Here's a thread for discussion of Tolkien's paintings, drawings, illustrations, art related tidbits, or discuss various other artists and their depictions of Middle-earth and its peoples. Sorry if there's a similar thread somewhere already.

I think Tolkien himself was a very good illustrator (though not great at depicting people perhaps, as he seems to agree sometimes), but today I'll start off with a humorous tidbit concerning another favorite Tolkien artist of mine, Pauline Baynes. Tolkien liked her art, but not, it seems, every single depiction.

I wondered if Tolkien saw PB's depiction of the Fellowship, and if so, if he had any commentary. Recently Hammond and Scull suggested (at least) that he did, and now in the new book on The Hobbit, note 14 to The Bladorthin Typescript, Rateliff notes (concerning the art for a poster map by P. Baynes)...

My favourite Tolkien artist is Katherine Carina Chmiel.

Her work is excellent, no wonder she is your favourite... I always like it when artists give their impression of what Morgoth and Sauron would look like in their pyhsical form, like the one of Morgoth holding the throat of some poor guy... Really well done. Thanks for the name Vir

The device (for Finrod) I'm thinking of includes a harp and a torch; or looks like these things to me anyway.

H&S describe: 'Tolkien may have meant to suggest that this device was created for Finrod by Men, as it is closer in design to the devices of Men he described in The Lord of the Rings and drew in the early 1960s, than it is to the other, geometrical Elvish devices he created at the same time. The latter are usually symmetrical on every axis, which often imparts a sense of perpetual rotation, perhaps intended to suggest the immortality of the Elves within the circles of the world.'

'In contrast, the devices of Men tend to be symmetrical only on either side of the vertical axis, and often have a strong horizontal axis as well. In these the movement is not circular, but extends from the centre outward towards the frame with an impetus to thrust beyond it.'

Interesting, never thought of that.