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HOUGHTON
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COMPANY
MIFFLIN
1
BOSTON • NEW YORK 200 •
 Text copyright © 2004 by Gary Russell
Artwork, photographs, stills, film logos copyright © 2004
by New Line Productions, Inc.
Compilation © 2004 by HarperCollins Publishers

All rights reserved

"The Lord of the Rings," "The Fellowship of the Ring," "The Two Towers,"
and "The Return of the King" and the characters, events, items, and places therein
are trademarks of The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises under license
to New Line Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.

"Tolkien"™ is a trademark of The J.R.R. Tolkien Estate Limited.

The Art of The Lord of the Rings is a companion to the films The Fellowship of
the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. It is published with the
permission, but not the approval, of the estate of the late J.R.R. Tolkien.

The novel The Lord of the Rings and its constituent volumes, The Fellowship of the
Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, are published in the United States
by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York,
New York 10003.

Visit our Web site: www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 0-618-51098-2
ISBN 0-618-51083-4 (pbk.)

Printed in Italy by Rotolito Lombarda SpA

HC 10 987654321
Editor: Chris Smith
Layout: Terence Caven
Production: Nicole Abel

Page 1: Treebeard, pencil sketch by Daniel Falconer; pages 2/3: The Falls of Rauros,
color study by Jeremy Bennett; page 6: Rivendell, color study by Paul Lasaine;
page The One Ring Is Lost (detail), teaser poster concept by Paul Lasaine;
7:

page 62: The Fellowship of the Ring, watercolor by Alan Lee;

page 63: Lothlorien, pencil sketch by Alan Lee; page 112: The Return to Bag End,
watercolor by John Howe; page 113: The Ferrymaster's Cottage, pencil sketch
by John Howe; page 204: Rivendell, digital matte painting by Dylan Cole;
page 205: Fireworks Dragon, digital concept by Gus Hunter.

This book is for Paul Vyse, without whom .

 Contents

Foreword 7

Visual Effects Design 8

Paul Lasaine and Jeremy Bennett

Conceptual Art: Alan Lee 62

Conceptual Art: John Howe 112

Weta Workshop 140

Christian Rivers, Daniel Falconer,
Ben Wootten, Warren Maby, and Shaun Bolton

Weta Workshop: Maquettes 192

Ben Wootten, Jamie Beswarick, Shaun Bolton,
Sacha Lees, Daniel Falconer, Warren Mahy, Ben Hawker,
Johnny Brough, Greg Tozer, Mike Asquith, and Gino Acevedo

Digital Paintings 204

Gus Hunter, Steve Lynch, Max Dennison,
Roger Kupelian, Yanick Dusseault, Karen dejong,
Dylan Cole, and Ronn Brown

Closing Credits 224

Alan Lee and J. P. Leonard
 FOREWORD

guys, we're doing again!" This time we asked the artists to

The previous three books in this series, one might be forgiven it

had been previously printed, along

for thinking, were pretty much it. Three Art of books, one per select their favorite pieces that

film, should surely be enough for anyone. with their favorites from the ones that had been missed because
As you can plainly see, this is not the case. A nice compilation, they didn't actually exist at the time.

a true Best of, was always in the back of my mind when putting On top of that, and I offer no apologies about this, a majority

together the first three books. Art that might have been reproduced of works presented in this fourth volume are also my personal

smaller than it deserved or had been cropped to fit on the page favorites. As I mentioned in earlier forewords, I am not an expert
would get a chance for a second, better airing. So it was always my on Tolkien's work or particularly well versed in the detail of The

intention that the Best of volume would concentrate less on words Lord of the Rings. One of the reasons I took on this
and more on being a visual record of this extraordinary trilogy of project was that, as a fan of great movies, I would be able to view

movies, and the heart and soul that went into making them. and select these pictures on their artistic merit and visual strength,

However (oh, there's always a caveat, you cry), one thing that and not because I thought John Howe, Daniel Falconer, or
arose very early on in the production of the books was the question Christian Rivers delivered a Balrog that looked most like the way
of time, or lack of it. You see, each previous Art of book had to I had imagined a Balrog. Before arriving in Wellington, I had
meet a specific deadline. That meant text and pictures all needed to never encountered the word Balrog. I just looked at, loved, and
be selected and sent off to be printed quite a few months before the selected what I believed then, and still believe today, to be fantas-

finished volume reached the shelves. This would have been fine, if tic pieces of art. They could have been created for a gallery rather

it weren't for the disheartening fact that although the book was than for a movie, as far as I was concerned - I just fell in love with
being designed, printed, translated into many different languages, the beautiful pictures?

and generally made to look beautiful, down in New Zealand work And so, until work begins one day on the long-awaited The
continued on the films right up to the day Peter Jackson had to Hobbit movie (go on, everyone, you know you want to), here

deliver his finished print to the studios of New Line Cinema. is my last collection Lord of the Rings art. It's been an
of The

And thus it was that although each book had about five hundred exciting voyage of discovery, and I'm very, very pleased to have
glorious pieces of artwork, there were hundreds more that had had, through the work of the people whose art is contained here-
been drawn, painted, Photoshopped, and generally created from in, my eyes opened to the glorious world that Tolkien created and

scratch between my book and the crew finishing

finishing the the Peter Jackson lovingly and wonderfully enhanced.
movies - art that otherwise would never see the light of day.
Thus it was that word was sent out to those kind souls who had Gary Russell
been so accommodating to me over the past three years: "Hey, April 2004
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN

role is purely as a visualizer. If Peter Jackson is something specific, I'll do a few little studies first before I get

My
help him.
not able to come up with an image of something
he's got in his brain, he's got designers like us to

The art we do becomes something that can be used

into it. I

a pretty
point it's
might make mistakes,
good guide
just about added
little

details
tiny things, but then I've got

for painting the big elaborate one. At that

- the painting doesn't really
to show everybody else as well, almost like a trailer. Hopefully, say any more to the director than the little one does, but people
we were hired because we had an aesthetic vision similar to like to see the big ones.

Peter's, so we follow him and translate his ideas to everyone One of the ideas we went with was that the story is really like

else on the show. "See this painting - that's what I want the a journey back in time for Frodo and Sam. You look at the Shire,

Mines of Moria to look like," and so on. I, along with Jeremy and it's almost like an old English farmhouse from the late

Bennett, Gus Hunter, and the others are guides. We make 1800s. And as they go on their journey, every step they take,
significant suggestions, create as many paintings as he wants, every new location they come to, is like going further back in
and he picks the ones he likes. time. Aragorn is right out of King Arthur, which puts you back in

It's not the size of the painting that matters, it's the thought that Then they meet the Ores, much further back,
the twelfth century.
goes into it and the planning. I can do a ten-foot version of a Medieval, Bronze Age, Iron Age stuff. All the way back until you
painting just by using bigger paintbrushes and still come out with start getting into Mordor, which is like going into an almost pri-

exactly the same detail as a five-incher. Usually, I can do a couple mordial situation with cavemen. Finally, you go all the way back
of these a day, whereas one of the big ones, because there's so to Mount Doom, where the Ring was made and forged, which
much detail, can take three days, maybe four at the outside. almost represents the creation. So it's a neat concept for a
I often start with paint. Sometimes do a little sketch first -
I'll designer; it keeps you in line.

I usually don't like to sketch that much, and if I do, it's very
minimal. The Lothlorien paintings, for example, didn't have any Paul Lasaine
drawings at all; I just started painting. Sometimes, if I want March 2001
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 9

u Paul and Jeremy are masters at using light and color. They have often
shown me the mood of a particular moment through their use of paint.
I get from them a potential flavor and tone of the lighting.
"

PETER JACKSON

had read the books a few times and loved them, but more than artwork is also unusual. It's rare - but I think all big-budget

I anything I am a big fan of Alan Lee's work. To actually be movies dealing responsibly with genres
the same.
like this should do exactly

working alongside him is humbling but also great fun. His

wealth of emotional knowledge regarding Middle-earth is aston- When I first started, I was totally thrown and wondered "How
ishing. If I have any questions, he can probably answer them. on Earth are we going to do all that on film?" but I quickly

My job as VFX art director is to take shots handed over from realized it was a gigantic endeavor, and with so many people
Peter Jackson and integrate the live action and blue-screen pulling together, I knew it would be all right in the end. Of course,
footage with the environments that we create for them. The geo- I still wonder how we're going to do half the things we do, and
graphical location, time of day, lighting, and color palette are all sometimes it feels formidable and a bit terrifying.

elements that need to be taken into consideration and carefully Right now I'm doing pretty much what Paul was doing, so I can
balanced. The job is time-consuming but ultimately satisfying. see why I was brought on number of
in the first place, given the

I piece all these things together and present them to Peter for meetings that I have to attend and therefore the amount of time

comment. If we take the Dead Marshes, for example, I might that I don't spend at the drawing board. When Paul was around,

present artwork for a group of shots and give Peter a variety of I had the luxury of time to develop environments, like Isengard,
and I could do fifty sketches for one shot - thinking about how it
options so he has more to choose from. He might say, "Well, I like

that on that painting, but this I'd like to change." might look, how the miniature of it might be composed, and so
I also have to take into account if there are any miniatures, on. Now it's more of a balancing act, although in some respects

decide where they will be placed in the artwork, what elements it's easier because all the filming has been done and we're dealing
might be added to it, as far as the atmosphere, massive elements, with lots of footage that is more or less cut, so you know exactly

blue screen, figures walking on the miniature, waterfalls, woods, what has to go into the final shot.

skies, and so on.

I imagine it's unusual that I'm this involved in so many aspects of Jeremy Bennett
the production - but then I imagine a film that generates this much April 2003
10 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS
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12 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MORDOR Gorgoroth Plain

"This is a very early study addressing the possible look and feel of one shot from the prologue battle sequence,
where the Elves line up to face the hordes of Ores that are charging toward them." JB

THE SHIRE The Westfarthing

This is one of Paul's favorite paintings, and the image of Frodo and Sam observing the landscape before them
is echoed in its companion piece on page 23. The contrast is not just in what the pictures show, but in the
way the colors create mood and atmosphere. PL
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 13

BREE The Black Rider

"Peter asked me to do this illustration of one of the Black Riders to inspire the crew who were preparing to
shoot the Bree sequence. I chose to depict a nonaction moment that was never intended to be in the film. I

thought would be interesting, and kind of creepy, to show a Ringwraith just

it patiently waiting for Frodo to
put on the Ring. Almost as if to say, 'I've waited more than a thousand years . . . I'm in no hurry.'" PL

BREE GATES
Matte painting
sketch
"This illustration
of the establishing
shot of Bree is an
adaptation of a
pencil sketch by
Alan Lee. It was
done as a guide for
mood and color
for the whole Bree
sequence. Later it

was used as the

rough layout for
the matte painting
of the establishing
shot." PL
14 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

ISENGARD Orthanc Tower

"This was an early design for the look of the Isengard valley - before we find out that Saruman is actually a
bad guy." PL

ISENGARD Orthanc Tower

"This one, the Moth Shot, I call it, was done after a request from Peter. Primarily, it was to show the first

time that we actually see Isengard as a destroyed, wasted Isengard. Up until then it was this beautiful forest
garden. We follow this moth in a crane up over the wall, and there it is, essentially a big industrial wasteland.
This was a color study, really, done before anything was actually shot. We were interested in the development
of the valley. The crew actually had this with them when they filmed the location shots, so when it was time to
do the final matte work, it would be exactly as Peter had intended way back when we started on this paint-
ing." PL
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 15

ISENGARD The Caverns

The painting (above) of the Uruk-hai below Isengard was the result of about fifty sketches and compositions
created to resolve foreground, background, and midground elements of the final shot. The scale of the Uruk-hai
and the caverns was of some concern; thus this painting was needed to set the perspectives. The rough pencil
version (top) was actually used by Alex Funke, the director of photography, for the miniature setups. He taped
Jeremy's sketch onto the monitor on the miniature stage and lined up his shot against the pencils, which was
very satisfying to the artist - a rare chance for the artwork to be used so literally. JB
RINGWRAITHS Wraith World concept
"What do you seewhen you put on the Ring of Power? Designing what came to be known as Wraith World was an interesting
design problem. We knew it had to be nightmarish, as the occupants were essentially zombies, but we wanted it to have a quality
unlike nightmare sequences seen in other films. We wanted it to have an 'altered reality' about it, as though Wraith World was a
parallel reality, coexisting with the real world, rather than an actual, tangible place. The look itself, I felt, needed to be not only loud,
chaotic, and frightening, but also elegant and beautiful - like a ballgown in a hurricane. In this painting, I started with stills
of each of the Ringwraiths shot against blue-screen. Next, I put them together in Photoshop and then distorted the hell out
of them. I made quite a lot of these paintings before Peter felt I'd hit upon the right look." PL
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 17

RIVENDELL
Matte painting sketch
"This is a Photoshop
illustration done as a matte
painting design for the scene
in which Frodo sees Rivendell
for the first time. At the
time I did this painting,
we had Alan's magnificent
designs for Rivendell
architecture, but we still
didn't know what the
landscape surrounding
Rivendell would look like.

We knew had to be
it

beautiful, but it had to be

epic and magical as well.
This illustration combines
a still of the live-action set
of Frodo on the balcony,
the miniature of the
Rivendell architecture,
miniature trees in the
midground, dozens of
scenic photos taken all

over New Zealand, and

waterfall elements, as well
as some hand-painted
elements to blend everything
together." PL

RIVENDELL Color study

"This one of the earliest color studies for Rivendell and the most elaborate illustration I did
is

for the location. After a number of preliminary sketches, I settled on this composition, which was
intended to be a full 180-degree pan. At this point in its conceptualization, Rivendell was spread
out like a small city. Ultimately, the final version was much more compact - like a castle." PL

RIVENDELL Balcony sequence

"A proposed view from the balcony in Rivendell. One of several, thiswas based on the forms that Alan Lee
had conceived but rearranged for the sake of the composition. This was drawn on warm yellow paper stock
with highlights in white gouache." JB
18 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE MISTY MOUNTAINS Caradhras Pass

This was one of a number of color guides that Paul produced for Peter, which captured so well how the scene
should look that it became the template for the shot in the film. PL

MORIA The West-gate

This color scheme shows how the entrance to Moria would look when lit by the all-important moonlight. The
tiny figures of the Fellowship give an idea of the scale. PL
MORIA Dwarrowdelf
Because the Dwarrowdelf interior was
almost entirely computer generated,
Jeremy created the eight illustrations above
that form a storyboard to the sequence, to
show how would work as the
the lighting
Fellowship from Balin's Tomb and
flees

out of Dwarrowdelf itself. To the right is

a more developed extrapolation of these
studies, showing the Fellowship illuminated
not just by Gandalf's staff but also by the
flame-red glow of the approaching
Balrog. JB
 ^4

20 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

LOTHLORIEN Galadriel's Glade

"Above is a color key of the woods of Lothlorien, painted before filming began, which shows the level of light
breaking through the trees." PL

LOTHLORIEN Celeborn's Chamber

"This was the first we
color illustration did for the Lothlorien location. I did it primarily as a lighting
and color guide. Peter wanted Lothlorien to have a magical and ethereal look to it. I thought it would be
beautiful if the architecture looked more like a chandelier than a building, so I lit it quite strongly from the
inside and let the building be a light source for the surrounding environment. I carried this theory through
to the other buildings in the wide view of Caras Galadhon on the next page." PL
22 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

GALADRIEL'S GLADE Ruined Hobbiton

The top illustration is Jeremy's first pencil take on this sequence; the lower one a full-color version. It shows
the mood and color scheme intended for the scene as Frodo sees this possible future for his home. Jeremy
cheated the landscape, compressing the buildings together to add to the desolation. JB
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 23

ZIRAKZIGIL Color study

A study of the peak of Zirakzigil environment. JB

EMYN MULL The Dead Marshes

"The 'echo' of the painting on page 12, this shows Sam and Frodo as they get their first view of the
Mountains of Mordor. This is the point where the good guys realize that all that was once familiar is now
behind them, and Mordor has begun creeping up like a cancer to take over the world. The idea of doing
contrasting paintings was to provide a feeling of how far the Hobbits have journeyed into the shadows during
their travels." PL
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 25

THE DEAD MARSHES Color study

"This was done to give some thought to the overall color palette for the marshes. Peter eventually preferred
something a little up the greens, so it looks a little more spooky. It probably ties in well
brighter just to bring
with the spectral corpses when you The idea here was to think about how much visibility you'd get
see them.
around the marshes. Originally they were more claustrophobic, but Peter wanted to see four or five kilometers
out into the distance so you'd really get this feeling for how large an expanse the environment was - and how
easily you could become lost in there." JB

THE DEAD MARSHES Color study

"This is a dawn sky study of the Dead Marshes, looking toward Mordor. It was given to a scenic painter, who
replicated the artwork on a canvas roughly twenty feet long." JB
ROHAN Eastemnet Hills EDORAS Color study
"The color study above was done for a scene depicting Aragorn, "This scene depicts our first glimpse of Edoras. I wanted the
Legolas, and Gimli tracking the band of Uruk-hai that captured audience to get a sense of the dark state of affairs there, so I

Merry and Pippin at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring. The threw the mountain into shadow, with the exception of a small
location, for you Tolkien fans, is the Eastemnet Hills, which lie ray of light illuminating the Great Hall. This was to symbolize
on the easternmost border of the Plains of Rohan. Obviously, how Rohan was all but dead, except for the small glimmer
we're facing west in this scene; the Uruk-hai are heading west of hope that was arriving with our heroes. For a number of
and north to Isengard." PL reasons, however, the scene was later changed to full sun." PL

THE GOLDEN HALL Color studies

"These were painted from the floor plans and a couple of drawings by Alan Lee, as the Golden Hall hadn't
been built at that stage. I did them for VFX effects consultant Mark Stetson. There were a couple more
of these, but they were more lighting guides for the director of photography to have on set when they were
lighting the environment, to give them a feel for how it could look." JB
28 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE GOLDEN HALL TAPESTRIES Tapestry design

"This is a design based on reading more about the Rohan culture. shows Helm Hammerhand, for whom
It

Helm's Deep is named. An interesting character - he was found frozen dead but still standing
totally formidable,
on the Deeping Wall. It was great to go back and explore what Tolkien had written about this history and then
try to recreate it. The illustration had to be quite simple to translate into a large tapestry. The borders
were drawn by Shane Henson from designs by Alan Lee, and the actual painting was done by Smart
Arts, a local contractor, on a roughly woven canvas. When it came back, a lot of work was done in our textile
department to age it down and make it look as though it'd been hanging in a dusty hall for a few hundred years.
"It was an open brief: I could do whatever I wanted - no restrictions. With the paintings, you know exactly

what an environment could look like - you've had a brief and it's up to you to realize it and get it to a stage
where Peter can say, 'Yeah, that looks like what I imagined.' So in that sense it was a lot of fun." JB

DEAD KING ARAGORN Color study

"The painting above was used as a rough compositional guide for miniatures as well as a lighting study for
the set. Once the live-action and miniatures were shot, we combined these elements and replaced the sky to
show what they might look like for post-production." JB
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30 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

ORTHANC TOWER Color study

"This is you pull out to reveal
the very last frame of a shot, where this! We start on the balcony with
. . .

