www.art-spire.com/en/illustration/nacho-molina-eowyn-vs-the-witch-king/

--John R.
current reading: LORD HALIFAX'S GHOST BOOK [1936], with an egregious introduction by Colin Wilson.