Working on a new book proposal at the mo...a semi-perilous dungeon-crawl through ‘70s & ‘80s fantasy art in the unreliable company of a wide-eyed teenage wannabe-artist fanboy (me) and a wizened bearded academic (also me). To put you in mind of that era, here's Jimmy Cauty's 1976 classic #Tolkien

Angus McBride's 1997 pic An Unexpected Party (made for Iron Crown's Middle-earth Puzzles set), has the retro styling of an old Saturday matinee film. I feel like it shouldn't be my cup of tea, but then I get lost in the detail and the awesome McBride-ness and it's just too cool not to love #Tolkien

It's Friday and here's fantasy and sci fi art elder Rodney Matthews' 2014 pic The Thief (2014), aka Bilbo Risks a Scorching to Steal a Cup from a Massively Sinister and Spikey Smaug. Favourite details here: the dragon's slit eye and the faux-Tengwar jars which hint at the original 1937 #Tolkien pic

For Wednesday - savour this lovely Laima Eglïte watercolour of 153 year old raven Roäc delivering the stark message to haughty Thorin that "the treasure [of Smaug] is likely to be your death". Featured in the 1991 Latvian #Hobbit this pic includes my favourite little red-haired punk Bilbo #Tolkien

Today I present one of my favourite details from a #Tolkien illustration ever. Yes, as featured in John Blanche's riotous, head-thumping c. 1979 Battle of the Five Armies pic, it's the Warg who's lost his rider but doesn't give a shit because he's in the zone and running free in a leopard-skin 🐺🐺

For Friday - The King at the Cross-roads by Darrell Sweet (c. 1981). Although I'm not a big fan of Sweet's Hobbit depictions, this pic of Frodo, Sam and a weird and uncanny Gollum stood before the old king's hewn head is undeniably impressive. The red glow and hollow eyes magnify the drama #Tolkien

#TolkienTrewsday "Colours" and Roger Garland flexes his polychromatic muscles in Bridge of Khazad-dûm (c. 1983). Here the reds, browns, purples and blues denote the evils of Moria, while the green glow signals freedom. Poor old Gandalf the Grey (+ blue and red) is going nowhere but down 😔 #Tolkien

"I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse," In 1989 Èduard Zarjanskij channelled several famous #Tolkien photos to create this super-cool but distinctly Sicilian pic for the back of Raduga's Russian translation of The Fellowship of the Ring. The forged signature adds an extra little thrill

Thanks to everyone for celebrating #Tolkien #HobbitMonth with me! This was fun and I enjoyed your lovely comments each day. If you enjoyed my paintings, perhaps you'd like to add my book to your honored Tolkien shelves. Happy Hobbit Month, my friends, and keep sharing the good lore!

If you've just followed me, or have been tracking my #Tolkien art adventures for a while, I'd like to thank you all! Keep checking back regularly if you want art historical chat, punk orc sketches, book talk and classic pics like this: Angus McBride's Denizens of the Dark Wood MERP cover (1989) 💀

Nicholas Bayrachny created some evocative imagery for the 1996 Belarusian #Hobbit translation. Here's four great examples: blond, bearded Elrond ponders the moon letters, Brezhnev-eyebrowed Smaug loses his cool, Bard, Gandalf and Thranduil keep the Arkenstone, little Bilbo post-battle #Tolkien

My book Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc is released into the wild today! Here's a quick peek at a few more pages, artwork here by Győző Vida, Yassen Panov, Alexander Korotich and Sergei Iukhimov #Tolkien www.bloomsbury.com/uk/illustrat...

"Are there no leeches among you?" Imrahil spots that Éowyn isn't dead, as embarrassed Rohirrim look on. No, sorry this is Valkyrie's Death (1880) by Norwegian historical/mythological painter Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831-1892). Note late-to-the-battle Radagast pinching back his brown cloak 😆 #Tolkien

Today's doodle drawn whilst engaged in a L-O-N-G and convoluted phone call to HMRC...Misty Mountains Goblin Spear-Lad Chanter of the Severed Hand-Stump Clan, complete with tax code top right 🤪💀 #Tolkien

It's #TolkienTrewsday Pirates! Here's a whole gang of them being overrun by the advancing Dead in Alexander Korotich's c. 1985 scraperboard pic The Corsairs. Drawn on the back of chopped up Politburo propaganda posters his work is a revelation and you can read more about it in my book #Tolkien

Gandalf the Grey regrets downing that last pint at The Prancing Pony...no, sorry this just your average bearded medieval guy losing his lunch. Rendered in sumptuous gold-leaf bordered technicolour by the famous Bute Painter, this pic adorns a 1285 edition of Aldobrandino of Siena's Régime du corps 🤮

It lives! Copies of my book Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc have arrived! So happy to finally see it in print after all this time. Artwork here by Yassen Panov, Jerzy Czerniawski, Alexander Korotich and Sergei Iukhimov. Available from 18 Sept www.bloomsbury.com/uk/illustrat...

