Eledhwen
Cumbrian
- Joined
- May 11, 2002
- Messages
- 3,168
Jemima Caitlin, illustrator for the latest edition of The Hobbit, was guest speaker at a seminar I attended.
Her first encounter with The Hobbit's publishers came when she chose to illustrate Roverandom for her degree project (using a technique involving ink on glass, with the illustration appearing reversed after being drawn on an overlaid piece of paper). She asked the publisher for the text so she could make her illustrations into a book. She sent them a copy after it was completed and they in turn sent it to Christopher Tolkien for appraisal. He and Baillie thought it hadn't got quite the right feel for the story, so it didn't become a new publication.
However, when a new edition of The Hobbit was being considered, Christopher and Baillie looked at Jemima's website and liked some of her more traditional work. They asked the publisher to approach her to produce some artwork. They liked what they saw. Jemima chose to emulate Tolkien's own artistic style in her final pieces, including some of his detail, such as Smaug's fleur-de-lys shaped tail end and ridge spines. Her first attempt at Bilbo was considered to look too young, so she dutifully aged him up a bit. She went back to the original descriptions for detail of clothing etc, with Gandalf's eyebrows protruding beyond the brim of his hat for instance. She also gave Gollum unkempt hairy feet; a reminder of his hobbit-like origins. You'll guess the inspiration for the cover art from my collage. It was reversed on the final cover illustration, so the tree could wrap around the spine.
Jemima's flying Smaug didn't make it into the book's illustrations, but was instead used as gold embossing on the de-luxe boxed hardback edition.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rearda/9918948825/
Her first encounter with The Hobbit's publishers came when she chose to illustrate Roverandom for her degree project (using a technique involving ink on glass, with the illustration appearing reversed after being drawn on an overlaid piece of paper). She asked the publisher for the text so she could make her illustrations into a book. She sent them a copy after it was completed and they in turn sent it to Christopher Tolkien for appraisal. He and Baillie thought it hadn't got quite the right feel for the story, so it didn't become a new publication.
However, when a new edition of The Hobbit was being considered, Christopher and Baillie looked at Jemima's website and liked some of her more traditional work. They asked the publisher to approach her to produce some artwork. They liked what they saw. Jemima chose to emulate Tolkien's own artistic style in her final pieces, including some of his detail, such as Smaug's fleur-de-lys shaped tail end and ridge spines. Her first attempt at Bilbo was considered to look too young, so she dutifully aged him up a bit. She went back to the original descriptions for detail of clothing etc, with Gandalf's eyebrows protruding beyond the brim of his hat for instance. She also gave Gollum unkempt hairy feet; a reminder of his hobbit-like origins. You'll guess the inspiration for the cover art from my collage. It was reversed on the final cover illustration, so the tree could wrap around the spine.
Jemima's flying Smaug didn't make it into the book's illustrations, but was instead used as gold embossing on the de-luxe boxed hardback edition.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rearda/9918948825/
