Artist 16/20: Alan Lee

Alan Lee

WHOOPS! So I went on for a week and totally forgot to do a seperate entry on Alan Lee. Here we go.

Alan Lee is a English born artist and shares the same affinity for fantasy subject matter. However, if I had to choose a preference I would have to pick Lee's jagged watercolor style over Howe's more smooth acrylic. I'm not entirely certain if both artists where in kahoots with eachother prior to their work on LOTR but they have been confirmed in their involvement with the impending prequel The Hobbit. Yay! Alan Lee has worked closely with another of my favorite British artists Brian Fraud who was the artistic director behind Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth which I have mentioned in an earlier blog. But their visions have such a spooky yet magical and earthy quality that makes their work appear as though it could be easily real or at least depicting very real places and things. Another reason I like Alan Lee is that his rendition of Elven architecture is very similar to the style of Art Nouveaux where the buildings look as though they are one with the flora, as though they could have grown themselves.

Alan Lee

Creatures of fantasy, myth, legend, and fairytales were always my favorite subjects growing up. Mermaids, dragons, fairies, unicorns, pegasus, fauns, dryads and whatnot where typically what I mostly drew from age 6 to about 16 when I found out how little appreciation there is for that type of art. Since then I've geared my work towards wildlife and portrature. Nontheless, both Lee and Howe have a very distinct sketching style that I've found is very similar to mine. Quite often we start a concept sketch and get so entrenched in the possibilities of detail that we forget the piece is only meant to be temporary and used as reference. So its sometimes very hard to part with a sketch once you've finished. This is one of the reasons shy away from sketches as I tend to go too far and grow too attached.