After seeing this tweet from @[email protected] showing J.R.R. Tolkien's original illustrations for "The Hobbit" https://twitter.com/41Strange/status/932774047233884161

I researched and found they were in fact coloured by H.E. Riddett for the 1976 #TheHobbit Calendar:
http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/H.E._Riddett
http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Hobbit_Calendar_1976

#tolkien #illustration #art #colourart #colorart #colours #colors

41 Strange on Twitter

“J.R.R. Tolkien's illustrations for "The Hobbit"”

Twitter

That inspired me to track down good quality scans of the original J.R.R. Tolkien ink illustrations for the first edition of The Hobbit.

What a difference H.E. Riddett's colours made!

#tolkien #illustration #art #theHobbit #inks #lineart

File:J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hill - Hobbiton-across-the-Water (Colored).jpg - Tolkien Gateway

If you'd like to see more of how #Tolkien visualised and illustrated #MiddleEarth, there's coffee table books of his artwork, the contents of which are all over Pinterest, if you search.

This Tumblr post collects his painted illustrations and heraldic devices for The Silmarillion:
http://hackedmotionsensors.tumblr.com/post/76168894163/ljonsyllver-tolkiens-own-paintings-for-the

ZONE OF TRUTH

ljonsyllver: “ tolkien’s own paintings for the silmarillion “ a description for the heraldic devices can be found here ” ”

Tumblr

Oh and, if you're wondering why Tolkien's giant eagle looks so much more realistic than his almost cartoon-like dragon, it's because he used a painting by Archibald Thorburn as reference.

Great blog post about that and the inspiration for many other fictional birds here:
http://willoughbyart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/top-10-fictional-birds-based-on-real.html

#Tolkien #illustration #illustration #art #reference #referenceImage #birds #fantasy #fantasyanimals

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When @[email protected] commented on how Hobbiton looks more like Portugal than rural England: https://twitter.com/tombomp/status/933087475488215040

I researched to see if #Tolkien had visited Provence or been inspired by Cézanne and Van Gogh.

Turns out his cited inspiration was a 1911 walking holiday in Switzerland.

This immediately made me think of the Swiss landscapes of Cuno Amiet:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/minntenn/cuno-amiet/

I feel like I've had completely the wrong geographical reference and colour palette for #MiddleEarth all this time!

tom on Twitter

“@quarridors @41Strange it's interesting, his hobbiton reminds me far more of portugal, say, than the english countryside that i assumed was his inspiration. maybe just me though”

Twitter

It's really quite striking when you put Amiet's hill near Oschwand, 1926 next to #Tolkien's hill from Hobbiton-across-the Water, c.1937.

Not that Tolkien was inspired by Amiet's art, but by the landscape that inspired them both.

#art #middleEarth #TheHobbit https://mastodon.art/media/p28IxBOKUmTm4VggsVI