Quote:
Originally Posted by Sauron the White
There are ten different ideas for illustrations which would be dramatic and have great possibility. I am not suggesting that each be illustrated and the book turned into a comic novel. Any one would have been far better than the lead in illustration which was selected. Several would have made beautiful color plates especially the drawing of swords on page 56.
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There is a painting by Lee of the assault on Angband in the CoH Calendar, so its there if you want to see it.
Lee's approach to illustrating Tolkien's work has been consistent since he took on LotR - he finds out where the plates will go in the book & paints an image based on the events described on the facing page. This is why one of the illustrations for LotR (facing page 576) is just a painting of a stream, rather than an action shot. In other words, he puts his illustrations in the service of the text.
While your suggestions are interesting, there's no evidence that Lee had any desire to paint those pictures but was stopped from doing so. Lee has stated that his approach is to let the author tell the story, & that his images are designed to help establish the 'mood' of the story rather than dominate it - which I suspect your suggestions would. You have to keep in mind that Lee is providing illustrations for a book, rather than stand alone works of art to be shown in a gallery ( a trap Naismith has a tendency to fall into sometimes - as does John Howe). I honestly feel that the kind of graphic images you're suggesting would have been in danger of overwhelming the text.
Actually, the three paintings which appear only in the calendar (the 'Nargothrond' painting (sans Glaurung), the one of the assault on Angband, & (my personal favourite of all the images Lee produced for CoH) Morwen, Nienor & the Elves riding through an autumn landscape of reeds & willows (no blood or monsters
) are wonderful, & I wish they had been included in the book. None of them 'over emphasise' the dark & monstrous, but they didn't fit with Lee's 'rule' - there wasn't a plate available opposite the pages where those events are described.
What I would say about your choice of images is that none of them 'breaks the rules' - any of those scenes could be depicted - it would depend on how explicit & lurid the images were (Lee has a couple of 'battle scenes' in TH & LotR). My question wasn't what images you wanted to see, but what kind of images - ie, whether you really wanted to see close ups of graphic violence & such or not. All the images you suggest could be depicted in long/medium shot, either just before the actual event, or moments after it - which is more in line with Tolkien's approach - focussing on the effects of violence & exploring its consequences, rather than reveling in the act itself.