Saruman and Wormtongue, and there's this elaborate pull-out from the Tower right over the sea of
Uruks. This painting was really just a guide to look at pike placement and to give a general feeling of
the environment behind Isengard - it's early morning light, but quite moody." JB

SARUMAN AND WILD MEN Composition and color study

"A quick study to establish the overall composition of the shot, like the position of the Wild Men, the number
of torches, and the general amount of smoke and haze. An good
illustration like this will be used as a fairly
guide for the compositor, who will piece the shot together." JB
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 31

SARUMAN'S NIGHTMARE Concept

"When these were done, we weren't sure that we would have a prologue sequence in The Fellowship of the Ring in which Sauron was
revealed (we thought he might be saved for The Return of the King). So I wanted to hide him in the architecture in the background to
such a degree that you might see the film three times and not notice anything - and someone might say, 'I think I saw something in the
walls - was it Sauron's face?'
"At this point Saruman is communicating with Sauron. He thinks he has it all under control - he can use the palantir correctly -
but in actual fact, Sauron has total control over him. So it's a little obvious, but I think the idea of using the sheen and the detail to
suggest Sauron's presence could have been worthwhile." JB

SARUMAN: THE PALANTTR Digital artwork

Gus took Jeremy's original painting, scanned it, and then did variations (above) using digital technology. JB &
GH
32 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

ISENGARD Color studies

"The artwork at the top involved designing a background for the blue-screen shot and showing the
ash-covered desolation of the environment Saruman was creating, contrasted with the glow of his fires
from the caverns below, more of which can be seen in the next painting." JB
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 33

ISENGARD Color study

"This is a scene that I was not sure would appear in the film; it was really done just to give a feeling for what
the valley might look like. At this stage the Ores have totally deforested Isengard -
probably need to give it a I

lot more stumps and things in there. It's totally devastated, and I really wanted to make it look windswept,

almost as if there was a squall passing through. And you have the Uruk-hai coming through into the fore-
ground - just walking on by." JB

HELM'S DEEP Color study

"This piece was done as a lighting, mood, and color guide for the sequence in which the Rohan refugees first

Helm's Deep. I went for a romantic, almost idyllic, lighting scheme. I thought it would be a nice idea
arrive at
to show Helm's Deep through the eyes of the refugees - a beautiful sanctuary, a welcome sight after their long
and dangerous journey. It's always fun to show a citadel in its best light especially when you're going to
. . .

lay siege to it in the next sequence." PL

34 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE GLITTERING CAVES Color study

"This concept for the Glittering Caves was originally done for The Return of the King, which, early on, opened with a romantic
scene between Aragorn and Arwen on the 'morning after' the battle for Helm's Deep. In that version of the script, Arwen had been
present at the battle. As inspiration for this painting, I used an old set of 3D Viewmaster images from a beautiful cave complex I vis-
ited years ago in Virginia called Luray Caverns." JB

HENNETH ANNUN Color study

"I based this painting on one of the
storyboards, and as far as I know it was
the first color image done for this
location. In trying to establish the
overall look of Ithilien, I really wanted

to play up the contrast between this

location and Mordor, which for Frodo
and Sam was the next stop. I wanted
this environment to be lush, wet, and

green - almost tropical - and rather

idyllic in its beauty. The last refuge on

the road to Mordor." PL

 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 35

HELM'S DEEP Color study

"This is the end frame of a shot that starts at the head of the valley: ten thousand Uruk-hai are marching past,
and the camera follows them in and reveals Helm's Deep in the distance." JB

HELM'S DEEP Color study

"There are a lot of Uruk-hai - and you see them all. The idea here is that it's nighttime, and they're dressed in
black, so you're never going to see them except for the flames of their torches. I wanted to allude to pikes
against the night sky, and banners, and fire in the darkness." JB
36 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

HELM'S DEEP Compositional study

"This features the characters - the Elves on the Deeping Wall, the Rohirrim up on the Hornburg itself, and
all

the Uruk-hai - all facing off against each other. It was done - because the figures would all be CGI - to give
the guys in digital an idea as to where they would be placed. Peter Jackson had specific instructions as to
where they should be in the shot - just past the Causeway, just before the Causeway, higher up . . wherever
.

he felt they looked best. It's also to give a feeling for the overall palette as well as a sense of atmosphere. The
whole environment is actually incredibly dark, and the tricky part - the challenge - was to really show off the
elements we were building or adding." JB
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 37

HELM'S DEEP Color studies

"This painting and the one at the bottom of the previous page were done for mood and atmosphere, and to
establish the placement of siege ladders and the digitally created Uruk-hai storming over the walls and up the
Causeway." JB

HELM'S DEEP Color study

"This is which Gandalf and the Rohirrim charge down the slope to save the
a color palette for the sequence in
day, because at this stageyou have Theoden and the guys doing their final charge into the Uruk-hai. So here
we're looking at the position and the angle of the Helm's Deep miniature, which will be a guide for Alex
Funke to shoot it, and the amount of light that's striking it, so it's lighting stuff for them. It'll be a great shot
and great sequence - actually, one of the best." JB
38 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

HELM'S DEEP Color study

"This painting was used by one of our matte painters to resolve the far end of the valley at Helm's Deep,
which was seen as the Uruks were retreating toward the camera. The dawn sky can be seen in the distance."

HUORNS AT HELM'S DEEP Color study

"This painting is a quick color study based on one of Alan Lee's drawings, with the emphasis on Helm's
Deep at dawn, at the far end of the foreground you can see the Uruks retreating into the forest.
valley. In the

The trouble is, that forest wasn't there when they arrived . .
." JB
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 39

ISENGARD Color study

"This was a painting produced to answer any questions regarding Isengard's position in the valley at this
particular time. This was used ostensibly by the matte painters to ensure continuity." JB

RUINED ISENGARD Color study

"This study shows the atmosphere, lighting, and look of the surrounding environment." JB
40 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MINAS TIRITH Color study

"This was one of several color studies done of the second gate in Minas Tirith. I was quite happy with it as a color study; however, it

ended up looking more like a view you would find in Morocco than like Romanesque Minas Tirith." JB

PATHS OF THE DEAD Color study CITY OF THE DEAD Color study
"This is of the Dimholt Glen, the passage to the Paths of the "This is a lighting study to show how the City of the Dead
Dead on the top of the Dunharrow plateau. The painting was might look to Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli as they see it appear
redone for Peter as he thought we needed to see the path reced- out of the rock." JB
ing away from us into the glen." JB
VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 41
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 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 45

THE PELENNOR FIELDS

Color study
"At this point Sauron's
forces have broken through
the Great Gate of the city
using Grond, and it's dawn.
So this is where we see
Denethor, as a flaming
fireball, throw himself off
the seventh tier of Minas
We follow him
Tirith.
down, and then the
Rohirrim just smash
through the foreground,
ripping the Ore companies
apart. The battle is

absolutely raging, Minas

Tirith is on fire, and it's
just carnage, wholesale
slaughter. This was my
impression of what that
event might look like. I like
the fact that everything, the
whole landscape, is on fire,

although I'm not sure

whether that's how it's

going to look in the end.

It might look worse . .
." JB

THE PELENNOR FIELDS Color study

"This is a snapshot of the battle, moments before the mumakil arrive, which was used as an idea for their
appearance on the field." JB
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 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 49

MORDOR Color study

"This is Sam and Frodo's first view of Mordor. The landscape is covered with thousands of Ore encampments.
In trying to determine exactly what Mordor would look like, we came up with the idea that the entire land
was once a massive lake of molten lava, with the surrounding mountains being the walls of an extinct volcano
hundreds of miles across. Mount Doom is all that's left of the original volcano." PL

THE BLACK GATES Color study

"This is where you see Sam and Frodo dressed up as Ores and was done as a color
the last frame of a scene
study for the matte painters. Up in the top left-hand corner you've got the Black Gates, and Mount Doom
would be over to the right. When our heroes leave Cirith Ungol tower and bump into some Ores, they get
rounded up and sent off to war." JB
50 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE BLACK GATES Color study

"Barad-dur and Mount Doom, as seen from just inside the Black Gates, focusing on the midground in
particular." JB

GORGOROTH PLAIN Color study

"This study formed the basis for a matte painting; it depicts the Ores leaving the Gorgoroth Plain for the
Black Gates, as seen by Frodo and Sam." JB
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 51

GORGOROTH PLAIN Color study

"I imagined Gorgoroth to be a series of cracked and shattered rocky plates, littered with grotesque rocky
outcrops. These were found at Breaker Bay, on the south coast of Wellington." JB

GORGOROTH PLAIN Environment study

"This was possibly the third painting done for this shot. It was helpful in establishing the overall color palette
for the scene. But it has since changed again, and the final matte painting by Dylan Cole [see page 220] was
quite different. The result, however, was worth the wait." JB
52 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

GORGOROTH PLAIN Color study

"Another view of the plain, this time showing Sam and Frodo easing their way across. The scale of the task
that remains to the Hobbits is here emphasized by their size relative to the environment, and Mordor is ren-
dered unearthly through the use of mauves and purples for the lowering sky." JB

MOUNT DOOM Color study

"Frodo has just put on the Ring inside the Crack of Doom, alerting Sauron and the Nazgul to its location.
Meanwhile, the battle outside the Black Gates is in full swing. This is the last frame of quite an elaborate shot
starting outside the Black Gates and panning with the fell beast to Mount Doom." JB
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 53

MORDOR Color study

"This was a very early study looking at the Mordor environment and the base of Mount Doom, giving partic-
ular thought to its sulfurous atmosphere." JB

MOUNT DOOM Color study

"This picture is looking up at the summit of Mount Doom, with the focus this time being on the amount of
mist and smoke that might be present." JB
* THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

SAMMATH NAUR Compositional studies

"Three studies of Sammath Naur, the entrance on the slopes of Mount Doom that leads to the Crack of
Doom, exploring possible compositions for the shot in which the Eye of Sauron strikes out." JB
56 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MOUNT DOOM Color study

"This sketch shows the lads climbing on the rock after their exit from Sammath Naur, moments before the
slope is inundated in lava. This is one of my favorite studies." JB

BARAD-DUR
Color study
"This shows one of
the ideas we had as to
how we would bring
down Barad-dur,
completely destroying
it! Just imagine the
coming
lava pulse
from Mount Doom,
surging along the
canal,and creating a
reaction thatwould
push the lava right up
into the tower, to the
point that it would
start overflowing and
spilling back down,
rather like a candle.
An old idea, but we
wanted to take a look
at it just to see how it

might look." JB
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 57

MOUNT DOOM Color study

"One of a number of sketches handed to the miniatures department, which was supplying the practical lava
for the shots; it was also used as a guide by the compositors who pieced everything together." JB

MOUNT DOOM Color study

"This study represents the greatest amount of destruction we'll see on Mount Doom. The lads at this stage
have nowhere to run and will have to weather the firestorm." JB
58 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

BARAD-DUR Digital composite

"This is a composite illustration utilizing miniature, photographic, and painted elements. I did this piece to
show how the Barad-dur miniature might work with the surroundingMordor landscape. One problem we
wrestled with was how to depict a three-thousand-foot-high tower when we obviously didn't have a real
three-thousand-foot-high tower at our disposal. I liked the idea of emphasizing its height by punching the
tower up through the bottom of the clouds." PL
 VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGN * 59

DOOMED ON MOUNT DOOM Color study

"This was one of my done while we were supposed to be concentrating on finishing the
guilty pleasures,
design for The Fellowship of the Ring. I just had to do at least one shot from the climax. Kind of like skipping
to dessert when you haven't finished dinner yet." PL

MOUNT DOOM Color study

"This is a more developed look at the last shot of the lava-flow sequence, in which Gandalf arrives riding
Gwaihir to rescue the Hobbits. It was a study more of the sky and the backlit look of Gwaihir than of the
lava. An earlier painting by John Howe was definitely the influence for this piece." JB
60 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE GREY HAVENS Color study

"This is a very early sketch as an atmosphere study for the location. When I did it, none of the
done primarily
architecture had been designed, so it was quite abstract. I was inspired by a beautiful location in southern
New Zealand called Milford Sound, a fjord with soaring cliffs and breathtaking waterfalls. Here I tried to
imagine Milford covered with Elven architecture." JB

THE GREY HAVENS Color study

"This was done to explore what the Elven ship thac carries Frodo and crew to the Undying Lands might look
like. I was particularly interested in the sail design - in this version I came up with a hybrid between a
Mediterranean lateen sail and a Chinese junk." PL
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 CONCEPTUAL ART:
ALAN LEE

first read The Lord of the Rings when I was seventeen, and have to trust my intuition, priming it with the text, and having
I it took over my life completely for a period. I didn't do faith that the work that comes out will reflect what other
many illustrations based on it until about 1990, when people see in it as well:
HarperCollins approached me about painting a celebratory Working on the movie happened at the perfect time for me.
edition of the work for the Tolkien centenary. There was a long I didn't have a contract for another book at that point, and
period of discussion with Tolkien's family. They were concerned I was ready for a change of scene. It probably was the first

in particular about how the Hobbits were going to be depicted, time in twenty years that I could actually leave Britain for an
so I did a couple of sketches, and they finally agreed to my illus- extended period without having editors screaming at me about
trating the book. After that I got to do The Hobbit, too, and I deadlines!
became officially associated with the whole oeuvre. Despite that, always thought that The Lord of the Rings had fantastic
I'd

I wouldn't say that I'm a huge fan - I'm not a person who reads potential as a live-action film - I was sure it was going to happen
it every year. It's obviously been an important part of my life for at some point. There had been discussions with somebody else

over a decade, and I feel I know it pretty well now, but I don't about a possible television adaptation, which was very interest-

actually know the book as well as some of the people at Weta, ing, telling the story over twelve episodes, but, like many other
who are true aficionados. attempts, the ideas failed to materialize.
I think my ideas come mainly from reading the books, but Part of the attraction of this film was, of course, going to New
also from having been thoroughly steeped as a child in Norse Zealand. I'd always been curious about the place; the few photo-
mythology and other areas from which Tolkien himself had graphs I'd seen of it greatly impressed me. And I suppose I had
drawn. In some ways, there's only one way that I can draw this idea of it as a kind of distant version of Britain, only cleaner,
Ores and Goblins, and that has to do with my cultural back- with taller mountains and weirder landscapes, almost like

ground, stuff that influenced me. So to a certain extent, I just Middle-earth!

 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 63

'Alan Lee's artwork has a beauty and lyricism about it. His art captured
what I hoped to capture with the films, which is a sort of graceful and
gentle feeling -a poetry, I guess.

PETER JACKSON

When we got here, Weta had started doing some of the ourselves. He wanted the environments to be recognizably part of
creatures. They'd done the Cave-troll, they'd done a lot of work Tolkien's created world, and as firmly rooted in reality. I don't think
on the Ores and various other creatures, but they hadn't done that any of us ever felt we were working on a fantasy film. We were
any of the places or environments, and that became our job. trying to create cultures and landscapes that were part of a conjec-
Though we worked together on some of the designs, John Howe tural history of our world, and everything in it had to be credible.

did more work on the creatures and armor. Broadly speaking, I We tried to anticipate the kind of dramatic camera moves that
concentrated more on the "wholesome" side of Middle-earth, are part of Peter's trademark. The sets and miniatures are never
while John was Sauron's chief architect. There were exceptions, simply backgrounds. They form an integral part of the action
though, with my work on Isengard and Cirith Ungol, and John's and are another medium for Peter's amazing storytelling.

beautiful designs for Bag End and the Green Dragon.

Peter wanted grand and original ideas for the films and would Alan Lee
often see a potential in our drawings that we hadn't quite grasped June 2004
64 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

HOBBITON Hobbit holes

"I did about twenty-five different Hobbit dwellings to go into
specific spots in the location we had chosen for Hobbiton. Apart
from their round doors and windows - and the fact that they are
half buried underground - the houses have the look of English
vernacular architecture from different periods, suggesting that
the area had been inhabited for several hundred years. I don't
think any of us wanted to create startlingly new concepts for the
look of Hobbiton. We wanted people who see the film to feel
that they recognize it, that they really are in Middle-earth." AL

GANDALF
Staff design
"The first of
Gandalf's three
staffs was as
versatile as the
others. As well
as a walking aid
and a weapon, it
would be a place
for him to stow
his pipe when he
wasn't using it.

It also featured a
tobacco pouch, SAURON Helmet designs
and a metal spike "Sauron's suit of armor was one of the most remarkable objects
that could be that Weta produced during their work on The Lord of the Rings.
used for cleaning Every inch of its etched surface was endlessly worked to create
the pipe, getting shapes that echoed the form and personality of the character
stones out of within. It really looked as though it had been made by Elves
horses' hooves, or who had been enslaved and tortured expressly for the purpose. I
scratching secret contributed these designs for the helmet, though they were taken
signs on Hobbit a lot further by Peter Lyons, Warren Green, and Stu Johnson,
doors." AL Weta's brilliant armorers." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 65

BREE Town Square

"This drawing was done after visiting the
disused army barracks that we were going
to turn into our set for the streets leading
to the Prancing Pony in Bree. The bar-
racks and administration offices were
concealed behind these medieval facades,
and the were covered by about
streets
eighteen inches ofmud and gravel. I'd
taken photographs of half-timbered hous-
es in Devon when I was last there, and
they served as models for the warped and
crooked buildings." AL

WEATHERTOP The architecture

"These pencil sketches show alternate day
and night looks for the place, with the
ruins of the Amon Sultower creating a
distinctive silhouette and defining the
environment in which the Ringwraiths
will attack the Hobbits." AL
66 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

ISENGARD Inside Orthanc Tower

"This drawing is set. It was built up to about seven meters, and the
getting close to the look of the finished
rest of the interiorwas modeled digitally. This also shows the lamps that were made by Natalie Staniforth,
a talented sculptor who came out from England to work on the project. There are some other things going on
in this drawing, too: an Elf, some doodles, and Gandalf's staff. Someone may have just reminded me that we

needed three different staffs for Gandalf. He loses his first one in Orthanc and the second in Moria. We looked
for some pieces of wood that had the right knotted-root look, but then I drew something and it was sculpted
by Brigitte Wuest - another brilliant sculptor." AL

ISENGARD The Caverns

"The drawing opposite is for the Isengard Caverns, where the Ores are working to arm and equip an army
of Uruk-hai, who have been specially created to serve Saruman. This area is briefly alluded to in the books,
but Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor saw the potential for creating some stunning and dramatic set pieces.
Both John Howe and I did drawings of the pits and machinery, and I made a maquette of the caverns, which
served as a starting point for the miniature. The size and complexity of the miniature grew as Peter started to
work out what he wanted to do with it, and I'm still trying to figure out how Alex Funke filmed some of those
awe-inspiring shots." AL
68 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

RIVENDELL Elrond's Chamber

"The script referred to murals or tapestries that could be used to illustrate important moments in the
and the defeat of Sauron. Rivendell,
history of Middle-earth and, in particular, the battle of the Last Alliance
as well as being the home of the Elves, was a repository for ancient books and artifacts, including Isildur's bro-
ken sword, Narsil. Peter Jackson wanted a pictorial device to link the sword with the events we see in the pro-
logue to The Fellowship of the Ring. I did this drawing before the battle scenes had been shot and changed the
composition in the final painting to match them more closely." AL

RIVENDELL Narsil statue

"We could have simply laid out the
shards of Narsil on a tabletop, but
this pieta-like statue seemed more
appropriate, given the important
symbolic value of the sword. Brigitte
Wuest, the sculptor, did a beautiful
job of turning foam and plaster into
ancient and venerated wood." AL

RIVENDELL Watercolor
"This is an early conceptual illustration
for Rivendell and its immediate
environment. This was done before
we had sculpted and scanned our
ideal Rivendell valley, and long before
we found the real valley that was used
to create backgrounds for the final

shots." AL
70 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

RIVENDELL The library

"The scene in which Bilbo is showing Frodo his book was originally going to take place in a library, but this
would have been a large set just for one small scene. It was eventually shot on a porch, which was part of our
large exterior set, but we used the layout of this drawing as a basis for Elrond's Chamber, which also incorpo-
rated the Council Chamber." AL

RIVENDELL Council Chamber

"The Council of Elrond scene
occupies quite a few pages in
the script,and Peter Jackson
was keen to get as much depth
and variety as possible into
the background of what, for
much of the time, is a series of
talking-heads shots. We achieved
iV*f|
this by combining it with the Ik
Elrond's Chamber set and a
large woodland/garden area.
This was used for a variety of
scenes, including the reforging
/'m
of Narsil. This drawing is a
view from the garden, across
the terrace where the Council
is held, and into the interior of
Elrond's building." AL
CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 71

MORIA Exterior
pencil sketch
"The drawing to
theleft was used

to create the
miniature for the
outside of Moria.
There's a shot
almost identical to
this sketch in the
final movie. It is

always satisfying
to know you got
something pretty
much right the
first time." AL
MORIA Mine workings
"One of my favorite drawings of the interior of Moria. This was created as a miniature and used in the shots
of the Fellowship approaching the cemetery stairs." AL
MORIA Dwarrowdelf
"The top picture is the Dwarrowdelf chamber, which is a mainly computer-generated environment. The lowest
sections of the pillars were built for use in close-up action with the Fellowship as the Ores pursue them. The
below drawing is a design for the entrance chamber to Moria, which the Fellowship discover to be full of
corpses." AL
74 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MORIA Khazad-dum
"These two drawings are of the part
of Moria that lies between the
Dwarrowdelf chamber and the bridge
where Gandalf meets the Balrog. In the
book you get the impression that they
descend through tunnels, but there was
an opportunity here for something quite
spectacular thatwould allow us to see
more of Dwarven city and the
the ruined
plunging depths below it. It was built as
a miniature, and Grant Major designed
the set elements that were used in
conjunction with it.