Okay, so the University of Plymouth have cancelled their Art History programme rendering myself and several others Ex-Associate Lecturers. Bit odd after seven years, but at least now I've got more time to write books and doodle knuckle-headed trolls and weird eyeball-mouth-hand critters 🤔😜

Well, my book Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc has gone to print! Stay tuned for the story of the artists that brought Tolkien to life for the people of Central and Eastern Europe. Release date 18 September 2025, published by Bloomsbury Academic Art: Alexander Korotich (c.1985)

Just emerged Gollum-like from Book Indexing Hibernation (see latest picture of me below) and am looking forward to a change of pace with a spot of fiction writing. Will be treading familiar ground, #Tolkien fandom, fantasy, art, bad '80s haircuts but...*Yes my Precious*...no bloody footnotes😀🤪

The One Where Tuor met Ulmo... Ok, so I often prefer this meeting in the mind's eye rather than in an illustration. Except that's a total lie because I really love Roger Garland's Ulmo, Lord of the Waters (c.1984) with its prog rock weirdness and Terry Gilliam/Ray Harryhausen styling 🐟🐚#Tolkien

Checking the final proofs of my #Tolkien illustration book this week. Already spotted a few uber persistent typos (why so many capital letters, Joel?) So far none as bad as my no.1 PhD thesis gaff spotted minutes before submission..."to fit with Tolkien's *pubic* demand" 😱🫣 Art by Igor Kordej (2007)

In 1968, disgraced director Chuck Diamond shot a 7 hour spaghetti western version of LOTR. Sadly the film ran way over budget and was shelved due to finance 'issues'. Chuck later died in a Mob-related cycling accident. Here's Franco Nero as Aragorn, with Andúril The Big Gun that Was Broken #Tolkien

Tom Bombadil? Robin Williams playing Tom in a lost LOTR adaptation? No sorry, this is Portrait Of Mina Moiseyev (1883) by Russian realist and founder of the Wanderers art movement Ivan Kramskoi. And no, your eyes do not deceive you, this is a painting not a photograph #Tolkien #RussianArt

Post a fave character & tag five friends Witch-king! @mariebreta.bsky.social @sarahcschaefer.bsky.social @timbolton.bsky.social @brianitguy.bsky.social @miriamellis.bsky.social

Fans of 1980s fantasy art will remember the pen and ink wizardry of the mighty Russ Nicholson, illustrator of many a fine Fighting Fantasy book. Well, back in 1979 he turned #Tolkien with this superbly ornate pic for Paula Katherine Marmor's poem Denethor, which was featured in Andúril magazine🔥

This week I have been starting to plan the index for my book. To celebrate the fact here's a rarely seen 1991 Sergei Iukhimov pic of Red Book author Frodo (with Rosie and Sam) suffering on the anniversary of his stabbing at Weathertop. Hoping I won't look like this when the job is done! 😉#Tolkien

Judy King Rieniets' 1970s image 'The War of the Rings', mashes key LOTR events and characters into one colourful pic. Yes, it's of its time but it's got a cool Fellowship, big-hair Galadriel, Fleetwood Mac minstrels, drowning Nazgûl, sly Gollum and a snarly Balrog, so what's not to like? #Tolkien

In the ancient days of the 1970s Joan Wyatt created a series of highly imaginative #Tolkien pics for the classic book A Middle-earth Album (1979). Here's one of her most evocative depictions - Escape from the Ford. Tons of great detail on show here, including that Glorfindel-like glow in the woods 🧝‍♂️

In memory of the late great #Tolkien illustrator Roger Garland who would have been 75 today I present his stunning Witch-king depiction "Battle of the Pelennor Fields" (1983). This pic intrigued me so much that back in 2021 I made a little video about it youtu.be/Qp6gMgOS7Q4?...

As a new arrival hereabouts it's nice to see my follower count beginning to rise...thanks folks, I very much appreciate it. For all you would-be adventurers in the Visual Legendarium keep checking back for stuff like this: Igor Kordej's vivid and awesome Fellowship vs Wargs showdown (1995) #Tolkien

Between #Tolkien book edits, I've been plotting my Book No. 2. Suffice to say, if you like (partly) autobiographical stories about a fantasy-mad teen nerd growing up in a 1980s Cornish port peopled by talking D&D characters, actual werewolves and Angus Fieldhouse pics 👇then you might be in luck

When he wasn't creating killer #Tolkien illustrations Angus McBride was giving us historically accurate awsome-ness like this - King Olaf Tryggvason's last stand at the Battle of Svolder c. 999 AD. Ambushed by Svein Forkbeard, his ship overrun, Olaf prepares himself for an inevitably bloody end 💀

