Alan Lee(II)

Nearly all of the miniatures for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy were based painstakingly on his sketches. In fact, he was so impressed with the details in the "bigatures" that he often came by the Production studios and worked on them himself.

To draw a tree, to pay such close attention to every aspect of a tree, is an act of reverence not only toward the tree, and toward the earth itself, but also our human connection to it. This is one of the magical things about drawing -- it gives us almost visionary moments of connectedness.