"Peter Jackson liked the first image so

much that all the subsequent drawings,
including the lower sketch, were just
more detailed refinements for the model-
makers." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 75

LOTHLORIEN Tree concepts

"Above are a couple of the many possibilities we offered for the dwellings in Lothlorien. The model makers, led by John Baster and
Mary MacLachlan, would work directly from drawings like this, sometimes copying details as closely as possible and at other times
taking them just as a starting point, which they would expand upon in a free-form way. Lothlorien, like most of the sixty-odd
miniatures that were built at Weta for the trilogy, developed in quite an organic way, much as it would have in reality. There were
always design maquettes, which Peter Jackson used to work out the kind of shots he'd like to get, as well as to sort out the scope and
logistics of the miniatures. But the end result is due to the skill and artistry of those dedicated model makers, and later to the craft of
people like the director of photography, Alex Funke, and his miniatures film unit." AL

LOTHLORIEN
Tree concept
"This drawing is a
view of the interior
of the Golden
Wood and was a
guide for the
model makers,
showing how the
Elven walkways
were a natural and
complementary
extension of the
mallorn trees that
supported them."
76 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

LOTHLORIEN The Palace

"At the highest point in the Caras Galadhon miniature set is the Palace of Celeborn and Galadriel, beautifully
detailed by Weta's miniaturists and dressed to camera by John Harding's team, for one of the most captivating
shots in The Fellowship of the Ring. At this stage in the production, a fifth miniatures crew, led by David
Hardberger, had joined Alex Funke, Chuck Schulman, Richard Bluck, and Brian Van't Hul, to help get
through the enormous workload of all three films, and so David did the Lothlorien shots." AL

LOTHLORIEN Caras Galadhon

"One Galadhon that we
part of Caras didn't see in the film
was the main gateway, approached via a bridge across a
deep, dry moat." AL
78 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

I .v.. X
CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 79
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 81

KHAZAD-DUM Pencil sketch and digital artwork

"There's an amazing sequence at the beginning of The Two Towers in which we follow Gandalf and the
Balrog down the chasm and we have a wide shot showing the Roots of the Mountains and the lake that they
splash down into. I also did drawings for the Endless Stair and the nameless creatures that might have
watched their progress. The drawing above left was the original idea, which was further developed in the digi-
tal study above right." AL

AMONHEN The Seeing Seat EMYN MUIL Sketch

"The climactic battle in The Fellowship of the Ring takes "The Emyn Muil is the rocky wilderness that Frodo and Sam
place around the ruins of Amon Hen. We wanted to create cross on their way to the Black Gates, stalked by Gollum." AL
some architectural remains that would work well for Frodo's
third experience of Wraith World and also provide an arena
for some good action between Aragorn and our other heroes
and Saruman's ferocious Uruks." AL
82 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

FANGORN Pencil sketches

"We looked at a number of possible
locations for these shots of the interior
of the forest, but Brian Massey and the
greens department managed to create
some memorable studio sets that
more than answered our needs. The pen
drawing opposite was done to assist those
constructing the miniature." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 83

FANGORN Color study

"For the wide shot of Wellinghall, we extended the original set with more miniature trees and moss-covered
ground. Brian Massey's greens men and women worked closely with John Harding's Weta crew on all the
many Fangorn Forest miniature shots, so we were able to ensure that they matched the full-sized sets as closely
as possible." AL
84 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

RIVENDELL Digital artwork

"We sometimes on the miniatures department by recycling film that had been shot
tried to ease the pressure
for other scenes, or for tests, particularly when no camera movement was
required. This was the case with
Arwen riding back into Rivendell. This and other artwork was done to guide matte artist Yanick Dusseault
and the compositors who would be placing waterfalls and trees in the environment." Ah

EDORAS BUILDINGS
Pencil sketch anddigital artwork
"We found most wonderful location
the
for the city of Edoras in the mountains west
of Christchurch. We built the Golden Hall,
the stables, and a few other buildings on the
top of the hill, and a complex of buildings
around the gatehouse at the bottom. The
wall and the rest of the city were created
digitally by Cory Bedwell and others in
post-production. I did the drawing below
as a guide." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 85

THE GOLDEN HALL Pencil sketch

"The buildings of Rohan are wooden and based loosely on our idea of structures that would have existed in
northern Europe during the Dark Ages. The description of Hrothgar's Hall, Heorot, in the Anglo-Saxon poem
Beowulf was probably as useful as Tolkien's own words in evoking the kind of place we wanted to create.
We wanted it to feel ancient and strong, bound with iron and heavily decorated. We adopted the sunburst
motif as something that felt appropriate for a plains-dwelling, seminomadic people, and, of course, we used
lots of carvings of horses on gables and gateways." AL

THE GOLDEN HALL Pencil sketch

"I did a large number of drawings of this
interior, covering from every angle. We
it

wanted to make it as rich and as authen-

tic as possible. Helen Strevens did a great

job on all the drafting, and we consulted

books on barn construction to make all
the timber-work believable. For all its
richness we wanted the first impression
to be quite somber, to reflect the state of
decay that Saruman and Wormtongue
had engendered." AL
86 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

HELMS DEEP Watercolor

"Peter Jackson was keen to start work on the miniature of Helm's Deep as soon as possible. I did many
drawings and this painting soon after arriving in New Zealand in January 1998. I think that one of the
reasons the final battle, and the events leading to it, in The Two Towers work so well is that, throughout the
action,you know exactly where you are in that environment. With Richard Taylor's team on the miniatures
and Grant Major and Dan Hennah on the sets cooperating very closely, Peter managed to create a seamless
and logical flow in all the many scenes in that dramatic climax." AL

HELM'S DEEP CAUSEWAY

Digital artwork
"This image is a guide for the digital
combining the shots in the
artists

dawn charge sequence, and for the

placement of the massive digitally
created Uruk-hai soldiers." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 87

ilk

it? ,4

HELM'S DEEP
Pencil sketches
"These images are
a selection of the
many drawings
that I produced,
which provided
Peter with views
of the fortress
from different
angles and at
different stages
of the assault." AL
88 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

OSGILIATH Pencil sketch

"Osgiliath was one of the most enjoyable
sets to work on. We had a lot of existing

pieces of masonry left over from some of

our earlier sets and added new designs to
make the ruins as rich and complex as
possible. I thought that the river might
have become choked and flooded
in places

some - which adds to the

areas of the city
interest. The bird's-eye view shows the

broken bridges and an island, somewhat

inspired by the He de la Cite in Paris,
which contains a large cathedral-like
building. We know that Osgiliath had
once housed one of the palanti'ri, which
had been lost when the tower it was
kept in collapsed, so it could be that
building." AL

GOLLUM'S CAVE
Pencil sketch
"I did this drawing as a guide for the set builders showing the
scene in which Smeagol undergoes his transformation in The
Return of the King. The creature staggers through a rocky
landscape as he makes his way toward his eventual home in
the Misty Mountains." AL ITHILIEN Pencil sketch
"The desecrated statue of a former ruler of Gondor marks the
crossroads between Osgiliath and Minas Morgul, and between
Harad and Ithilien. The ray of sunlight piercing the gloomy
cloud that covers Mordor and its immediate surroundings,
to illuminate the wreath of flowers that have grown over the
statue's fallen head, is a powerful symbol of hope in the book
and an image that we all wanted to capture." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 89

THE MISTY MOUNTAINS Pencil sketch and digital artwork

"We had made a compact but quite effective set for those
wonderful scenes at the beginning of The Return of the King in THE FORBIDDEN POOL Pencil sketch
which Smeagol slowly changes into Gollum, and Peter wanted "We built the set for the pool and the interior of the cave in the
a wide shot in which we see the wretched creature crawling same studio so that they could share the waterfall that Ed
into his cave. The original shot was scaled down in frame, and Mulholland's construction crew made for us. In the final shots
Yanick Dusseault provided his lovely matte painting - based on more water was added to the scene to make it feel more natu-
my original sketch - to complete the picture." AL ral." AL

MORGULVALE Sketch
"We built a small set for the scene, in
theshadow of the Morgul Vale, where
Gollum has a conversation with his
reflected image in a pool of water while
Sam and Frodo The drawing to the
sleep.
left shows the tangled gorse bushes that
Peter Jackson wanted, to make their
campsite less visible. It looked like a

simple set, but the small team of greens

people, as well as Grant Major and I,

having worked through the night, were

just applying the finishing touches when
the crew arrived to shoot it the
following morning." AL
90 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

8 *?'*
•

WW

MINAS TIRITH Pe««7 sketch

"This is which sits high up
the beacon,
on the above Minas Tirith. Pippin
cliffs

is dispatched by Gandalf to light the fire,

and we see him climbing up the pillar of

rock and fiddling with the oil lamp that
hangs at the top, ready to ignite the fire-
wood and warn Gondor's allies that
they should hurry to her aid. There is a
roof over the structure simply because, as
the beacon would have been lit so rarely,
the occasional burned roof would be con-
sidered expendable, while a pile of wet
timber would be completely useless." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 91

MLNAS TIRITH Pencil sketch

"This drawing is and the surrounding area. We originally built a large piece of cliff behind our Vknd-scale miniature,
a look at the city
but proved too big to move into the miniature stage and so was reused for other areas of Middle-earth rock. The miniature of
it

Minas Tirith was built over the course of several months by Richard Taylor's dedicated team of craftspeople, with John Baster and
Mary MacLachlan playing leading roles, as usual. This was well before the art department, which was going to be building the sets,
had really been established, and before we knew in detail what was going to be happening in that particular part of Middle-earth.
But we knew that there would be a number of very important scenes played out there, and that Peter Jackson, with his love of
miniatures, would be using it extensively; so the structure, though only at V^nd-scale, would have to stand up to very close scrutiny.
"There were sections built at '/wth-scale for some close-up shots, most notably the Court of the Kings itself and the surrounding
buildings, and these were some of the most beautifully finished and convincing miniatures that were made for the trilogy." AL

1 A -
j§

MINAS TIRITH Pencil sketch

"Tolkien's description of Minas Tirith in The Lord of the Rings established a few basic facts that we did not
wish to alter in I had drawn the city before but not in great detail, and there was a huge amount
our version.
that would have to be added to make it credible as the capital city of an ancient culture. I took the layout and
dimensions that Tolkien had indicated and made a small maquette so that Peter Jackson could see the overall
shape. Once we were happy with that, I began to explore the city in greater detail.
"I started with this view of the main gate protected by its bastions and towers and also indicated the
seven tiers of the city rising up behind it, with the huge pier of rock that bisected the city and also formed the
foundations of the Court of the Kings seven hundred feet above." AL
92 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

GONDORIAN BANNER Pencil sketch

"We made a lot of flags and banners for Gondor and all the
other cultures, and this rather battle-worn one was done as a
potential design for Aragorn's flag." AL

MINAS TIRITH Pencil sketch

"I did a series of drawings following the road that winds
through Minas Tirith, as a way of exploring the look of the city
from street level." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 93

MINAS TIRITH Pencil sketch

"The Houses of Healing are set around a
courtyard and have a peaceful, monastic
air of seclusion and retreat, though we
wanted them also to feel, in the aftermath
of the battle for Minas Tirith, like a
Crimean field hospital, overflowing with
wounded survivors." AL

MINAS TIRITH
Pencil sketch
"After a steep
climb, and dozens
of drawings, we
finally reached the
seventh gate." AL

sterns

COURT OF THE MINAS TIRITH Pencil sketch

KINGS Pencil "The interior of the Court of the Kings,
sketch showing the pillars and arches, some of
"This was built as the statues that line the aisles, and the
a miniature, at huge crown that hangs from the ceiling
'/yind-scale as part above the empty throne - and the
of the whole city, Steward's chair that sits at its base. This
and at '/nth-scale set was one of the last to be built during
for the close-up set principal photography, and it was one of
extension work for the most frenetically busy periods for the
the scenes that art department, as well as for everybody
take place on the else. Dan Hennah, Grant Major, and I

upper level of spent a lot of time on this particular set

Minas Tirith." AL because for some of our heroes it was to
be a final destination, and needed to be
it

a worthy home for Aragorn and Arwen,

as well as an atmospheric setting for our
first encounter with Denethor." AL
94 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MINAS TIRITH The Court of the Kings

"This set was almost the same width as the building that contained it, and holes had to be made in the sides of the studio - which

was awarehouse on Wellington's docks - so that lights could be positioned outside to shine through the windows. We spent a lot of
time on the set, trying to make it as austerely beautiful as possible, but we knew that in order to make an impression it would need
to be at least twice as high, and that would have to be achieved with a CGI extension. I had always imagined that we would have
a clerestory above the aisle, but what I really wanted was a mosaic-covered domed roof at the far end. So along with the artwork,
I provided this Photoshop mosaic to Brian Samuels at Weta Digital, who was building, texturing, lighting, and composing the final

shots." AL

MINAS TIRITH The Hallows

"I was looking forward to seeing some shots focusing on the Hallows at the back of Minas Tirith. We see a lot of the city from other
angles, and as I was quite happy with the way the miniature looked in that area, I was pleased that Peter Jackson wanted to take us
there in the extended DVD edition. The little technological revolution that I'd been undergoing through post-production on these
films had led me to switch to digital cameras, and I was able to take these pictures of the miniature, roughly tile them together, and
drop in a background from our scenic shoot, within the space of a couple of hours." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 95

MLNAS TIRITH Pencil sketch

"The Hallows lie at the rear of the Court of the Kings, below the towering slopes of Mount Mindolluin. John Baster and Mary
MacLachlan were able to take drawings like this and produce a highly detailed three-dimensional replica. At the left in the drawing
you can see the ramp leading down to the entrance to the Stewards' Tomb." AL

MINAS TIRITH
The Stewards' Tomb
"The Stewards' Tomb
needed a set extension
for shots where we
were looking back
through the opened
door, and I was able
to save a few hours
of the matte painters'
precious time by doing
the artwork at a
sufficiently high
resolution that it

could be used as it

was." AL

MINAS TIRITH Pencil sketch

"One of several versions of the White Tree of Gondor. This
was to be seen in both its dead and its rejuvenated state. I

treasure a lovely memory of seeing Brian Massey's tree with

four set dressers perched in it like birds, attaching thousands of

blossoms to dead twigs. I know that in the book the White

its

Tree is replaced by a sapling that Aragorn finds on the slopes of

Mount Mindolluin, but at this stage in the film allowing the new
king to go for a stroll in the mountains wouldn't have been mak-
ing the best use of his time - and seeing the Tree reborn is such a
beautiful moment." AL
96 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

DUNHARROW Pencil sketch

"This is a design for the look of Theoden's
tentand the way it was situated at
Dunharrow. It's quite close to the final
result." AL

Crown, throne, and weapons stand

"I did some drawings of crowns for

Jasmine Watson when she and Ngila

Dickson were working on Theoden's
costume. The throne had to have quite a
powerful presence as well, in contrast to

the wretched condition that Theoden is

in when we first see him. The carpenters
took great pleasure and pride in their

work, and this is a fine example of their

craftsmanship.
"We also needed a place for visitors to
leave their weapons, and this weapons
stand was positioned outside the Golden
Hall." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 97

DUNHARROW Pencil sketch and digital artwork

"We had the good fortune work with the excellent
to be able to
landscape photographer Craig Potton on some of our scenic
shoots. He had worked a lot with a helicopter pilot from
Queenstown, Alfie Speight, whose knowledge of the South
Island made him a vital part of any recon or aerial shoot that we
wished to undertake. During post-production on The Return of
the King, it became obvious that we would need to expand our
stills library with photos taken specifically for shots that Weta

Digital would be working on, as well as looking out for rocky

mountainsides and other elements that would be useful for
matte painters and compositors. One of the environments that
we needed a background for was the Dunharrow plateau, and
we chanced upon the perfect place, with all the right ingredients.
Alfie hovered at the top of the cliff, rotating the chopper in time
with Craig's careful tiling, so we were able to return with
a complete environment that needed very little manipulation,
beyond filling the valley floor with six thousand horsemen and
their tents." AL
98 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

PATHS OF THE DEAD Pencil sketch

"Inside the passage we become aware that we are in a catacombs with the remains of
ancient corpses laid out among their grave-goods in coffin-sized niches in the walls, and
the figure that Tolkien refers to - dead in the act of struggling to enter a tomb or escape
some unknown terror - can be seen to one side." AL

PATHS OF THE DEAD Pencil sketch

"This is the gateway to the Paths of the
Dead. Skulls are piled up between the
slabs of rock and the walls of the ravine
as well as in the niches in thedoor
columns. We wanted some kind of
inscription on the lintel above the door-
way and, partly because I was unsure
CITY OF THE DEAD Pencil sketch what language to use and partly because I

"Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, on their route through the mountain, enter a huge open like the idea that Middle-earth has some
space that has these more formal architectural elements, as well as a concentration of areas of its history that no one has thor-
the catacomb-like rock tombs. Then, as the King of the Dead and army emerge, we
his oughly explored, I devised a few vaguely
realize that there is also a ghost city clinging to the sides of the cavern and the chasm prehistoric pictographs that looked omi-
that runs through it." AL nous and shamanistic." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 99

KING OF THE DEAD Pencil sketch

"In these sketches was thinking about
I

the King of the Dead's helmet and his

general look. One idea we had was to
have the helmet partly rotted away to
show something of the inside of his face
as the flesh had rotted in the same place.
Although the King of the Dead was an
actor in a prosthetic, he had digital
insides and a digital rotting skull, and
we see both at once; sometimes the skull
will be more prominent and at other
times the actor's prosthetic exterior,
depending on how angry he is at any
given moment." AL

ARMY OF THE DEAD Digital artwork

"Peter Jackson mentioned, quite casually, that it would be good to see the occasional horseman among our dead warriors, so
I produced this. There was some talk about simple ways of reproducing this effect in what might be only a fleeting shot, but the
Matt Aitken
ever-optimistic at Weta Digital was confident that it would be easier than it looked to model as a CG creature, so we
went ahead with it." AL
100 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE SIEGE OF GONDOR Pencil sketches

"It was that time of year again . The trolls, which
. .

we had adapted from our original Moria Cave-troll

into the trolls we see opening the Black Gate in The
Two Towers, needed to be shifted up a gear or two to
appear in The Return of the King. I hadn't been
involved in the creation of the first troll, but I'd added
the harness and blinkered helmets for the first upgrade
and also did a few drawings for the second. We settled
on five variants for use at different stages in the battle,
including the one that confronts Aragorn toward the
end of the film." AL

THE SIEGE OF GONDOR Pencil sketch

"Because we have only one totally new monster, Shelob, in The Return of the King, I thought there might be
an opportunity to put something else onto the Pelennor Fields, which would be a bit of a surprise. So I did this
drawing of the great beast that would be pulling the siege engines and/or Grond across the fields. Then, just
recently, I was looking back over some of John Howe's stuff and realized that he'd created a similar creature
[see page 132] back when he was working on the project, but his had two fearsome-looking horns rather than
my monosaurus look. I think my beast is halfway between a dinosaur and a huge great ox." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 101

SHELOB'S LAIR Digital artwork

"This one of several studies I did when
is

we were working on the redesign of this

character. A partially finished gray-scale
image was sent from Matt Aitken's model
department, and I worked on top of this,
experimenting with some different looks.
I don't think anyone who worked on

Shelob quite managed to capture what

Peter Jackson was actually after until he
had attacked it himself with a handful of
Plasticine." AL

SHELOB'S LAIR Pencil sketch

"The drawing below is Frodo in
Shelob's tunnel, making his way
along the passageway, with Shelob just
emerging from another hole higher up.
We see just her legs and body starting to
pull out of this hole before the scene
where she finally attacks him." AL
102 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

CIRITH UNGOL Pencil sketch

"I did this drawing, together with a Plasticine maquette, as an' overall look for the
CIRITH UNGOL Pencil sketch
miniature, and followed it with more detailed drawings. We were able to work
"This is of the top of the miniature and
shows how a Niimenorean structure on the sets at the same time that the miniature was being constructed, so an idea for

might have been adapted by the Ores that

one could quickly be applied to the other." AL
later captured and inhabited it. So it's got
these large pieces of metal that help to
hold the crumbling structure together but
also serve to remind us that we're in a
pretty evil place." AL

ifm

CIRITH UNGOL WATCHERS

Pencil sketches CIRITH UNGOL Pencil sketch
"John Howe's drawings of the Watchers "This is the room at the top of the Cirith Ungol tower, where Frodo has been taken by
had quite a disturbing look to them, and the Ores. We can just see Sam climbing up the ladder to rescue him. This set was built
I tried to keep that bird-skull look in separately, but the interior of the tower below the trapdoor was part of the main set
these designs for the final sculptures." AL and offered more stunt opportunities." AL
 CONCEFTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 103

CIRITH UNGOL Pencil sketch

"This shows the gateway through which Sam passes on his mission to rescue Frodo, together with some of the unusual stonework
that makes this fortress distinctive. The basic fabric of the walls themselves would have been created by Gondorians rather than Ores,
but they added the rusty ironwork and crude huts. The Gondorians, however, must have been affected by their proximity to Mordor,
because it would have been quite a frightening place, even without the Orcish additions." AL

THE PELENNOR FIELDS Digital artwork

"Complex animation shots, like the one in which fell beasts dive-bomb Minas Tirith, involve a lot of planning. To aid this process,
I had made a map covering everything between the White Mountains and the far edge of the Mordor mountains. This was turned

into a simple 3D model by Eric Saindon, which Christian Rivers and Richard Moore used to stage their previsualizations. When this
was complete and Peter Jackson had approved the animation, I assembled frames from it and created this art, which would cover the
background for the whole shot. Dylan Cole then used it as the basis for his matte painting [see page 220]. I didn't show the layers of
cloud that the Nazgul would fly through in this artwork, which is less about the finished look of the shot and more about the basic
anatomy of the landscape." AL
104 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MINAS TIRITH DOCKS Pencil sketch