Igor Khmelnitsky's pics for the 1987 Moldovan #Hobbit translation have a brilliant Looney Tunes aesthetic. Here's Yosemite Sam as a scimitar-wielding Warg-rider and Wile E. Coyote masquerading as toothy old Smaug. All we need now is a massive ACME rocket and a bottle of Earthquake Pills #Tolkien💥🚀

My book "Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc" has a cover! Featuring artwork by the most excellent Yassen Panov, illustrator of the 1990-1991 Bulgarian #LOTR translation Vlastelinat Na Prastenite. The book is currently scheduled for release on September 18th #Tolkien

Master of '80s grimdark and punkish fantasy visuals John Blanche conjured many super-cool #Tolkien images over the years. Here's a detail from his insanely RED! cover pic for the 1985 Citadel Miniatures Nazgûl on Winged Beast box set. "Thou fool. No living man may see my hands!" 💀🙌

The Orc! Violent by day...stylish by night 💀

For those of you who checked out yesterday's fantasy illustrations by Anton Lomaev, yes you were correct in guessing that image number two was the non-Tolkien pic. Despite the ring, orcish axe-wielder and Legolas-o-like this was Lomaev's cover for Mitchell Graham's LOTR knock-off The Fifth Ring

It's Dragon Time for #TolkienTrewsday and first up is Ian Miller (1979) with a crunchy monochrome classic. Next comes Rodney Matthews' super spiny pic The Thief (2014). Then its Angus McBride's awesome kill-shot view of angry Smaug (1988) and finally Roger Garland' skin-crawler 😨 Glaurung (1981) 🐉

Belarus born illustrator Anton Lomaev has produced some seriously impressive fantasy art brimming with detail and featuring a way with texture that reminds me of the great RPG and dinosaur king John Sibbick. Here's four killer images from his collection, but which one IS NOT a Tolkien illustration?

Here's something I posted in the other place...Ever had that feeling where a picture reminds you of a favourite Tolkien character? Well, I have, so hitch a ride on the big fat thread that is Pictures that Should Have Been Tolkienian. Btw, is that Gandalf? No, sorry it's Georg von Rosen's Odin (1886)

In recent years Denis Gordeev has been revisiting Tolkien, updating his original 1992 images with some vivid colour re-imaginings. Here he returns to Frodo and Strider's first meeting in The Prancing Pony to give us an uncannily realistic view of the ranger's muddy boots and badly concealed sword.

I like to think that in some corner of Minas Tirith there exists an ancient Gondorian fresco depicting a happy Númenor before the Fall. In my mind it looks a bit like this...the c.1600 BCE Ship Procession mural from Arkrotiri on the Greek island of Santorini (Thera). Ahh, happier days...

I've said this before in That Other Place but if anyone demanded to know what was my favourite image of a Nazgûl plummeting to the earth wreathed in flames at the End of All Things then it would have to be this one - Roger Garland's stunning and hypnotic 1992 image Sauron Defeated. So swirly...😵‍💫

Born to early to illustrate Tolkien, Golden Age artist and Brandywine School founder Howard Pyle (1853-1911) would have surely made something special from The Lord of the Rings or The Silmarillion. Here's some cracking depictions from The Story of King Arthur (1903). Fey Guinevere is pure Noldor...

I mention this most years but it's about time we had a Christmas adaptation of The Hobbit. Traditional animation (or stop-frame!) would work brilliantly I feel, with Bilbo et al inhabiting festively lit settings akin to the glittering Wilderland depictions of Latvian illustrator Laima Eglïte (1991)

When illustrating Tolkien there are certain key moments which should be on every artist's bucket list. One of these is Bilbo, Gandalf and Beorn's first encounter from The Hobbit. Here's four classic depictions: António Quadros (1962), Michael Hague (1984), Peter Klúcik (1990) & Denis Gordeev (2005)

Back in the Shire after some time away and I feel an intro is in order for those who may not know me or have just followed me. To cut a long story short, I'm an academic, writer and illustrator who specialises in Tolkien illustration and the visual culture of fantasy...cue John Blanche (1985) (1/2)

In the early 1990s Sergei Iukhimov created a number of First Age Tolkien depictions heavily inspired by the decadent fin de siècle aestheticism of Aubrey Beardsley. Sadly the mists of time have rendered many of the reproductions hazy, but here's one that goes hard nonetheless...Túrin's death (1993).

Well, been away from here and the other place for a while (lots of projects on the go, book approaching), thanks to all the people who've checked out my paltry selection of posts on here, and/or have followed me. Hope to get back to the usual visual adventures henceforth...🙃😀💀