"I had done some fairly generalized and vague drawings of the docks at Minas Tirith during principal photography, but I didn't take
the design any further at that stage because we just needed some flagstones for Aragorn to jump onto and then run across. Over the
next three years the question of what the docks actually looked like would occasionally be asked, but there was usually something
more pressing to be thinking about. I finally did this drawing during post-production on The Return of the King, when work on the
Pelennor Fields battle had gotten to the point that we more or less knew what was going to be happening in that particular area.
Weta turned it into an exquisite miniature, the last one they were to make for the trilogy." AL

CORSAIRS Pencil sketch

"I had no idea what Middle-earth pirates
should look like, but I imagined that
they might have the same attachment to
pillaged finery and body decoration that
we and
associate with historical pirates
other renegades. Bob Buck of the
wardrobe department took the costumes
a lot further, and make-up had a lot of
fun with them, too. I was pleased to
see that some of the crew who hadn't
made the grade as Rohan or Gondorian
warriors finally had the opportunity to
make a brief and grisly appearance on
screen." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 105

ARMY OF THE DEAD AT MINAS TIRITH DOCKS

Digital artwork
"A complex shot, involving three separate miniatures (if you
count the ships as one): computer-generated water, scenic
background, massive Ores and mukakil, and blue-screen Ores.
Other versions of this shot had been previsualized, but Peter
Jackson wanted to use a move on the docks minature as the
basic component. I was happy with the look of the miniature,
which was probably the last one built by Weta for the trilogy.
It was also one of the smallest they had created, and beautifully

detailed." AL

MINAS TIRITH Digital artwork ARMY OF THE DEAD AT MINAS

"Peter Jackson wanted to see some shots TIRITH DOCKS Digital artwork
of boulders fired from Ore catapults "I have included this as an example of the
destroying bits of the city, so I offered way we adapted scenic stills for use in the

a few examples. These (left and opposite) backgrounds of a high proportion of the
show what might happen if one of the shots in The Return of the King. Although
towers supporting a trebuchet received a these are frequently replaced by matte
direct hit." AL paintings, it is very useful to be able to
get a background in place at an early
stage in the development of a shot. The
red rectangles show the first and last
frames." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 107

THE BLACK GATES Digital artwork

"The expanse of barren land that stretches between the Black Gates and the Dead Marshes and Emyn Muil
was put together from stills taken on a scenic shoot that Paul Lasaine and Craig Potton had conducted in
2000. Dylan Cole did a great job with the final matte paintings for all these Black Gates shots." AL
108 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MORDOR
Pencil sketchand digital artwork
"This drawing I did quite some time
is a
ago of Sam and Frodo trekking across
Mordor toward Mount Doom. It was
based on a location shot, and I was just
seeing what we would need to add to
it to make it into a more dramatic
environment. Paul Lasaine and Jeremy
Bennett did quite a lot of work
on environment as well - in fact,
this
everyone had a go at it. One of the
features that kept coming up is

the steaming vents from a bubbling

lake of lava that lies just beneath the
surface and that we see through cracks.
You feel the whole landscape is very
insubstantial and ready to go off at any
time, which of course it will do at the
end of the film." AI,
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 109

;y mi

BARAD-DUR Digital artwork

"Gray Horsfield at Weta Digital jumped at the chance to construct, and then destroy,
Barad-dur and the surrounding environment. A digital version of the miniature was
painstakingly built, while Gray invested a huge amount of time and energy writing the
code that would bring it down. I thought that it might be destroyed, along with
Mordor and the Black Gate, in the course of one long camera move, but wiser counsel
prevailed." AL
110 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE GREY HAVENS Pencil sketch

"This an early drawing of the Grey Havens, which was shown to the actors as an indication of what they
is

would be looking at when the blue-screen was replaced in the finished scene. Although it would be another
two years before this particular miniature was built and shot, Peter Jackson kept referring back to this draw-
ing and the construction of the miniature reflected that." AL

THE GREY HAVENS

Pencil sketch
"This is another view
of the Grey Havens,
showing the miniature
version of the dock and
its surroundings, as well
as a wider view of the
whole area. There is
something fjord-like in
the landscape, but the
architecture, and the
light that will suffuse it,

has a soft Mediterranean

quality. We looked at
paintings by J. M. W.
Turner and Claude
Lorrain as inspiration
for the serene and
poignant atmosphere
for these scenes, as well
as dreamy anticipations
of our own future
journeys." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ALAN LEE * 111

w
THE GREY HAVENS
Pencil sketch
"This is the fountain that
the remaining Fellowship
walk past on their way
down to the dock. Tolkien
describes them passing
through a garden before
arriving at the boat, so we
made a pleasant little

departure lounge." AL

THE GREY HAVENS Pencil sketch

"The Elven boat that waits at the dock to make the final voyage to Valinor was built
as a large-scale miniature and is one of the most beautiful objects that Weta made for
the film. John Baster has a passion for sailing and a deep knowledge of boat-building,
so he was eager to devote his time and skills to creating it." AL

THE GREY HAVENS Pencil sketch

"This is which the remaining Hobbits watch the ship depart.
a design for the last shots in this sequence, in
This turned out to be a more complex environment than I'd pictured when reading the books, but the epic
nature of everything our heroes had been through, as well as the width of the cinema sceeen, called out for
something grander than just a garden and a dock." AL
 CONCEPTUAL ART:
]OHN HOWE

When I arrived in
words concerning the conceptual task
New Zealand, Peter Jackson's
at hand were:
first Alan and I made no campaign maps; there
Middle-earth into walled kingdoms into which the other was not
was no carving up of

"If you guys can draw it, we can build it." The finest welcome to draw his way. Our approach was more that of two
words for an illustrator's ears when on the threshold of a journey wandering sketchbook artists, occasionally on the same road but
across Middle-earth. more often than not roving far afield. Initially, we stayed a few
I first met Alan Lee at 30,000 feet over the South Pacific. I had weeks in the Shire, but then Alan entered the Mines of Moria, I

written to him when I was in high school, my courage primed by went over the Misty Mountains via Zirakzigil, and then directly

a copy of Faeries. (I had written to co-artist Brian Froud at the down the Anduin past the Argonath, to Amon Hen and beyond.
same time; he never replied either!) It was a memorable meeting, Encouraged by the very nature of Frodo's journey, we ended
followed by an even more memorable arrival in New Zealand: I up being location scouts of the imagination, not leaning out of
was so relieved to get all my armor and weapons through helicopters but wandering the winding paths of inspiration. I'm
customs that I forgot my more mundane suitcase and nearly still surprised by the ambulatory nature of it all. Designing Bag
made us both miss the connecting flight to Wellington. (I, of End was more akin to wandering through a real house, rapping

course, swore Alan to secrecy about this embarrassing incident, on half-opened doors and occasionally calling "Anybody home?"
but he, of course, paid no attention to this promise. No matter, I than to creating a film set. Climbing Mount Doom to Sammath
have stories on him, notably involving helicopters, cameras, and Naur had all the trappings of an alpine expedition.
orange juice. . .) I had never really done pencil drawings as finished artwork
 CONCEPTUAL ART: ]OHN HOWE * 113

uJohn Howe is a master of capturing exciting moments. His artwork is

almost like looking at a freeze frame from the movie. His style is what
33
you'd expect to actually film with the camera.

PETER JACKSON

before. Sketches for me are often little more than unwelcome upon arriving at the edge of a sheet, I added another until the

obligations prior to beginning a color piece. In Peter Jackson's drawings ended up several yards long or high.
Middle-earth, however, pencil on paper was the chosen medium: Sketching out imaginary landscapes and locations requires a
the best way to quickly convey ideas and designs. Now that I certain cadence, quick enough to warrant your salary, but suffi-

think about it, in the digitally enhanced world of modern film- ciently pedestrian to allow the ideas you discover on the way to
making, our department was probably also the cheapest and help you plot the path ahead.
undeniably the lowest-tech of them all - just a big stack of All the energy bottled up in these illustrations could achieve only a
drawing paper and a few boxes of pencils. theoretical release. Any static image could only suggest movement,
A very large sheet of drawing paper and a 3- or 4-B pencil is could only hint at depth and drama, relying on the spectator to com-
the perfect combination of elements for conceptual work. plete the scene. Thus it seemed somehow perfectly natural to be

Concept sketches are glorified doodles, and the time needed to involved in a process by which that could be accomplished.
actually cover a large sheet of paper with graphite affords the Computer technology has freed creativity from all the annoying

luxury of letting your mind follow the tip of the pencil rather hurdles of physical effects, and the route from imagination to the
than telling it where to go. Also, the incidental nature of the screen has never been more direct. Nonetheless, it was quite a trip.

drawings freed me from the necessity of rendering something

publishable (it seems to me a lot of concept art is done with one John Howe
eye on the script and the other on potential Art of books) so June 2004
114 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

SAURON Pencil sketch

"This was done a long time before we
started filming. one of my earliest
It's

ideas for Sauron and his armor -

I wanted to devise an armor that

would work, that the Dark Lord could

actually wear and have battles in but
still be very spiky, extravagant, and

Gothic." JH

RIVENDELL TAPESTRY
Pencil sketch
"I find it hard to trade the assets of
movement for qualities of decoration;
thus there is rather too much action
here for a real tapestry." JH
 CONCEPTUAL ART: JOHN HOWE * 115

HOBBITON Bag End

"This painting was designed as a logo. I think I did this halfway through the project - Peter Jackson
wanted a letterhead with calligraphy across the bottom of it. That's why the Black Rider is kind of cartoonish.
He's not really like that in the film, of course. It's just to give some general idea of two central motifs in the
first movie." JH

HOBBITON Bag End

"Gandalf arrives in Hobbiton. A sketch done long before the actual location was found." JH
 CONCEPTUAL ART: JOHN HOWE * 117

HOBBITON 77h> Greew Dragon

"The Green Dragon Inn is a Hobbit
pub. I've never seen a real country
pub. We don't have them in Switzerland.
The Green Dragon was intended to be a
rambling one, which would be a Hobbit
hole that had been built up from a bank
into an actual building and become an
inn, a meeting place. It's really the only
place they socialize in great numbers.
The idea was to have a market square
out front. When these pictures were
drawn, I believe we had already chosen
the location, because I added that water
down in the front." JH

4
2fl

GALADRIEL'S GLADE Ruined Hobbiton

"Here is a vision of the Shire being destroyed. They built the miniature straight from this. And they built that
crazy hill with all the pipes and that sort of mad, hellish mill." JH
118 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

BREE The Prancing Pony

"The version of the Prancing Pony
above was very grandiose but ended
up being much humbler in the film.
I wanted to make it as intimidating as

possible, absolutely huge, but I'm not

quite sure that my version exactly fits

the mood." JH

ISENGARD The Birthing Pits

"There were lengthy discussions about
how Saruman actually creates his Uruks.
In the end, they were prized out of a
slimy earthen womb, fully grown." JH
 CONCEPTUAL ART: JOHN HOWE * II?

RTVENDELL Architecture
"How do you design architecture built by a race
of immortals whose beauty and grace is almost
beyond imagining? Well, of course, you can't,
but we did give it our best try. The natural
elegance of Art Nouveau provided inspiration
to let our pencils wander freely, tempering the
energy of line and curve with the melancholy of
a civilization preparing to leave the world behind
them. All very poetic.
"So how the devil Gollum ended up on the
same page, I can't imagine." JH

RTVENDELL Narsil
"An early idea for Narsil.
Note the indentation made
when Sauron's ring finger
was lopped off at the end
of the Second Age." JH

RTVENDELL Statues
"While Alan was wandering through the rooms of Rivendell, I was scouting out the
gardens and the valley itself. I had imagined Gandalf giving Frodo a tour around the
grounds." JH
120 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

ZIRAKZIGIL Pencil sketches

"Zirakzigil one of the Misty Mountains
is

that rise above Moria, upon which the

Dwarves built an observation tower, the
culmination of the Endless Stair. It had to
feel precarious and lofty: imagine going

up all those steps only to emerge on some

pleasant flat terrace. The top is weathered
and broken to allow Gandalf and the
Balrog to emerge - I couldn't imagine
the Dwarves actually sunning themselves
at the top on pleasant days, but rather
peering through slit windows at the

world below." JH
THE BALROG Pencil sketch
"The sequence in which Gandalf falls with the Balrog is one of my absolute favorites in the story. The Balrog
turns into a 'creature of slime' before crawling back up the Endless Stair to reignite on Zirakzigil. Once his fire
is extinguished, I imagined him as skeletal, diminished." JH

K3HBF'
122 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

RINGWRAITH AND HORSE Pencil sketches

"These are a couple of pictures of the Witch-king and a wraith
horse. The idea at one point was to have the horses created
digitally, so there was the full excitement of designing something
completely new - but in the end it turned out that to have a real
horse was much more economical." JH

AMON HEN Frodo faces the Witch-king at Anton Hen

'"Is nothing sacred!?' I hollered, when Peter asked for a color
illustration of Frodo battling the Witch-king on Amon Hen.
Actually, I didn't do that; I probably said, 'Sure Pete, no problem!'
and went off to nurse my bruised and battered sense of ethics in a
corner. It was often hard coming to terms with the changes the
script required, especially if the script called for Sam to lasso the
fell beast and Frodo to tempt the Witch-king close enough to stick
him with Sting. Fortunately this was very early on in the project,
and the script evolved a lot, thus the scene never was."
"The Seeing Seat here is just the top of a huge design
iceberg, including an abandoned fortress with stairs and
terraces stretching back down to Parth Galen. During the
design process, the urge to wander off from Amon Hen to
Amon Lhaw, and around the shores of Nen Hithoel, sketching
on the way, was very hard to resist." JH
124 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

GOLLUM Pencil sketch

"What's any image? Assuredly, what you endeavor to put in, yet undoubtedly you put in many other things without knowing you
in
are doing so. The most important, intimate, and powerful ingredients in any image seem to come from the spectator. As the vital
essence of Gollum is Andy Serkis's creation, so this drawing is largely his doing, even though it was done long before the actor was
chosen. Since it's one of a series of doodles done in spare moments gleaned from time spent conceptualizing locations, I didn't see
anything special in it, but Andy did, and it became one of the cornerstones of his interpretation of Gollum. So what's in there? Well,
whatever Andy saw, he brought with him, but deja vu always needs a nudge." JH

HELM'S DEEP
Pencil sketch
"What started as a
doodle for a piece of
Elven armor ended
up as a full study of
Legolas and Gimli on
the Deeping Wall. I

thought that Legolas

should have a full suit

of slim and intricately

tooled armor, whether
he wore it all the time
WARG Pencil sketch or not. But such is the

"I thought wolves should be the starting disparity between

point for the wargs, which, in the film, heroes and extras - the
are simply large predators, rather than Elves in full armor are
the evil phantasms of the books. This was cut down to a man
as far as I got." JH (well, to an Elf), where-
as Legolas, bareheaded,
comes through
unscathed." JH
 CONCEPTUAL ART: JOHN HOWE * 125

THE BLACK GATES Pencil sketches

"Numenorean architecture is quite arrogant, really, but with
supple lines inherited from their maritime past, which break up
the bulkiness of the structures. Only a lack of time stopped me
from exploring this avenue all the way back to Numenor itself.

"I am not a huge fan of 'designer's dream' architecture and

cities. Too many created fantasy realms look as if they are the
work of one architect (which is evidently true, but beside the
point), a fault born of our contemporary desire to design
novel cities and environments, forgetting that any urban
area is as much a product of chance as of design. I'm influenced

as much by the terrain, the materials used, as by the draftsman's

pencil. I tried to bring this to mind when imagining these great
structures." JH

THE BLACK GATES Pencil sketches

"One we touched on was to develop a
of the ideas
well-defined style for Numenorean architecture, which
constitutes the foundations of many of the larger structures
in Middle-earth. The Black Gates are Numenorean, repaired

and enhanced by Sauron.

"Sauron's 'embellishments' on existing structures, as well
as the architecture he creates, are wrong in every sense. He is

trying to capture something - humanity - he no longer

possesses. Sauron's architectural forays fall on the sinister side
of 'neo-gothic' Height for height, spikiness taken to needle
sharpness, and, above all, repetition of motifs ad infinitum.
Much of his architecture is in metal, riveted to stone

foundations, like a mad gardener grafting extra prickles onto

a rose and neglecting the flowers themselves. It is an attempt
to capture all the attractiveness of human craftsmanship in an
industrial manner. Above all, it is disproportioned, too tall, too
sharply edged, inhuman." JH
126 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE GLITTERING CAVES

Pencil sketches
"Caverns are frustrating
things to draw. They are a
catalogue of subterranean
marvels - assuredly most
exquisite to behold, but
not exactly stimulating to
conceptualize. The smaller
picture below shows the
mouth of the major caves.
A wide opening, not some
discreet passage, seemed
to convey the weight of
the mountain more
dramatically." JH

THE GLITTERING CAVES Pencil sketch

"To the right we have Legolas and Gimli exploring the Glittering
Caves. All the stalactites just brush the surface of the water.
Iwanted to create the feeling of an inverted mineral forest -
something that would be pleasing to both of them." JH
 CONCEPTUAL ART: JOHN HOWE * 127

PATHS OF THE DEAD Pencil sketch

"The arrival of the Army of the Dead. Huge amphitheater
with a central column. The army comes out of passageways
and slowly winds down the paths to the floor of the cavern.
I wanted it to feel like being in the center of a slow-motion

whirlpool, as disorienting as possible." JH

PATHS OF THE DEAD Pencil sketch

"The central column of the amphitheater where the
army appears. At one point Peter Jackson wanted to see
an underground city." JH
128 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

|
MINAS MORGUL Pencil sketch
"This is an early version of the main gate of Minas Morgul. As
MINAS MORGUL Pencil sketch it was once the sister city of Minas Tirith, there are still traces of
"The Tower of the Moon, with the aviary of the fell beasts the same architecture, but all of this has been 'redecorated' by
atop it." JH the most recent occupants." JH
130 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MINAS MORGUL Pencil sketch

"A sketch of one of the Morgul statues. I liked the idea that
these statues, designed to intimidateand keep enemies away,
would be carved in the likeness of the most fearsome creature in
all Middle-earth, so I came up with a stylized Balrog. Better than

any 'Beware of the Dog' sign. And yes, those are wings." JH

MINAS
MORGUL
Pencil sketch
"I believe that
Minas
Tolkien's
Morgul had steps
leading down
from the front
gate, which, while
it did give the
opportunity for a
rather more stately
entrance, was not
exactly convenient
for armies issuing
forth." JH

MINAS MORGUL
Pencil sketch
"An early version of Minas Morgul, which was closer to the description in Tolkien's text. However, Peter felt

it was too far away from the Endless Stair." JH

CONCEPTUAL ART: JOHN HOWE * 131

MINASMORGUL Watercolor
"In this painting I was trying to convey
the vertigo that affects anyone wearing
the Ring, and the horrible sensation
of being exposed that the Hobbits have
during their climb. The rocks were based
on local rock formations to be found
around Wellington." JH

MINAS
MORGUL
Watercolor
"Paul Lasaine
reworked the
same painting
to vividly illustrate
the sickly green
phosphorescent
glow seen in the
finished film." JH
132 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

~~
GROND
Pencil sketch

GREAT BEAST Pencil sketch

"An early version of the beasts pulling the great ram, Grond, across the Pelennor Fields
toward the gates." JH
CONCEPTUAL ART: JOHN HOWE * 133

TROLLS Pencil sketch

"There were long discussions about the
nature of mountain-trolls. I thought they
should be somewhat shaggier than their
cave-dwelling cousins, and perhaps
have horns, like the mountain sheep and

goats whose environment they share." JH

ROHIRRIM Pencil sketch

"The Rohirrim are basically
Anglo-Saxons with horses (Tolkien's
contribution to alternative history,
which would have certainly resulted in
a different outcome at Hastings)." JH
134 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

SHELOB'S LAIR Pencil sketch

"In the sketch above you can see
numerous disquieting holes above the
path through the mountains; the path
itself is corroded and eaten away by
Shelob's poisonous nature." JH

SHELOB'S LAIR Pencil sketch

"The whole environment is eaten
away by the consummate evil of Shelob.
Rather than following a small path at the
bottom of a declivity, the Hobbits find
themselves in a horrid avenue of corroded
rock, impossible to scale, impossible to
escape from." JH
 CONCEPTUAL ART: JOHN HOWE * 135

SHELOB'SLAIR Watercolor
"Shelob squeezing forth from one of her many back doors. If a raspy dry squelching sound were possible,
that's the sound she would make as she eases her belly through the mouth of the tunnel." JH

SHELOB 'S LAIR Pencil sketch

"There's always something incredibly creepy about a spider waiting motionless for its prey. The overhanging
corroded rock that the Hobbits have been walking through is an extension of her trap, a trap into which they
have been falling ever since being persuaded to climb the Endless Stair." ]H
136 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

I I

CIRITH UNGOL Watercolor and ink

"Cirith Ungol was Sauron in Mordor, and it has strong Numenorean foundations.
originally built to keep
Sauron has turned it into a thinly manned, near-forgotten outpost. I imagined it lost in an incredibly
tormented wilderness of pinnacles and precipices." JH

CIRITH UNGOL Pencil sketch

"Cirith Ungol is not a conventional
fortress,with its hanging terraces
and courts and angles all askew. We
wanted to convey the precarious nature
of the structure perched on a pinnacle
of rock over an abyss. Traces of earlier
foundations can be seen beneath the
Ores' more haphazard repairs and
'improvements.'" JH
 CONCEPTUAL ART: JOHN HOWE * 137

want

CIRITH UNGOL Pencil sketch

"Above we see Nazgul patrolling the marches of Mordor. This sketch began as an extension of the sketch
below and quickly grew into a rapid study of a fell beast in flight." JH

CIRITH UNGOL
Pencil sketch
"It seems all of
Mordor induces
an underlying
disorientation
of the senses.
The rocks and
mountains of
Mordor are just
too knife-edged
and overhanging
to be possible in
our world. The
whole environment
is off balance,
ready to crumble
into ruin with
Sauron's demise."
JH
138 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

1 1

MORDOR Pencil sketch

"Just an idea for a bridge in Mordor.
Of all the architects of Middle-earth,
Sauron is the most modern, using metals
most extensively. With the climate being
what it is, Mordor is therefore a land of
rust." JH

CIRITH UNGOL Pencil sketch

"Initially, I did a fairly straightforward
rendering of Cirith Ungol, which went
as far as a cardboard mockup before
Richard Taylor said, 'Don't you think
this is kind of boring?' (in that nice,

unassuming way he has). That discussion

resulted in a serious revisiting of the
fortress, placing it out on a spur of rock
and setting each level at an angle from
the ones above and below." JH

BARAD-DUR Pencil sketch

"This sketch is big enough to cover half
a wall. It's a tribute to the incidental art
of concept doodling: start in one square
centimeter in the middle (more or less) of
a page and let your pencil wander. Your
mind tags along; it's like slowly, slowly
wiping the fog from a panoramic
window to ultimately reveal the
landscape outside." JH
 CONCEPTUAL ART: JOHN HOWE * 139

BARAD-DUR Pencil sketches

"I had already spent time wandering around the base of
Barad-dur, but I was careful never to look up, since what you
don't draw is left to the reader's imagination, a much more effi-

cient image generator than pencil or brush. But you can't cloak
something like that in cloud for a movie - it has to be built.
So I started at the bottom and slowly drew my way upward, not
able to decide how the top would look, dallying on the upward
climb to give myself more time to decide. Three sheets of paper
higher, the two horns designed to cradle the Red Eye finally
appeared. Had I procrastinated any longer, itwould have been
even higher." JH
 partner, Tania Rodger, and I set up an effects work- single towers to complex cities and landscapes, and we think it's

My
mid-nineties.
shop in Wellington fourteen years ago. Over the years,
we've moved around, eventually
I
settling here

think we've got about 65,000 square feet of work-

in the
the first

film project.
time that one workshop has looked after so
Some may think, "Greedy!" but the fundamental
reason that we put our hands up on the first day and said,
much on one

shop space, which is pretty good. We operate five departments "Please let us look after so much," is that we knew how impor-

under one roof, as well as Weta Digital, our digital effects partner. tant to the integrity of the work a single vision of Tolkien's world

On The Lord of the Rings we had 148 people in the workshop would be. It required a singular "Tolkienesque" brush stroke

and 38 on set, operating over the five departments, in addition to over as much of the work as possible. We felt incredibly passion-

the 200 artists at Weta Digital. There's a very small production ate about trying to control the look as much as we possibly
staff in our workshop, six people who look after all of the day- could from one place, so that the armor looked as if it was worn
to-day ins and outs of both the design, product development, and by the creature who designed it, as if it came from the land it

production side and the on-set operation and post-production grew up in.

requirements. Weta isn't hugely experienced on the world stage, so five years

We started designing The Lord of the Rings way back at the ago it was an immensely ambitious thing to say we could do this.

tail end of 1997. We've looked after the design fabrication and We have now reached the end of the project and are very proud
on-set operation of the special makeup effects and prosthetics, of what everyone has done. We made the conscious decision to
and the creature design and sculpting of the maquettes, including employ a number of young New Zealand designers, people who

final-stage models used for scanning by our digital arm. Add to had never worked on feature films before, in order to bring a
this the design, fabrication, and operation of all the armor and fresh perspective to the design, which I felt would best serve the

weaponry, the building of all the miniature environments, from old-fashioned innocence of Tolkien's writing. We hunted out
 WETA WORKSHOP * 141

"It was a healthy thing to have a multitude of artists, all creating their

vision of the Balrog or a troll or a Nazgul, or whatever. The Weta team

represented diversity - a diversity I encouraged.

PETER JACKSON
people who were passionate about the books and were also awe- For the look of everything, whether it's armor or pennants or
somely talented, creative people. We put together this team, general paraphernalia, our primary concern was to ensure that
backed them up with extensive research into appropriate periods we drew from natural sources. We tried to stay within the palette

of history, and with the much-heralded arrival of John Howe and of the ochers and the natural dyes of the area. To that degree, the
Alan Lee, who lifted our skill level immensely, we were then able first job that we had when we arrived on set, on any location,
to flesh out this huge and elaborate world and make something was to go and dig the soil. We would mix that with wallpaper
we could all be proud of. paste in huge vats, and all of the actors and props were painted
Our process basically started with discussions about the down with that particular ocher of the land. It was a conscious
subject matter, then research, then sketching, then color illustra- decision to try to make the characters look as if they lived off the
tion, of which we did a comprehensive amount, altogether a phe- land and were part of the environment that they'd grown from.
nomenal body of work. Then, after that, I'm a very big fan of I believe strongly, and many people here agree, that the
three-dimensional maquettes, so we used those to finally capture Fellowship and all the people they encounter are merely players
an image that the director can see in 3D, that he can pick up and on the surface of the film's most major character, which is

actually see in real terms. With some characters and objects, we Middle-earth, and that this is the story of the evolution of
did only a few, for others we did up to seventy different sculp- Middle-earth. Therefore, as often as possible, we were trying to
tures before we finally captured the essence of what everyone make the characters feel as though they were elements of Middle-
wanted. We tried to draw most of our design influences first earth. That was very important to us, and I hope we succeeded.
from Tolkien's written word - as a rule of thumb, Weta's policy is
always to go back to the written source if ever there isn't a con- Richard Taylor
sensus. March 2001
142 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

CHRISTIAN RIVERS
I first worked with Richard and Peter before Weta was a
company as such. I started working for them in 1991 for Brain
Dead. I storyboarded it with Peter, and then went on to work
for Richard on the special Weta was formed during effects crew.

the production of Heavenly Creatures in 1993, and I joined full-

time a year later as a conceptual illustrator and creature FX
technician for shows such as Hercules and Xena.
When The Lord of the Rings project came around, I was one
of the first people to do any artwork for the project; I was
storyboarding as soon as Peter and Fran started writing. The
first storyboards and creature designs were drawn in August
1997 and I've been working on The Lord of the Rings ever since.

As far as my background knowledge of the project was con-

cerned, I'd read the books when I was fourteen, but only once,
and I didn't remember them that well. However, I was an avid
Dungeons and Dragons player, and the sensibilities of the cam-
paigns that I liked to play were very similar in tone to Tolkien's
world - very grounded in reality.

When I storyboard Peter's movies, I try not to read the scripts

before we start. I know it sounds odd, but I like to get the story

straight from Peter's shot-by-shot description of the film.

Basically he and I are in a room. I have a drawing board and a

stack of panels, and he sits there with the script and describes
each shot to me. When we first started, no design work or cast-

ing had been done so I was kind of making up the look of the
characters and the sets as we went. Of course, they look com-
pletely different from the way they look in the film.

Later on, as Alan Lee and John Howe were designing the sets,

the art department was making little animatic models for us to

use. We had little toy figures for all the characters, which were in
scale with the set models, and Peter would create the shots using
them and a tiny camera. The camera was hooked up to a moni-
tor and a video board for frame grabbing. Pete would frame the
shot he wanted and yell, "Okay, okay . . . grab that frame!" -
and I would draw from the screen. Then Pete would reposition
the toys and the camera and we'd move on to the next shot. This

stage of drawings was very rough, and I would pass off these

chicken-scratch sketches to another artist, Andrew Calder, to

clean up.
The storyboarding process was basically the first stage of story-

boarding the films, which, like any part of the filmmaking process,
is ever evolving. We eventually changed the storyboards into 3-D
THE PRANCING PONY Storyboards
CGI to further assess how we would be able to create the films.
"This was a sequence of storyboards that I managed to shade
I still find it hard to believe that I was involved in this proj-
in pencil- most storyboards done by myself and Andrew Calder
ect. It's incredible to think that I got to work on The Lord of were finished by a group of artists with gray markers. I like this
the Rings and I didn't have to drive more than fifteen minutes sequence because it was done before any actors had been cast,
from home to do it. before the sets were built and, with the exception of a couple
of cutaway shots, it is almost the exact sequence in the finished
Christian Rivers film." CR
April 2002
144 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

GOBLIN Armor concept

"John Howe was always on our backs
as designers, questioning how the armor
we were drawing was to work, and why
we were drawing certain shapes, and
what would happen if they were to be
made into functioning armor. His input
was invaluable in educating us and
therefore processing our design of
such items. This sketch was done at
a stage when I was very aware
of what John would have to
say if the armor looked as if
it wasn't practical." CR

URUK-HAI Armor concept

"An early design for an Uruk-hai,
seen here menacing a Hobbit, probably
Merry or Pippin. The armor design was
considered too refined-looking and too
evocative of a high-fantasy aesthetic. The
design style established for all the races of
Middle-earth came to reflect a greater
emphasis on historical realism." CR

TROLL Design concept

"This was one of the first creature
designs ever done for The Lord of the
Rings project. I drew this in August
1997. While I'm still happy with the
illustration, it certainly betrays where
my design sensibility was at that time.
Dungeons and Dragons anyone?" CR
146 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THEBALROG Color sketch

"The drawing above was just a concept,
really - a different approach from what
everyone else was offering Peter. I was
a little worried about the Slime Balrog,
as a lot of the designs had started taking
it in a direction thathad it mutating and
changing form. I approached him in
terms of how a physical creature would
look if it were made of lava and dipped
in water. As it struggled, its skin would
crack and tear as the water tried to cool it
- parts of its 'flesh' would be eaten away
and hardened. What would be left is this
weird, almost scarred, muscular rock." THEBALROG Conceptual sketch
CR One of the earliest ideas for the Balrog. Christian initially went down the route of a
man-shaped creature with wings of flame.

THEBALROG Color sketch

THEBALROG Color sketch "As the Balrog comes out of
THEBALROG Color sketch "Gandalf's battle with the Balrog at the start of the water, he's been completely doused
"This Balrog was actually The Two Towers picks up from the initial drop down and then ripped apart - these are huge
drawn before any of the Khazad-dum into the lake. Then the Balrog comes gaping holes in him - and, after their
other ones. It was to show him out slimy and dripping and falling to bits. So I climb to the top of Zirakzigil, Gandalf
coming out of the water, and imagined a progression in which he falls into the lake finishes him off. It's taken the Balrog all
he's just erupting in steam and and his fire's extinguished, but there's still this deep this time to reignite, but by then it's too
then cooling, like lava or molten hot core of him on fire. And then he emerges and late." CR
metal going into water. You can starts changing from having slime dripping off him -
see fire creeping out, and there's which isn't slime; I saw it more as lava cooling
a little bit of fire spitting like through the cracks in his skin. This picture shows
blood from his mouth - I want- where the water has cooled the lava, forming these
ed to show him really feeling hard shapes. So this is him as he's cooling and he's
pain." CR starting to crack and then he eventually erupts." CR
148 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

GOLLUM Pencil sketches

"Above an early sketch of Gollum that is still one of my favorite pieces of work. The design is flawed, the pose doesn't real-
left is

ly make and the melancholy and gentleness seem completely out of character, but for some reason I like it. The image
sense,
above right was done for two reasons: first, to enable Gollum to faithfully and more accurately translate the facial performance
of Andy Serkis; and second because Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh actually cast Andy as Smeagol, for the flashback when he and
Deagol find the Ring. It became imperative then to change Gollum's design, and that was the motivation for this sketch.
For reference, I used one of Gino Acevedo's makeup archive photos of Andy as Smeagol." CR

ENT Pencil sketch

"One of the many
Ent designs, this
one was done at
a stage when the
actual concepts
had not been
locked down.
Peter had been
reacting favorably
to a lot of Daniel
Falconer's designs,
so I took Daniel's
lead and did this SHELOB Conceptual sketch
more as an experi- "This is my favorite Shelob sketch. Even though the design
ment in pushing is significantly inferior to the final design used in the film, it

the proportions was one of my minor successes with color. I've always
first

of the body to been scared of both color and spiders, so it was quite an
extremes. I call accomplishment for me to churn this piece out. The design here
this design was a mix of spider and crustacean, making it look a little too
'Oakbloke.'" CR 'monsterish.'" CR
150 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

DANIEL FALCONER
I think it helped that I am a huge fan of Tolkien's books. It
meant I was already very familiar with the material - to the
point that, throughout the production, I'd often get calls from
people I'd never met saying, "We need this question answered
very quickly and we've heard that you're the person who
either can answer it or knows where to go and find this infor-

mation in the books!"

As a reader of the books, I had a visual idea of what every-
thing looked like to me, but I think my ideas were diffused
enough not to exclude other ideas and other suggestions. A lot
of the time, I found my thoughts weren't entirely dissimilar to
what Peter Jackson was asking for. Generally, if he hadn't given
us an explicit brief, the first was think, "I've always
thing I did
imagined it to look like such-and-such" and then go from there.
Often, he had quite specific ideas about what he wanted to see,
and I would obviously try to deliver what he'd asked for - but
also give him options, him give ideas that were maybe more
like what I was thinking - and I can't think offhand of any
times when they jarred enormously. Which was lucky, I guess.
In a workshop like this we have a system whereby we would
give Pete some options to begin with and he'd say, "Okay, yeah,
these are kind of nice, but let's throw away all preconceptions
here. Let's open up extremely wide. Let's just go for it - from
one end of the spectrum to the other." And often he'd push us
down a path to some very extreme versions: I mean, there were
some ideas for the Watcher in the Water that were big seal-like

creatures. There were others that were arthropods . . . and once

we'd gone to the absolute limits of imagination, then he'd pull

us back and we'd focus. But it's in that exploration that you'll

find lots of neat little features that will then be used in the final
concept. That's probably why - on the Watcher in the Water,

for example - there was quite a range of different ideas drawn

up before we nailed it.

There's loads of cross-pollination here. We were all in one

big room together, so everybody could feed off each other. And
we'd all talk about it while we were working. Everybody brings
their own elements to it and what you end up with is so much
richer than any one person could ever have conceived of.

So I've been working on this film for five or six years now
and it has been phenomenally thrilling for me to be able to see
designs that we did nearly five years ago in some cases, appear-
ing on the screen. That is very, very rewarding."

ELROND Conceptual sketch

Daniel Falconer
"Based on the standard Elven infantry armor designed by
April 2002 Warren Mahy, I extrapolated and added layers to design Elrond's
armor that he wears during the Second Age prologue sequence.
There are elements here of ancient Samurai and Grecian design,
with a color palette drawn from Gil-galad's heraldry as described
and drawn by Tolkien himself." DF
 WETA WORKSHOP: DANIEL FALCONER * 151

MORDOR ORC Conceptual sketch

"So much of the time, design is about silhouette. In the case of the Ores,
I tried to distort their silhouette and make them less human by raising the

shoulders, arching the back, and throwing the head forward and down.
A low helmet helps slope the forehead back and make the Ore appear less
intelligent and noble in bearing. I brought the back up by adding a ruck-
sack slung high over its back. The hooklike projections on the arm and leg
armor were really just to help add menace and, again, differentiate from other
racial silhouettes on the battlefield. In the end, however, so much depends on the
posture of the performer on the day. Early on, we talked a great deal with the
motion coaches, developing ideas together that we would employ
in our artwork." DF

ORCS
Conceptual sketch
This was designed as a face
mask for an actor, with digita
eye enlargement to be added
later. This drawing offered a
different eye color from that
which was used. Below is a
series of potential Ore eye
designs. DF

ORCS
Conceptual
designs
"One of the ways
in which we hoped
to differentiate
various-featured
Ores was with eye
design. The door
really was wide
open in terms
of color and
appearance." DF
152 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

ORCS Armor design

For Moria Ore, Daniel designed
this
armor from wood,
to be constructed
polished and laid over light steel frames.
Lightweight armor, along with unencum ORCS Conceptual sketch
bered toes, meant that trees and pillars Daniel designed several Moria Ore
could be easily climbed. concepts with a range of varying armor
ORCS Conceptual sketch styles. This one carries a weapon designed
A much later design, this Mordor Ore to snare and tangle foes.
features many components that would
find their way into various Ore costumes.

LEGOLAS'S BRACERS LEGOLAS'S BELT BUCKLE AND

Conceptual designs CHAPE Conceptual designs
"Although ultimately the gloves "Between his Lothlorien and Mirkwood ARWEN'S QUIVER BUCKLE AND
themselves would be dropped, the quivers and his knives, Legolas has CHAPE Conceptual design
designs here for the bracers, or archer's probably the largest array of different "Though it never saw use in the movies,
gauntlets, worn by Legolas remained belt designs. As a result, he needed a we designed and built a complex and
essentially the same. They were designed pile of buckle concepts. Invariably the quite beautiful quiver for Arwen to wear.
to be fashioned out of shaped, circular inspiration forthem came from the I tried to keep the buckle design elegant
leather wraps that would lace up into a natural forms in leaves and seedlings, and feminine, while incorporating shapes
protective arm-guard." DF interpreted in an Art Nouveau style." DF from the quiver and bow." DF
 WETA WORKSHOP: DANIEL FALCONER *

THE WATCHER Concepual sketches

"During the 'anything goes' period of Watcher design I came up with many different concepts. The top picture was the first design
done and is still one of my favorites: it's too athletic-looking and characterless, but I still enjoy the idea of a huge octopus with
hundreds of tiny eyes and tentacles that sprout like hair from underneath its soft, weblike mantle. Of the others, the one center
right is and an octopus. I thought that, as the Watcher is a relic from the First Age of Middle-earth,
a cross between a trilobyte
perhaps drawing from our own was appropriate.
prehistory
"Many elements from these wildly disparate designs were pulled together in the final approved look. The drawing above right
introduced the riblike gills on the back of the beast, which made it all the way to the final design." DF
154 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

ENTS Color sketch

"I tried to design an Ent that didn't have
a beard.' The books were ambiguous on
this, which left me wondering, 'Well, is

Treebeard the only one with a beard, or

is his just the most pronounced and

unusual-looking?' Ultimately, Peter

Jackson liked the idea that all the
Ents would have a beard of some sort,
so in this case, instead of a beard, he
almost has a goatee.
"One of the things I was aware of was
that wherever we were going to film
these, unless we built a complete set
in a studio, we were probably
going to end up filming them in
a New Zealand forest. It
would make no sense to
design trees based on
exotic woods, as we'd
then have to put them in a
New Zealand forest and they'd look out of
place. The actual location for Fangorn
wasn't decided upon for a long time -
until well after we'd designed a lot of
Ents - and it was eventually agreed
that a lot of it would be studio-
based. That actually opened us
up to going a bit wider with
our designs." DF
ENT Color sketch
"This one has a very caricatured military look. He's quite a
short Ent. I gave him very short, stubby legs - 1 liked the
idea that perhaps he'd wobble around. He has a lot of vege-
tation, so perhaps he's a younger Ent." DF

ENT Pencil sketch

"Peter had
responded most
strongly to the
most elderly-look-
ing and twisted of
our Ent designs, so
this guy was an
experiment in try-
ing to twist the
body into an
extreme 'old
gnarled tree' form,
trying to break the
humanoid form up TREEBEARD Pencil sketch
as much as possi- "I really like the idea that the Hobbits are right next to Treebeard
bleand prevent and yet have no idea he's there - they just think he's a tree, but he's
them from looking quietly watching them.

like wooden "Putting the Hobbits in gave Peter Jackson an idea of scale. I

robots." DF think this is probably not far off the correct scale." DF
TREEBEARD Color sketch
"By this stage, we had really started to lock down what Treebeard would look like, and I thought I'd start playing with the color
schemes. His beard is very heavily mossed, quite green. I also liked the idea of his bark being old and gray and gnarled, so that's

wnat we nave nere.

"He's towering over the Hobbits - I think there's a piece in the book where he looks at them: 'Aah, little Ores' - thinking that
they're actually Ores, but they say, 'No, no, we're Hobbits! Don't squash us!'
"And there's an interesting idea with the hands, which seem really quite out of proportion, but they're not. It's a perspective thing
in this drawing. It wasn't totally successful, but I wanted to give the idea that his head was actually a lot higher up and farther away

from where his hands and feet were." DF

I
156 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

GOLLUM Design sketches

"Gollum was always one of my
favorite characters when I read
the books, but I actually didn't
do a great deal on him - in
retrospect I think some of my
concepts were a little off target,
perhaps a little bit too emaciated.
In particular these looked less like
a Hobbit that has turned into
something and more like some
kind of new creature entirely. Up
until this point, nobody had start-

ed looking at the color scheme on

GOLLUM Pencil sketch
Gollum, so I thought I would. In
"It became very apparent quite early on
this particular case, the idea was
that Jamie Beswarick and Mike Asquith
that his skin, while once flesh-
were capturing Gollum quite well with
toned, has now changed. He's
the designs they were doing. This was one
been out in the wilds a long
of my early versions - too thin and ill-
time so it's as if grass stains have
looking." DF
almost worn into him from
running around in the dirt, and there's very
the actual flesh tone left. Again, this probably
has the effect of making him a little bit too
'monstery.' The final design we went with
did actually have a very pale flesh tone,
rather than the green." DF

THEODEN'S ARMOR Color sketches

"Theoden is the king, so if any member of the Rohirrim is going
to have an elaborate helmet, it should be him; therefore Theoden's
helmet comprises three or four different metals. It's also covered in
ornate filigree. I looked a lot at the material that was pulled out of
the Sutton Hoo burial mound for inspiration. There are little enamel
panels, the horse's head, sun emblems, and a Celtic curl that we used
time and time again.
"The drawing to the left is very close to the final armor that was made.
Interestingly, on his lames, as they crisscross his stomach, there's actually a
unting scene etched onto them. We thought that his armor would tell a story,
ever able to see it up close, there are little soldiers chasing a boar and
r animals.
e motif pops up again and again, so we adopted
that and also put the
golden sun, which is Rohan, on the shields. It was
the flag of
very helpful to develop these iconic devices that we would
reuse, so that when you see a character in Rohan armor,
an audience member, without even questioning it,
will think, 'Oh, he's from Rohan,' as opposed to,
'Who's that guy? Where's he from?' There are many
peoples and cultures in The Lord of the Rings, so it
was really important that we had these strong visual
styles and color palettes to distinguish each culture."
DF
 WETA WORKSHOP: DANIEL FALCONER * 157

EASTERLINGS Color sketch

"At this stage, we were trying to establish very strong
iconic features for the Easterlings to differentiate them from
the other armies, so one of the things I played with was that
they used different metals in their armor - brass, bronze,
coppers. The kinds of metals that we haven't seen a lot of in
the various other armies, together with new shapes. In this
case, thought it would be interesting to add a strong
I

geometric element to their design, so I used lots of squares

and circles.

"This picture introduces the idea that they're actually

quite a rich culture, and that each warrior wears the
badges of his office and the wealth of his family all over
him. They would festoon themselves with either war
trophies that they've taken off people they've killed or
family heirlooms. He's absolutely covered in this sort
The pattern for the armor is fairly
of stuff. close to
what we finally went with, but there were a few
changes. Peter Jackson felt that we needed a helmet,
whereas this one has a turban. He believed that a
helmet makes him much more warriorlike and
again, less obviously from any recognizable
culture." DF

EASTERLINGS Color sketches

"Sourisak Chanpaseuth did a great drawing that included a
fantastic helmet with the silhouette of two really big blades
coming out of it, which Peter Jackson So I
really, really liked.

began trying different helmet designs that would employ that

silhouette. It was something that none of the other races that
we'd designed at that stage had. The look of the armor itself had
been pretty much locked down, and we also had a very strong
idea of what the colour palette would be - ochers, reds, browns,
black, and brass." DF
158 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

FELL BEAST Concept

"Trying to give Peter Jackson a truly repulsive beast, I

drew this fell beast concept with the inspiration of vultures,

marabou storks, and other carrion-eating species in mind. The
creature was almost skeletal in frame, but huge and loathsome.
I imagined it would smell as foul as it looked, swooping low

over the battlefield." DF

FELL BEAST Concept

"The fell beasts were only scantily described in the books,
leaving us with quite a bit of latitude when coming up with
designs to show was perhaps the
Peter Jackson. This drawing
most dragonlike that was done. Yet there is something noble
about dragons that didn't quite fit. Peter felt they needed to
look more repulsive and evil." DF
WETA WORKSHOP: DANIEL FALCONER * 159

OLOG-HAI Helmet
concept
"A variety of different
helmet designs were done
for the Olog-hai trolls. I was
conscious that we needed to
create something that didn't
resemble Uruk-hai or Ore
helmets, such as those we
had already seen in the first
two films. So I tried some
different approaches, using
more chain or overlapping
scalloped plates, more like
Sauron's Second Age armor
seen in the prologue to the
first film." DF

MOUNTAIN-TROLL
Face concepts
"Rather than have all our
trolls look alike, I explored
the possibilities of some
level of variationbetween
individuals. These included
disease and deformity
variants, bug eyes, and
the like." DF
160 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

HARADRIM Armor concept

"The Haradrim were a human race but under the sway of evil. InThe Two Towers, we were
led to empathize with the young Haradrim boy Faramir's men but in The Return of the
killed,

King we as an audience have to root for the good guys as they fight the Haradrim. That meant
dehumanizing the Haradrim when we see them in battle at the Pelennor Fields, something that
can be achieved with masks. The moment the human face is taken away, it is easier for an audience
to accept a violent death without question or empathy. I tried to imbue the masks the Haradrim
wore with menace and cruelty. They are fearsome and brutal, so hopefully the audience will feel
comfortable with our heroes slaughtering them." DF

HARADRIM
Armor concept
"The Haradrim were
great fun to design
because they were HARADRIM Armor concept
highly decorative. I "Among the motifs that were established to differentiate the
relished the opportunity Southrons was one idea of a ceremonial back-piece that became
to include lots of affectionately known around Weta as 'the dreamcatcher.' The
impractical but cool- idea was that some of the Haradrim leaders would have the role
looking accoutrements of war-priests, festooned with items of religious rather than
and adornment. Their practical significance. The back-piece created an interesting and
vaguely animalistic unique silhouette, which would also help distinguish them on
headdresses were the battlefield. Red body paint, symbolizing the blood of their
especially enjoyable to enemies, was another idea, which would also carry through to
experiment with." DF their mumakil mounts." DF
 WETA WORKSHOP: DANIEL FALCONER * 161

HARADRIM Conceptual design

"Almost six years after beginning
work on The Lord of the Rings,
to be able to go back and design
into that world again was a true
joy. This piece was requested late
on as the final round of pick-up
photography loomed for The
Return of the King. By this stage
I hadn't done any LOTR art for a

good while, but it was no trouble

to slip back into Middle-earth
again. Christian Rivers had
done a very loose Photoshop
study, which I used as a guide
to extrapolate from with this
design. It's one of the few
drawings I completed on the
computer rather than as a pencil
or marker drawing. I was very
happy with the way it turned out,
and the final product on screen
looks very much like it was
it, so
a wonderful note to end on and
close the book on LOTR for me."
DF

MUMAKIL Conceptual designs

"Designing the mumakil was great fun, because elephants have such interesting features. I imagined a variety of unusual tusk
formations, trying to think about how and why they might have developed. In the drawing above right, I was imagining curved tusks

that might be used in bouts of competition between bulls. The points were curved inward to avoid injury to each other, but they
would still be a serious threat to smaller creatures and enemies.
"Experimenting with different tusk arrangements, I drew inspiration from prehistoric elephantlike animals. There are elements
of mammoth and mastodon in the above concept, with small eyes and ears to help emphasize the huge size of the beast.
"The top drawing was the final approved design, on which we based the final sculpture. It was really an exercise in trying to
see how far one could push an elephant in terms of scale, ferocity, and evil while still adhering to principles of reality." DF
162 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

CORSAIR SHIPS
Concepts
"In trying to imagine exciting ways for the Corsair ships to disgorge their cargo of undead onto the docks, I designed the ship above

to have five extendable ramps, which would drop from their upright position on the deck, down over the side, and bridge the gap
between ship and dock. I imagined that one of the attributes of the Corsairs was to board and seize other ships very quickly because
of their ability to land large numbers of their troops in one go with these multiple ramps.
"Although not terribly clear in the illustration opposite top, this concept for a Corsair ship sported a pair of outriggers, making
three hulls in total. Apart from its large fan-shaped sail area, the ship would be able to seat many rows of oarsmen in the three hulls,
allowing for great bursts of speed. The outriggers' struts also served as boarding ramps for the troops I imagined would be carried on
board, with rotating extensions that could be hoisted when traveling and dropped when engaged in boarding. I imagined this would
be interesting to see on screen when Aragorn arrives with his undead army. Vertically mounted ballistas also protect the ship fore and
aft, and three huge rudders, mounted at the front of the main hull and the end of each outrigger, would increase maneuverability.

Beyond that, it was something we had never seen before.

"In an attempt to try to come up with a design for a ship that was both new and interesting, and allow for a dramatic entrance for
Aragorn's undead soldiers at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, I came up with the design opposite bottom. The ship has a low profile,
with the masts able to drop to remain unnoticed on the horizon for as long as possible. The sails were based on Pacific designs that I
saw while researching at the museum, but in addition the vessel sports two rows of oars down each side of her long hull. I imagined
the craft having a shallow draft to allow for beaching maneuvers when conducting coastal raids. The front of the ship would draw
up as shallow as possible, and the huge louvered steel doors occupying the front third of the ship would open, allowing her cargo of
troops to disembark en masse. I had Aragorn's arrival with the Army of the Dead in mind when designing this, though ultimately this
concept went no further." DF
WETA WORKSHOP: DANIEL FALCONER *
164 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

BEN WOOTTEN
I started working at Weta at the same time as Daniel Falconer
and Shaun Bolton. I'm a huge fan of the books and couldn't
believe we were doing the movies. I went to university in

Dunedin, and I had friends who were great fans of

down there
the books as well. And I remember many late-night talks about
what you would do if you were going to make it into a film -
whom you'd cast and things like that. And to suddenly find
myself, eight years later, designing on the films - it's totally

surreal.

John Howe was amazing - I've had his artwork on my walls

for ages. So to work with him was fantastic; working from his

sketches for the Balrog was probably the most amazing thing.
One of the things that I think makes the design more suc-
cessful is the fact that we all work together, swapping ideas and
information around. No one works in a vacuum. I think that's
important - itmakes our job not just easier, it makes it far

more realistic and far more successful. And far more fun!

Ben Wootten
April 2002

CAVE-TROLL
Conceptual designs

ORCS Concept sketch

This early design is entirely
animalistic and was intended THE WATCHER
for digital creation. Conceptual sketch
166 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS
 WETA WORKSHOP: BEN WOOTTEN * 167

URUK-HAI ARMY Conceptual sketch

"Ah, the Berserkers. The heavy shock
troops wear masks, and there is that very
simple, clean face with just the little eye-
holes and the space for the mouth. And
there's something kind of creepy about
the simplicity of it. It also ties in with the
fact that they're easy to make; Uruk-hai
armor can be mass-produced. And it's
really impersonal, you get no impression
of what's going through the mind of your
attacker, which is something you use in
combat all the time. The thing I like
about the weapon is that, for the Uruk-
hai, it's such an intuitive-looking weapon;
it doesn't look like it needs any skill to

wield it. It's just a huge, heavy piece of

steel - you can see you don't need fencing
lessons!" BW
URUK-HAI ARMY Conceptual sketch
"With the above sketch we were doing
sword design, still resolving how much
armor they might be wearing on their
arms, and the general cut of the helmet.
The swordsman has splints down his
arm, which is a very simple but quite an
efficient way of stopping your arm getting
chopped off, and then there's the shape URUK-HAI BIRTHING SAC
of the breastplate. We were still trying Conceptual sketch
to establish a look for these guys - Ben's version of the sac itself,

straight back, very powerful shoulders, as seen in the pits beneath

opposed to the slinky Ores." BW Isengard.

URUK-HAI
ARMY
Conceptual sketch
168 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

PIPPIN Armor concept

"Pippin swears allegiance to Denethor,
but instead of being embraced with
the same enthusiasm that Merry had
been by Theoden, he's billeted out
to Beregond. So the armor he ends
up with is far more makeshift and
hurriedly tailored for him than
Merry's. These are basic Gondorian
components cut down to his size.
The leather tunic with the silver Tree
on it and the beautiful little collar
could easily be a pageboy's uniform.
The chain skirt and sleeves could be
trimmed down, and his cut-off
breeches and leather armguard are all
easily modifiable. It's not as beautiful,
but still as logical, as the solution we
came up with for Merry.
"Pippin is still wearing the Elven
leaf brooch and he's still wearing the
gray Elven cloak - a concession
mentioned in the book, because
they don't have cloaks his size. The

helmet, frankly, was harder to justify.

It carries the same black feathers as

the Citadel Guard design of the time,

giving him immediate status in
Gondor, although he was still looked
upon as a bit of a curiosity." BW

GOLLUM Design sketches

"I like this one of him on the tree branch. You can imagine him sneaking around Elven forests, just spying on people. He also looks
a lot healthier in this picture. I imagined that was probably earlier on in Gollum's story, where he's still in reasonably fertile lands,
it

and there's plenty of bird's nests around, plenty of young rabbits, so he's probably quite well fed. Later, of course, when he hasn't
eaten for days, and he won't eat the Elven food, he's quite drawn. That's a very strong feeling I took from the book, that toward the
end it's sheer force of will that's keeping him alive. Clinically, he's probably dead!
"The idea of designing Gollum was a massive challenge, but I enjoyed taking it on. Because everyone has thought about him,
everyone has a preconceived idea, so actually realizing the guy is incredibly difficult. And I think in that respect we were all keen to
have a go and get our ideas out there, because obviously we all had differing views on what he looked like. The other thing that is

cool about him is that he's probably the most tragic character in all the books. Tolkien doesn't write people's thoughts in his books,
it's old saga-style, but you get inside Gollum's head because he's schizophrenic, he talks to himself. He's the only character whose
thought processes you see working; I think that draws you to him as well." BW
 WETA WORKSHOP: BEN WOOTTEN * 169

FOUNTAIN GUARD Armor concept

"One of the first drawings I did for anything
to do with Gondor. It was an ink drawing
done on the bus on my way to work. I used
to spend an hour a day traveling, my
sketching time. There are some ideas here
that made it into the final design, such as the
heavy shoulder pauldrons over the top „
of the black robes and the long chain
skirt and long lines to the clothing.
Lots of blue as well. It's quite a
royal color; the pigment for blue is

quite hard to find in nature, and

without artificial dye, as we have
nowadays, it's a very rare color,
so it reeks of wealth and a
strong civilization that's got
the resources to waste
on blue dye. It speaks
volumes for the age ^
and wealth of the
culture." BW

FOUNTAIN GUARD Armor concepts

"These later drawings of the Fountain Guard are pretty close to the final design. What works in both of these is the very strong
vertical lines: the cloak, tabard, and chain-mail skirt that go right to the floor, obscuring their feet, so we see a pillar of strength
in these figures. The heavy silvered pauldrons over the cloak combined with a tall helmet make them appear almost spearlike, or
weaponlike, in themselves. Their proud crest of pure white swan feathers is These men have sworn allegiance
also a bold statement.
to a time gone by that may never return, but this is their job: they're guarding the dead tree, they're guarding the Fountain Court,
and they will do so with their lives. We made them even more dangerous and aloof by covering their faces with a black face mask.
There is no bargaining with these people; they are like the Beefeaters: they don't move, they don't speak. This is their life; no one is
more zealous than these guys.
"I drew them having a short sword. It was nice, as it was different from the longsword you see the other troops carrying
and would be used only if someone got past their polearms. However, it was decided it looked a little weak, and so to further
complete the vertical line we gave them a longsword, but rather than hanging at an angle like most swords, it hangs straight
down at the hip. The shield we can see in the right-hand picture was replaced with a longer, more elegant version of the standard
shield, with a different emblem on it. Rather than the wing shape, it is more of a traditional, but taller, Gondorian shield
design." BW
EASTERLING Color sketch
"I came round of drawings had been done, so there was already
in after the initial a direction that Peter Jackson liked. The
heavy-lamed look, the buildup of lots of small lames. He liked the sharp shapes. And he liked the eastern feel. So, it was basically just
exploring some of those options - trying some other shapes for the lames and exploring the directions that Pete liked. Going through
a lot of the Oriental books I noticed that indigo blue is a color they wear quite a lot. In the book the Easterlings are described as
wearing gold and red, which are really easy colors to pick out highlights on, so I just gave them another color that they might wear
underneath their gold and red - a pigment that might work well in a desert." BW
 WETA WORKSHOP: BEN WOOTTEN * 171

MOUNTAIN-TROLL Concept
"We were looking at modifying the trolls
slightly from the ones we saw in the first
two films to make them bigger and uglier.
So this is a Photoshop job, based on a
photo of the original cave-troll sculpture.
What I've done is resculpt the face in
Photoshop, making it more angular,
harder, and more dangerous. The eyes
are smaller, slightly slanted, and he's got
bigger teeth, while the bone structure
through the face and the cheekbones and
the brow is a lot more severe. I've also
darkened him so he looks more rocklike,
more like Tolkien's description in the
book." BW
172 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

FARAMIR Armor concept

"This was close to the final design of Faramir's armor. It's very
similar to the standard Gondor armor, although more ornate
and slightly finer in cut. There are more lines in the chest plate,
and it has gold trim, but with the very recognizable symbol of
the Tree and the seven stars. Faramir's not a man of pomp and
ceremony; if he's leading troops he wants armor that's going to
protect him. It doesn't have to be flashy. What we did decide is

that he has to stand out, and not just for filmic purposes; on the
battlefield he has to be able to rally his troops quickly, he needs
to be easily seen. So we chose a different color for his cloth,
which was green, which suits him in his dual role as captain of
the Rangers. Another symbol of Gondor that we adopted as
Faramir's personal emblem is the twin ravens: we see these on
his greaves, above the noseguard, and on the shield. It's also on
the cross-guard of his sword, but we can't see it in this drawing.
The armor is beautiful without being complex, because Faramir
is all about form and function." BW

FARAMIR Armor concept

"This was originally an unused Elendil design, for the first film,

but we considered it again for Faramir's armor. Its lineage from

the prologue armor designs is obvious, and because of that we
decided it was probably too fancy for Faramir. The edges of the
cloak are richly embroidered, which on one level would befit
the second son of the Steward of Gondor, but it doesn't suit the
character of Faramir. He's not a man of great flourish and show
of wealth; he's a simpler, more honest man than that." BW
 WETA WORKSHOP: BEN WOOTTEN * 173

ARAGORN'S CORONATION Conceptual design

"The idea here was to cut a figure that could only
be that of a king. The crown is the same shape as
Isildur's from the prologue. In fact we've used a

lot of components from Isildur's armor in this

design: the pauldrons, breastplate, tassets,
right down to the greaves, gloves, and
vambraces. This armor has probably been
stored in a vault, maintained and polished,
and Aragorn's eventual acceptance of his
place in the continuing history of Middle-
earth is signified by his wearing his
ancestor's armor. We lowered the high
neckline of the armor as worn by Isildur
so we could see the Evenstar still around
Aragorn's neck, and developed some
richlyembroidered cloth of various cuts
and colors, as would befit a king of
Condor." BW

ELENDIL Conceptual design

Ben adapted an idea by Daniel
Falconer that made use of a
feathered motif in the cloak to mirror
the design of the helmet. Taking this
through another couple of stages, he
ended up with what was, except for
one or two minor costume changes,
the final image of Elendil as seen in
The Fellowship of the Ring. BW

ARAGORN AT THE BLACK GATES Conceptual design

"This is the first time that Aragorn is commander of his
seen as the true
troops, and the first timewe recognize him not just as a heroic figure but
as the sovereign of Gondor. He has accepted the sword of his ancestors
earlier in the filmand now he's begun to dress like the king of Gondor.
Here we can see the Tree symbol but not the crown - Aragorn still hasn't
announced himself as the king, so it's just the seven stars and the White
Tree. We can see here familiar imagery from Elendil and Isildur's armor
from the Second Age. It's evident in the picture on the right, where we
can see in the greaves and the vambraces the familiar wing fluting and
almost spearhead-shaped design from Elendil and Isildur's armor. The
brooch holding his cloak on is the same shape and design as
ElendiPs. The color red is also a color we see Elendil and Isildur
wearing. So it's the first time we're beginning to see Aragorn as the
man he's going to become." BW
174 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

CORSAIR SHIPS Conceptual designs

"Peter Jackson liked the design of the
sketch at top left; he just wanted to get
more of it, so I drew
a feel for the size of
itfrom the waterline. Both drawings have
a strong mouthlike feel, with the prow
overhanging this large ram, making it
seem very predatory. If this boat rammed
yours, you would be stuck there until it
decided you were leaving. It's a pirate
vessel, so it needs to look incredibly
dangerous, very sleek, and very fast.

They carry huge amount of sail, a Latin

a
design, almost Arabic, but with the sails
of a junk to give them a very distinctive
silhouette and shape in the wind - almost
like shark fins." BW
 WETA WORKSHOP: BEN WOOTTEN * 175

THE WITCH-KING Conceptual sketch

"A very early Witch-king idea. You
can see a lot of Dungeons and Dragons
influence in the armor design of this. This
is definitely pre-John Howe, probably
within the first month of design on the
project. It's a good piece, though, and
there are elements that I think have a
nice feeling, but nothing like what we
ultimately wanted for The Return of the
King." BW

EOWYN VERSUS THE WITCH-KING Conceptual sketch

"This was a more illustrative look at the situation, and I think
the movement and intent of the Witch-king in this picture are
nice. And in the crashed heap of fell beast behind him we can

see the wings and ribs splayed up from the wreckage - bear in
mind that this is a creature the size of an aircraft. Eowyn looks a
little too relaxed for the situation, perhaps because she hasn't
quite taken stock of what's going tohappen - she could be a bit
more dynamic. The fact that he's wielding a mace that size in
just one hand and towering above her, unnaturally tall in spite of
the bend in his figure, these are elements that I like. At the time I

did this, I was quite pleased with it. Now, not so much, but it's

still good fun." BW

ELVEN SWAN SHIP Conceptual design

"This is a design for an Elven boat found
at the Grey Havens. I used an Egyptian
influence here with the high bow and
stern, and the steering rudders very high
up on the little aft deck. This was a larger
ship than the one they went with in the

end: I was looking at the oceangoing

qualities of the vessel, because they're
sailing to the Undying Lands, so it's big,
with a large sail area, but still graceful. It

has a strong swan motif running through

it from the curled neckat the bow, almost
a figurehead, to the wing shape halfway
down the side. I wanted something very
elegant and very beautiful, and although
it has a Middle Eastern feel it does not

seem like a boat of this earth. We can

see echoes of Rivendell in the cabin's
structure, and if we look closely at
midship, just above the wing, we can
see a couple of people standing at the
rail, giving a sense of its size." BW
176 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

WARREN MAHY
I went to school with Ben Wootten, right from primary school,
intermediate, and all the rest of it. Then he went away to uni-
versity, and I didn't see him for ten years, but one day
he contacted me and said there was a project that was happen-
ing that I should be involved with. Other than doing stuff at
school with Ben, I never trained, didn't go to art school, and in
fact I'd ended up being a He said that he thought it
printer.

was still worth my sending down any work that I had to

Richard Taylor here at Weta. So I did, and Richard brought
me into the design team. I hadn't read the books for maybe ten
years or so - I had read them at school, but as soon asI knew

what the project was I read them again.

The great thing about the team here was that, if there
wasn't any design work to do, you could do other stuff -
Richard would get you fiberglassing, or carving poly, or going
out molding trees or picking leaves or something. I've

basically had a paid apprenticeship in the last five years - in

filmmaking!
Because I was quite happy to be onset as well, just as a set
dresser, I spent some time on one of the mountains where they
were filming. So if Richard wanted anything designed there, he
could grab me; in this way I ended up designing Sauron's sword
on top of a mountain, on the back of somebody's call sheet. I

remember I was just sitting in the snow, looking down at

Richard and Peter Jackson, who had just starting filming, and
thinking, "This is cool! This is a good job!"

Warren Mahy
April 2002

GIL-GALAD Early conceptual design

The color scheme was drawn from the heraldry and colors
of the generic High-elven armor but was intensified to enable
the character to stand out in the battle scenes. Warren created
the Second Age weaponry for Gil-galad's troops as well as the
encasing armor worn by the army in battle.

MORIA ORCS Conceptual sketch

 WETA WORKSHOP: WARREN MAHY * 177

DWARVES Conceptual sketches

Warren used a series of geometric shapes
to suggest the precision and solidity of the
Dwarven armor.

URUK-HAI Armor sketches

These are early ideas for Uruk-hai
armor, focusing on the covering of
their faces.

"There was a big push to do a whole range of Ore helmets quickly, so I had a chance to
spend a week or so just designing helmets. I wanted them to be practical, but the ones
with the pointed nasal weren't - mainly because the stunt guys could barely see."WM
178 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

URUK-HAI ARMY
Conceptual sketch
"This is one of the final
Uruk-hai drawings I did.
I love the concept of the
helmet covering the eyes
of the Uruk - it's a very
scary look." WM
 WETA WORKSHOP: WARREN MAHY * 179

CIRITH UNGOL URUK-HAI

Conceptual design
"Same old Uruk-hai, different
armor. Because we'd already gone
through the traveling Uruk-hai, and
we'd gone through the Helm's Deep
Uruk-hai, we had to find something else
that worked for them. I really like the idea that
these guys were more Ore-like in theirarmor
preferences, with potentially more leather
on top of chain, and lots of red, lots of

Eyes. These guys are Sauron's - the

earlier Uruk-hai wore the white hand of
Saruman, but these ones have their bodies tat-
tooed with Sauron's Eye." WM

URUK-HAI BIRTHING
Conceptual design
This shows an Uruk-hai emerging from
its sac. WM
180 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE WATCHER Conceptual sketch

This shows the possible scale of the Watcher against two of the
Fellowship underneath.

THE WATCHER Conceptual sketch

This sketch emphasizes the mouth and tentacles to create a
nightmarish vision.

GOLLUM Conceptual sketch

"Just a very quick Gollum to show
a facial expression - not especially
relevant, but still fun to draw!" WM

ENTS
Conceptual sketch
"I think I was drawing
sketches of the Warg
at the time, so I didn't
have a lot to do with
the Ents, mainly
because Dan Falconer
had got it so right
from the beginning.
This one is a very
slim-looking Ent. "WM
WETA WORKSHOP: WARREN MAHY * 181

SPECTRAL CORPSES
Conceptual sketch
"Frodo is way down in the reeds, and
he's trying to fight his way out, but he's
been surrounded by these shapes. I can
imagine that the eddies in the water
would change the shapes quite often.
Potentially at one moment it could be a
Gondorian spectral image in front of him,
and then it's an Ore, and so on. Actually,
that's not true, because Peter Jackson had
talked a lot about the fact that he didn't
want Ores in there - he didn't want to
confuse people into thinking that the
Ores were chasing him under the water.
So we just concentrated on Elven and
Gondorian-type characters." WM

SPECTRAL CORPSES
Conceptual sketches
"Two sketches that give an idea of the
corpses' facial expressions and what it
would be like seeing the faces close up.
The one below is viewed looking down
into the water from the top. Both show
how the light would be reflected in the
eyes, and the distance to the surface of
the water." WM
182 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

WARGS Conceptual sketches

"At the beginning Peter Jackson used a few words
that were helpful to us - it was a guide to what he
was looking for; he liked the idea of the Wargs
being almost reptilian but prehistoric as well. These
are definitely more doglike, a mastiff, but strange -
with bad anatomy! Then it started drifting more
toward a prehistoric doglike creature, only with
weird bends and stretches." WM
 WETA WORKSHOP: WARREN MAHY * 183

WARG RIDERS Conceptual sketch

"This was a later version of Sharku.
There was an illustration that Johnny
Brough did that had quite a high back
to the leather armor, and Pete quite
liked it, so we started adding that in.
This is pretty much the starting
point for the final costume design.
You can see that he's carrying a
piece of meat for his Warg.
Nice." WM
3>

WARGS Conceptual sketch

"Moving away from dogs, this one has an
almost horselike stature." WM
184 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

EOMER Conceptual design

"For Eomer I wanted a royal type of
armor - something that was a little more
fitting for a prince from the top family.
This was unusual for me - I'd never been
a drawing-in-color person. I only started
doing them when I came to Weta, but I

watched Dan Falconer with his marker

pens. It was good training, because you
could start playing with color quickly by
photocopying your drawing, playing around
with it. 'Ooh, I've done something terrible!'
so you just throw it away and then color
up another photocopy." WM

EOWYN'S ARMOR Conceptual design

"If she was going to be mistaken for a man, Eowyn's armor had
to be quite utilitarian. You could imagine the armor she's wearing
on just a foot soldier, but hers had to be reasonably form-fitting
and accentuate the female form, within reason. It has chain mail
and then a splint at the top of it, just for added protection down
the arms and down the skirt, and a very basic Rohan shield."
WM
 WETA WORKSHOP: WARREN MAHY * 185

EASTERLENG Conceptual design

"The great thing about the Easterlings, because they were on the
bad side in an alliance with Sauron, was that you could make
them more tribal; they could be a bit more raw and a bit more
savage. I loved the idea of having exposed skin, a bare chest: he's
almost tempting you, 'Come on! I'm armored to a point but,
you know, my heart is open! Just try it!'" WM

HARADRIM Conceptual design

"The brief for the Haradrim was tribal. This guy has a Pacific
Island sort of feel. I imagined him being a mumak driver, with a
long spiked driving lance that he uses to steer, pulling the ears or
cheek to make the mumak
Everyone was keen on the red
turn.
GROND Conceptual sketch body dye as well - paint or blood mixed with earth - to try to
"This is a very early pass at Grond's wolf head, which is an idea get some color into the design.
from the book. Tolken actually described it pretty thoroughly. "One idea that was talked about for the battle scenes was that
I think of it was such a
as a distant cousin to the Wargs. It the Haradrim's victims would be hanging off the mumakil. See
strange shape, though, and the end of its nose would work but those skulls on spikes? Each head that the driver cut off, he
the rest would be a bit fragile. At this stage, the concept was would shove onto a spike. I think the idea got dropped quickly,
solely a wolf's head on the end of a battering ram." WM but I liked it." WM
186 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

SAURON Conceptual sketches

Warren was charged with designing
the overall Sauron concepts, such as the
helmet, weapons, and armor. Although
such a sequence isn't in the story itself,

these illustrationsshowing Sauron

throttling an Ore minion and burning
Gil-galad were done not only to give
an idea of the height of Sauron in his
armor, but also to demonstrate the
cruel majesty of the character.
MOUTH OF SAURON Conceptual sketches
-
"The idea was that the Mouth of Sauron was purely that, just the mouth. He couldn't see - well, maybe he could with his mind
but the body was just a tool. There was an idea at one stage, I think it could be this one above left, that parts of his helmet actually
had hooks into his mouth that kept his mouth open as well, or pulled his mouth back into a grimace. But it didn't work out that
way because Bruce Spence, the actor who plays the Mouth, couldn't talk; he couldn't get his mouth to move. Peter Jackson liked the
idea that the robe flowed up onto the helmet, providing the horn shapes out at the sides. I like the way it gives him an almost reli-
gious, priestlike look." WM
188 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MUMAKIL Conceptual sketches

"I was going for something different with the mumakil, not just
giving Peter Jackson a straightforward elephant; you've still
got a trunk and tusks, so it still looks like an elephant, but I was
trying to alter the proportions to give it that sense of size. I had
in mind some of the dinosaurs, with large legs and clawed feet.
I quite liked the idea of having the head out on a big thick neck,

again giving it that dinosaur look. Since this was at the early

stage, whenever we put something on a creature, we hoped it

would inspire the scriptwriters to use the creature in a new way.
I think we were going for the idea that they were controlled by
the Haradrim pulling on the ears, so I gave them substantial
ones that could lend some weight to that idea." SB

<
iii

SHELOB Conceptual sketch

"I'm not particularly arachnophobic, and people who are all

seem to have a different reason for being so - some find the

number of legs scary, others the way spiders walk. I confess that
one thing I always find creepy in spiders is the multiple eyes. So
trying to make a scary spider monster when you're not scared by
them was a bit tricky. At this stage, we were trying to keep it
more along the lines of a proper spider, rather than Tolkien's
description, which is different. His version has horns and jav/s
and all sorts of things." SB
TROLL Conceptual sketch
"This was a very early drawing for the cave-troll, possibly my first or second, and was really just a jumping-
off point for the design process. Although the design went in a different direction as the look of Middle-earth
evolved, the final cave-troll was surprisingly similar in proportions to my 'Neanderthal gorilla' concept." SB
 WETA WORKSHOP: SHAUN BOLTON * 191

THEBALROG Conceptual sketch FELL BEAST Conceptual sketch

Shaun depicted this early concept for the "I come from a stop-motion background, so I've a big interest in dinosaurs, and
Balrog wreathed in flame and roaring. you can see that here in this guy. I was trying for something that wasn't a dragon,
but not a bird either. I don't think any of us really explored the idea of a feathered
fell beast. We were trying for something emaciated, because these creatures aren't
well treated. This particular version about how it would look when it's on the ground,
how it might walk around, with the bridle, of course, for the rider." SB
192 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MAQUETTES

ELVEN ARMOR CONCEPT Maquette

Originally designed as an idea for the Elven armor appearing
in The Two Towers, but ultimately maquette was
rejected, this
later selected as a strong lead for the armor worn by the Elves
in the Second Age, seen in the prologue to The Fellowship of
the Ring. WM

EASTERLING Maquette
"I was so pleased to sculpt this. Daniel took the lead on the
Easterling designs, but I was lucky enough to realize this design
in3D. It's a great-looking design. I put my own slight spin on it,
which is the fan of arrows on his back. They didn't have bows in
the end, which is But other than that, I was just lucky
really sad.
to sculpt a great piece of work from someone else's drawing -
that's the whole Weta teamwork thing in action, the culmination
of many people's work. It's so cool that almost every drawing
or design was produced by the team of artists and designers,
rather than just one person. The whole project has been fun
because of that." BW

SAURON ARMOR CONCEPT Maquette

This is the third and
maquette of Sauron. Peter Jackson
final
responded well to elements from all three of Warren's sculpts -
in this one he liked the robes that draped over the armor. WM
 WETA WORKSHOP: MAQUETTES * 193

CAVE-TROLL Maquette
Ben had already produced a sculpt of the cave-troll's facial
design. The above maquette was a refinement of that and was
BW
liked by Peter.

CAVE-TROLL Maquette
Jamie's sculpt for the cave-troll, which was then painted by Ben
Wootten, was the final approved maquette. JB & BW

Jm
4
ORC Maquette ORC Maquettes
An early facial sculpt that incorporates These early sculpts by Jamie explored
a helmet and chain mail made by Weta's what kind of armor the Ores might
armory. WETA wear. JB •
194 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

BILBO TRANSFORMATION Maquette

This design was produced for the scene
at Rivendell where Bilbo's face is seen to
briefly transform into a hideous, Gollum-
like creature, a kind of "what-if" scenario
inwhich we see what Bilbo might have
become had he succumbed to the evil
lure of the Ring. WETA

ORC Maquette URUK-HAI Maquette

This sculpture was JB
from very early on
in the production,
before the design
of any part of the
Ore had been
finalized. JB

NAZGUL HORSE
Maquette
JB
WETA WORKSHOP: MAQUETTES * 195
196 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

FELL BEAST Maquette

"This fell beast was based on my
drawings, keeping a dinosaur look. By
this stage, I was envisaging it more as a
pterodactyl, in terms of its proportions at
least. I working in three dimensions;
like
it's good way to do design, as
actually a
you can sometimes do a sculpture quicker
than you can a drawing. However, draw-
ing in pencil can be equally satisfying,
and it's probably quicker to do a lot of
detail in pencil as opposed to sculpting a
maquette!" SB

ROHIRRIM Maquette
"There was a strong Celtic influence
in the Rohirrim designs. We opted for
fin-mail - scale mail that tapered to a
point - as a point of difference from the
chain of the Uruk-hai and Gondorians,
and a color scheme dominated by
green and gold." DF

ROHIRRIM Maquette
"The soldier in this maquette has a
maroon cloak featuring embroidery on
the back. I imagined that his cloak had
been passed down through generations
from his soldier ancestors." SL
WETA WORKSHOP: MAQUETTES * 197

WARGS Maquettes
These were created to show the CGI
designers how the Wargs looked in
terms of size and weight. WM

ENTS Maquettes
"We experimented
with different Ent body
proportions, trying to
break out of the human
form by extending or
shrinking their arms and
legs. We also explored
the balance between
how much man and
how much tree would
make up their final
forms. Some were more
manlike, but Treebeard
(far left) was closer to
a tree. Peter Jackson
approved this foot-and-
a-half maquette and
it became the bible
reference for
Treebeard." DF
198 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

FOUNTAIN GUARD Maquette

"This Fountain Guard sculpt is pretty close to the final look.
Once Peter Jackson has seen a couple of rounds of drawings,
and he's fairly comfortable that the direction we're going in
is what he wants, 3D then becomes a requirement - it can be
rotated and viewed from all angles. This is so he can confirm it

is the look he is after. So the maquette is a realization and a fine-

tuning of what he saw in our drawings that he really liked. With
the Fountain Guard, we pretty much got the say on how the cos-
tumes looked because, on the Fountain Guard and even more on
the Gondorian troops, they were far more of a component of the
armor. However, there are reversals to that, where costume has
more input. Aragorn's Black Gate outfit was more Ngila
Dickson's department than ours, so there were concessions
made to fit with her designs. As a result, we're unlikely to do
a maquette of Aragorn - we tend to do only our own designs
when it is something that can't quite be visualized in a drawing.
Maquette clothing doesn't give you an accurate representation
of texture. A drawing can actually do a better job of clothing
than a quick sculpt, whereas a quick sculpt of armor, which is
a solid object, is really useful. Also, maquettes were used if there
was going to be a digital realization as well. We sculpt special
maquettes for digital scanning after the final design has been
agreed on, a sculpt that is at least four feet tall. Those are big
models!" BW

GONDORIAN SOLDIERS Maquettes

These three maquettes are some of the many that were produced
by Weta as the design of the Gondorian armor progressed toward
final approval by Peter Jackson. The one above left is by Ben and

shows Middle Eastern influence, particularly in the long chain

a
skirt. Above right is one of Warren's early sculpts, exploring ideas

for armor design. The sculpt to the right was the final Gondorian
maquette that Daniel did, and represents the culmination of many
people's work. BW, WM, & DF
 WETA WORKSHOP: MAQUETTES * 199

CITADEL GUARD
Maquette
This highly detailed
design maquette by
Daniel is the final
approved design, and
was produced for
Weta Digital as a
scanning model from
which to create digital
versions of the Citadel FELL BEAST CLAW Maquette
Guard figures. DF This sculpt of the fell beast's claw by Mike Asquith was done
at a large scale for scanning so that the Weta Digital artists
could get the textures and colors right for the digital model.
Gino Acevedo painted it while demonstrating a technique
with plaster of Paris; a cast of the sculpt done in plaster of
Paris can be worked up to produce the very hard, crisp feel-

ing that you would get in the actual claw itself. MA

MUMAKIL Maquette
"This maquette was made from a design
of Daniel Falconer's that Peter Jackson
liked. I just turned it into a three-
dimensional creature with a few
changes. Because I have a stop-motion
background, a lot of my 2D creature
designs don't change much as I progress
to3D. At the back of my mind, no matter
what I'm drawing, I'm thinking in 3D. It
oftenworks out that I pencil it, then
sculptit, but someone else will color it

because by that stage I've moved on to

something else. I didn't do the tower on
the back of this maquette. In fact, that's

one of the reasons we had the maquettes

in the first place - so that they could try
building different structures on its back.
I believe this was by Matt Appleton,
built
but from a design by Johnny Brough." SB
200 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

SHELOB Maquettes
"In some ways I prefer the sculpt above
because it hasn't been painted. With
a flat tone, it's easier to study. To the
rightis the most successful of the three

body maquettes that were done - it's

about 18 inches in diameter. Some things
work well here, such as the immense
weight of her abdomen - it's very baggy

and wrinkly and we can see that it's actu-

ally resting on the back leg, it's so fat.
Peter really liked the build of the tunnel
web spiders, which have reasonably long
but chunky, very strong-looking legs, so
we can see that proportion here." BW

SHELOB Maquettes
With so many of the Weta designers
working on Shelob, a number of different
designs were created, all trying, and in
some ways succeeding, to capture the
essence of what Peter Jackson envisioned
as the ultimate scary spider. The one near
right is by Greg Tozer, while the others
are by Jamie Beswarick. GT & JB
 WETA WORKSHOP: MAQUETTES * 201

SHELOB Maquettes
"After the initial had been approved and scanned, Weta Digital quickly realized they would need to have a much
sculpt (top right)
more detailed understanding of Shelob's mouthparts in order to create a working digital model. Due to the deadline imposed on
the digital animation team, only a day could be spent designing the mouth workings. The quickest way to achieve this was through
an augmented version of the original sculpt. We poured a hard Plasticine copy from the existing mold and quickly worked the mouth
details into it. The design brief was to the point: scary and disgusting. From memory, I conjured up a combination of the
most vile images I could think of and worked them around the existing mandibles: squid beaks, crayfish mouths, and various 'organ-
ic apertures' were the main inspiration. The only change Peter made to this design was to remove the large middle tooth at the top of

the mouth. The digital team did an amazing job of breathing life into the design (above right). From a static sculpt to a slobbering
snapping maw.
"Above is the approved Shelob face sculpt. Designing the paint scheme on an organic-translucent base, Gino Acevedo
used this silicone rubber casting of the maquette. Combining elements from Jamie's anatomical spider-face sculpts and Greg's
diseased maquettes, opposite, this final version was an attempt to capture all and Fran warmed to the
the aspects of design that Peter
most. The diseased growths were whittled back to a concentration around the and a more predatory look was introduced by
left eye,

bringing the alpha eyes closer together. In keeping with the squat nature of the tunnel web spider, Peter had me shorten the length of
the face, bringing the eyes and mouthparts closer and creating a more focused creature. Only the size of a fist, this design maquette
was to become the scanning model, as the scan technology no longer required large-scale models to achieve high resolution. The
resulting scan was so detailed that it perfectly captured an errant thumbprint on the back of the model!" BH
202 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

KING OF THE DEAD Maquette and Photoshop exercise

"The first stage of the King of the Dead transformation
consisted of a full head and facial prosthetic appliance sculpted
by Jamie Beswarick (above right). The artwork shown here for
the second stage would have to be done digitally to achieve the
effect.To achieve this we made a clay copy of the full prosthetic
makeup, then sculptor Bill Hunt carved into the appliances until
he had sculpted a decomposing skull that would line up perfectly
with the makeup, making it possible for Weta Digital composite
artist Charlie Tait to complete the ghostly effect of having the
skull show through the makeup at times.
"The second stage of the King of the Dead CGI was for the
scene in which you see the King during his transformation. Of
course, there's also a prosthetic mask on the actor - there's a
haze or mist that flows over his face, and as the mist covers him
you start to see the deterioration, and begin to see the skull
beneath his skin and all the gory detail." GA

GOLLUM Silicone head

The final head design (right) - designed and sculpted by
Jamie Beswarick and painted by Gino Acevedo: "After
designing several different paint schemes for Gollum, this
is the final 'look' that Peter approved." JB & GA
 WETA WORKSHOP: MAQUETTES * 203

TROLLS AND FELL BEASTS Photoshop exercises

For The Return of the King, there were five different types
of trolls, all of which required subtly different color
schemes. The helmeted ones were for the Siege of
Gondor, with the one below loading the cata-
pults and the one above right used to crash
through the gate, attacking all in its path.
Below left can be seen the Attack Troll in
full body armor. The troll above left, with

facial scars and sideburns, is the one that attacks

Aragorn during the battle at the Black Gates.
The fell beast image to the right is an exercise
in Photoshop, trying to replicate the look of
snakeskin and come up with a color scheme
that Peter Jackson would approve, which indeed
he did with this one. Below it is a digitally manipulated image
that was done to show what the inside of a fell beast's neck
would look like when the head was removed from the body. GA
 DIGITAL PAINTINGS

A digital matte artist is

and quite often that is
a painter first, digital artist second,
had to take when
the approach one
producing matte shots for the films. The world of The Lord
of the Rings that is being incorporated into the film is based on
we'll even film a rougher painting to see
ally needed. For others
more than
Of
will ever
we might
be seen, just in case.
how much more

course, there are paintings that were fairly simple sky

is actu-
overpaint - in other words, put in

original art by illustrators such as Alan Lee, so it springs from a replacements, where the matte painter acted like a digital com-
very subjective frame of mind. Regardless of the wonderful vistas positor, in a sense using digital tools to replace one image with
that New Zealand provides, and that the photo reference some- another without working too hard, but those instances were quite
times offered, sometimes thrust, into the development of the rare. Photos rarely do the trick in and of themselves. The differ-
image, the matte painting is a painting in a very real sense: it has to ence between a digital compositor and a matte artist is that they
convey a story. This begins with a sketch by Alan Lee or a quick usually have many other concerns (in the case of The Lord of the
paint sketch by Jeremy Bennett. Sometimes Gus Hunter will give Rings, quite weighty, technical ones) and a variety of tasks to
us a bit more in terms of a Photoshop layout. Once we get the tackle. Our two worlds have a gray area between them, but there
green light (quite often Peter Jackson approves the "feel" of a shot is quite a distinction in terms of focus: a simple way to put it

more than anything else) we begin painting, first roughly, to lay the would be that one is a photographer on wheels, and the other is

image out accurately and match it to the live plate, then more defi- a painter, but both can be animators.
nitely. Since changing a painting in its later history is not as simple

as changing lighting on a shader and rerendering, great care is Roger Kupelian

often taken in making sure that each step is successful. Sometimes May 2003
 "

DIGITAL PAINTINGS * 205

"Digital painting is a wonderful combination of the oldest artistic

technique in the world with the most modern artistic technique.

You can manipulate every pixel of a digital picture now to create color

and light and shade and so manipulate the data that was shot on the day.

But to do that, you go back to the oldest art form, just a brush and
pigments and paint to create the look.

PETER JACKSON
206 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

FROM BREE TO RIVENDELL Weathertop

"Working from some of Alan Lee and Jeremy Bennett's concept sketches, based upon the actual location
footage, this dramatic view was created by adding various background layers and sky elements on the
computer." GH
RIVENDELL The Ford of Bruinen
"The digital left was the first illustration of
composite to the
how would look in the film. It shows the
this spectacular scene
water-based horses - summoned by the power of the Elves - in
relation to their environment and to the Ringwraiths and their
horses prior to the deluge that washes them away. Arwen on
Asfaloth can be seen to the right." GH

MORIA Khazad-dum
"Taking Alan Lee's conceptual drawings
as a starting point, this painting was
created using the miniature stairs built
by Weta Workshop. This composite was
created to show how much flame and
lava are visible in the cavern and to give
a feeling of depth, although itwas
important to hint at the bottomlessness
of the chasm. The columns of the
stairway actually go down farther than
the original frame of the miniature, and
the base doesn't show lava so much as
flame, rocks, and smoke to imply that it's
there somewhere, far beneath the bridge."
GH
 DIGITAL PAINTINGS * 207

RTVENDELL The One Ring LOTHLORIEN Caras Galadhon

"This is a study of how we see the fire "The lower half of the shot was filmed against a blue screen, so the upper part of the
flow within the Ring. This was used for shot still had to be designed for the pan-up. The artwork had to include the miniature
reference only." GH trees and show the look, mood, and atmosphere." GH

LOTHLORIEN Galadriel's Glade

"These are all Galadriel glow studies. Different versions of Galadriel's good, semi-evil, and evil glows were
done to show Peter." GH
208 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

AMONHEN Color studies

"These are the first and last frames of
the sequence in which Frodo sees into
Wraith World after putting on the Ring.
The point of these two designs was to
illustrate how the tunnel-vision effect
would look on screen to display the
sights that emerge. The effect uses
tongues of flickering flame, acting like
fingers, flowing outward." GH

OSGILIATH Conceptual design

"Using a shot from the location footage,
below, this is a conceptual design of the
view of Osgiliath down below and Minas
Tirith in the distance, upon which Roger
Kupelian based his final matte painting."
GH

HELM'S DEEP Color studies

"Here are two studies I did that show the before-and-after moment when a flash of lightning finally reveals
the huge Uruk-hai that is marching up to Helm's Deep." GH
 DIGITAL PAINTINGS * 209

THE DEAD MARSHES Spectral Corpses

"These panels show the development from an early painting study of the corpses to combining all the filmed
elements together to show what the final look could be." GH

RJVENDELL Matte painting layouts

"This layout is for the background behind Arwen and Aragorn during a romantic scene at dusk. Yanick Dusseault
based his final matte painting (page 215) on this." GH

greens, and golden colors for the highlights to give it a more melancholic palette." GH
210 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MINAS MORGUL Morgul river concept

"This is showing what the Minas Morgul river
a study
environment might look like. It was thought that it would be
almost like a swamp, sickly green in color and covered in mist.
This shot shows Sam and Frodo watching the huge Ore army
march away down the very road they have just traveled up,
and off to war." GH

PATHS OF THE DEAD Digital concepts

"These are concepts showing different ideas of how Narsil might
have interacted with the King of the Dead's sword." GH

GONDOR River Anduin

"This is a layout of the mid- and background mountains, using three or four photographic elements shot by
Craig Potton. Afterward, the burning villages were added and then we put the Corsair ships in the foreground
to show what the whole scene would look like." SL
 DIGITAL PAINTINGS * 211

MINAS MORGUL Lightning-flash concepts

"Two of a set of conceptual illustrations demonstrating
variations of flames shooting up from the beacon tower
of Minas Morgul. The one below has been placed over
John Howe's illustration from page 129, which has been
extended upward and color-corrected to suit approved
colors and lighting." GH

SHELOB'S LAIR Phial glow study

"This one of two studies that I did, which were a combination
is

of Jeremy Bennett's painting with my Photoshop effects added to

show the look of the glowing phial inside Shelob's tunnel." GH
212 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE PELENNOR FIELDS Color study

"This is an early Photoshop concept that shows the mumakil coming out of the mist and dust toward the Riders of Rohan." GH

THE CRACK OF DOOM Color studies and digital artwork

"These studies were to show the inside of the Mount Doom environment; they are composites featuring the live-action plate in the
foreground and the digital painting behind. I was trying to give Peter some options regarding atmosphere, lava, and color palettes."
GH
 DIGITAL PAINTINGS * 213

MORDOR Gorgoroth Plain

"This establishes the mid and background
areas and sky. Jeremy Bennett painted in
the Eye of Sauron lighting effects. In the
end, we went for a cooler palette to avoid
a 'Martian' type of feeling." SL

MORDOR Mount Doom

"This artwork encompasses the first,

middle, and last frames of the shot in

which Gollum jumps on Frodo and Sam
on Mount Doom. It's pieced together
from several skies, rocks from Wellington's
south coast, and falling lava bombs." SL

MORDOR
Mount Doom
"Different skies,
atmospheres, lava
bombs, flowing
lava,and rock
elements combine
to create this
particular look
up the slopes of
Mount Doom." SL
214 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

LOTHLORIEN Caras Galadhon at dusk

"Unfortunately cut from the final
theatrical print, this was a romantic
view of the Fellowship being led through
the mighty mallorn trees just before
they meet Galadriel. The shot became
a mixture of miniature mallorns, the live
set, and the matte painting." MD

LOTHLORIEN
Silverlode River
"This painting was for
the scene on the banks of
the Silverlode River, when
the Fellowship make their
farewells to Galadriel and
Caras Galadhon. This
shot required the addition MINAS TIRITH Minas Tirith at dawn
of trees, a major tree "This was the first big establishing shot
extension (note the of the mighty city of Minas Tirith. It
reflection of the big tree became known as the Istanbul shot;
in the water), and also the city was a large-scale miniature
the last views of Caras composited onto a full painted
Galadhon in the early background. Computer-generated
morning mist in the smoke and a scattering of doves were
background." MD later added." MD

RIVER ANDUIN Nen Hithoel

"This combines the various elements of the location with live footage of the Fellowship heading toward
a fateful encounter at Amon Hen." RK
 DIGITAL PAINTINGS * 215

THE MISTY MOUNTAINS Gollum's cave

"Alan Lee's preparatory work (page 89) made it very easy for me to complete this painting. He had
already produced a detailed sketch and digital painting of the scene; from this, the scene was shot with the
actor performing on a small piece of the rock set. From this footage I took a live-action plate of Gollum and
inserted it 'behind' the painting. It was then simply a matter of extending the set piece into the vast mountain
range." YD
216 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE GLITTERING CAVES

Digital matte painting
"This particular one offered quite
a challenge, both technically and
artistically. The camera movement had
to be digitally extended to reveal the
painting filling most of the frame. It was
also difficult to find good photographic
reference material for the subterranean
environment - the result was therefore
entirely hand-painted." YD

OSGILIATH Digital matte painting

"With this scene, I had to match a
live plate with a very specific set of
expectations: Ithilien and Osgiliath,
with the River Anduin cutting through
the plain, as well as Minas Tirith in the
distance. There are no plains this vast
in New Zealand, so this had to be a
painting. Even the miniatures provided
had to be completely redressed to suit the
feel of the shot. Animation was added as

well, in the sky, lighting effects, and

minute details within the city, which, by
themselves, are barely noticeable. This
rendered sequence, an animated matte
was handed over
painting, really,
toJon Bowen, who then masterfully
combined it with the live plate. Because
of the vast size of the area it was
replacing, this was among the most
difficult matte shots produced for the
film." RK

DUNHARROW ENCAMPMENT
Digital matte painting
"This painting is the establishing shot
for the Paths of the Dead sequence. It

shows the king's camp at Dunharrow

and the entrance to the Paths at the top
of a precipitous, zigzagging climb. The
difficulty in this shot lay in trying to
establish both the path and a relatively
somber, oppressive mood for what was
basically a brightly lit daytime plate."
MD
 DIGITAL PAINTINGS * 217

MINAS TIRITH AND THE WHITE MOUNTAINS Digital matte paintings

"Originally I show Frodo and Gollum's view
painted this for a shot that was going to
from Minas Morgul. It's a huge painting that could be used for multiple shots, such as
the one above right. All I had to do each time was tweak the shots by adding different
clouds so that it always looked a bit different." RB

MORGUL VALE
Digital matte painting
"This painting was done for a tilt-

down shot that pans down from the

Morgul mountains and onto the sleeping
Hobbits. Meanwhile, Gollum is having a
conversation with himself by a pool."
KdJ

CIRITH UNGOL
Digital matte painting
"This unusually shaped painting, showing
the view from the top of the Cirith Ungol
tower to the Gorgoroth Plain far below,
MINAS TIRITH Digital matte painting was designed in this format so that it

"This shot from a sequence in which Pippin is on his way to light the beacon fire.
is could follow the tilt-down of the camera,
This view is from just below the beacon on the slopes of Mount Mindolluin. The which in turn is following an unfortunate
miniature of the city formed the basis of this painting, but it took some reworking to Ore as it falls out of the tower, down to
integrate it into the composition." DC its doom." RK
218 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

CIRITH UNGOL
Digital matte painting
This painting of the Mordor mountains
was combined with the miniature of
the entrance to Shelob's Lair and the
computer-generated Gollum. All three
elements needed to be color-balanced
and adjusted to allow for the differing
levels of light that would be falling on
them. KdJ

CIRITH UNGOL Digital matte painting

"A broad view of the Cirith Ungol range,
looking up toward the sky. This was
painted to be a master backdrop, usable
in a variety of shots; hence the distorted
angles. The final shots were much darker,
but this has been presented lighter to
show the detail of the painting, which
represented more than ten kilometers of
mountains. A miniature of the Cirith
Ungol tower is included for scale. Because
this was used for a number of shots at
varying angles, it was projected onto
varying complexities of geometry." RK

CIRITH UNGOL Digital matte painting

"This features the miniature of the Cirith Ungol tower in the foreground, and directly behind it the final
matte painting. This was a difficult crane shot, and the pieces had to be overpainted to show parallax." RK
 DIGITAL PAINTINGS * 219

MORDOR Digital
matte painting
"This painting reveals
the full extent of
Mordor's landscape to
the two Hobbits as they
leave behind the tower
of Cirith Ungol and
finally enter Sauron's
realm. It includes
miniatures of Mount
Doom and part of the
rock set and forms the
basis of a wide-pan
shot, animated with
lightning flashes and the
flickering fires of Ore
encampments." RK

ORC ENCAMPMENT Digital matte painting

"Above is an establishing shot of the Ore hordes as
they troop off to battle. It was day shot
originally a
- as shown above left - but
in the live-action plate
had to be heavily graded to provide the 'Mordor'
feel. The painting starts just behind the mid-ground

hill and hints at the vastness and ugliness of the

Gorgoroth Plain, and in so doing sets the scene for

Frodo and Sam as they continue their journey
towards Mount Doom." MD

MORDOR Mount Doom

"I really like this shot and think it looked great for
the forty frames that ended up on screen! When I
started this shot, Jeremy Bennett showed me his

painting of Frodo and Sam's view of Mordor, and

Yanick Dusseault's wonderful Mordor paintings
from the previous films. I felt that in the past some
shots of Mordor had made it look rather beautiful,
but this shot was going to be really dark. We needed
to get a view of the plume of lava that was convinc-
ing and not cartoonish." RB
220 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE PELENNOR FIELDS Digital matte painting

"This is a 120-degree view of the Pelennor Fields at dawn and is the vista seen by Theoden Rohirrim on their charge
as he leads the
into Sauron's Ores. It was particularly enjoyable to paint the low raking light across the hills and the Mordor range." DC

MORDOR Gorgoroth Plain

"This shot went through many revisions, from the rough
composite using the live plate, left, many others, until
through
we eventually arrived at the final painting below. This was a
much more simplified view of the Gorgoroth Plain, so that we
could establish both the desolation and the distance yet to be
covered." DC
 DIGITAL PAINTINGS * 221

MORDOR Barad-dur
"For Barad-dur and Mordor beyond, the main challenge was to create a sense of height. This was
this shot of
done predominantly by showing the tops of mountains with clinging clouds under Barad-dur. It is essentially a
black-and-white image with the only color being the lava and, of course, the Great Eye. We wanted a sense of
scope and scale without taking away from the Eye. The sky was arranged in such a way that the dark part of
the tower could be silhouetted against the bright horizon, while the flaming Eye could play against the darker,
heavier clouds." DC

MORDOR Barad-dur
"We really cheated size
and scale for the Barad-dur
destruction shots. Peter
wanted Mount Doom large
in frame behind the tower
to link the destruction of
the Ring to the destruction
of the tower. It was a
challenge to keep the feeling
of size and distance for these
objects, without obscuring
them with haze or making
them small. We were also
careful to not call too
much attention to Mount
Doom, so as not to take
away from the main focus
of the shot, the crumbling
tower." DC
222 * THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MOUNT DOOM
Sammath Naur
"This painting is

of the view of the

top of Mount
Doom from the
doorway at
Sammath Naur.
Sam has just
followed Frodo
into the Crack
of Doom. It was
a terrific challenge
to paint the
underside of a
pyroclastic
cloud." DC

MORDOR Lava flows

"For the rescue of Frodo and Sam by Gwaihir, a very dramatic sky was needed, because this is first time that we have seen light
break into Mordor. It is a visual relief at the end of a dark journey. In addition to the sky, the rocks and side of the volcano had
to be painted. I referenced a lot of rocks found on the coast near Weta, in Wellingon, using their great texture and scale. I was also
outside almost daily taking photos of New Zealand skies for inspiration, seeing how the light broke through the cloudy skies." DC
 DIGITAL PAINTINGS * 223

RIVENDELL Twilight matte painting

"Alan Lee described the mood and did a

Y - rough concept to show me what was

required for this, a nice twilight view out
the windows, using the miniatures of a
tower and a couple of buildings that were
shot a few months previously." RB

HOBBITON
Digital matte
painting
"This takes us
back to the green
and placid fields
of the Shire and
Hobbiton. The
painting provided
a backdrop for a
number of shots
near the end of the
film, when the
Hobbits return to
the Shire. It is

evening time and

life remains the
same." MD

THE GREY HAVENS Sunset matte painting

"This one of three sunset paintings that I did. I had only a few hours to paint this, and while it would have been great to have
is

had some hi-res sunset photographs, we didn't have any that looked exactly the way Peter Jackson saw this sequence. Alan Lee then
found me a photo he had taken on an earlier reference shoot in the South Island, and this was the result." RB
 CLOSING CREDITS
Peter and Fran had the idea that they would like to mark the end- remember them, and I used these as the basis for pencil renditions.
ing of the final film in the trilogy by doing something different Then Jean-Paul Leonard, of Company Wide Shut, who was
with the credits. After we did samples and tests on film, the responsible for the design work on the DVD menus for all three
approach chosen was to represent the actors by their portraits, films, and had taken on the task of designing the end credit
and the rest of the crew by images selected from the huge numbers sequence, carefully composed the images and text and created the
of drawings and designs by myself and John Howe. elegiac and beautiful look of our final departure from Middle-
Fran, assisted by VFX art department coordinator Hannah earth.
Bianchini, chose frames from the films that represented moments Alan Lee
in which each of the characters look the way we would wish to May 2004
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