Tolkien, the Artist

[littlemanpoet]

I wish I could offer something more worthwhile here, but I possess neither book. However, I've read the Father Christmas book twice (most recently within the last couple years) with great delight.

The pictures are all very colorful and creative. Not cartoonish, but they seem to approach an animated feature in style. I can imagine enjoying an animated feature in this style, although it might suffer in close-ups, which Tolkien seems to avoid, to my recollection.

Wouldn't it be great if some Tolkien loving artists decided to use his style to tell his stories in an animated feature? It probably won't happen in our lifetime, if ever, but it's fun to imagine.

[Bêthberry]

For those who do not have this wonderful book of illustrations or the Father Christmas letters, here are several examples of Tolkien's artwork for his children's letters. I hope these will help stimulate discussion of Tolkien's art. The middle picture represents the stamps which Tolkien drew for some of the envelopes. The last picture represents the belovedly clumsy Polar Bear who features in several drawings.

I know that the usual Barrow Downs rules frown upon the posting of pictures which draw bandwidth and detract from writing, but I would think that in this case, the pictures should be acceptable, especially since the "Crazy Captions" thread appears to be acceptable. If the Admins decide otherwise, of course they will delete this post.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Thank you, Bêthberry, for posting these pictures! Indeed, on a thread that discusses Tolkien's art, such images are great to give those who don't have the books the possibility of discussing the art with us. It's nice to see some of the elaborate stamps that he drew to go with the letters - each one is different, and each is thematically related to the drawing of that year.

Yes, LMP, your idea of animation strikes me as being very apt - these drawings do have a comic book look to them, at least in part.

More later - another post (CbC) has priority right now...

[Lalwendë]

I have to say, I like the stamp from the North Pole, upper left in the second picture. Why? Because it actually seems to have a pole on it, and as a child I always imagined that the North Pole was exactly that, a big pole sticking out of the ice.

[piosenniel]

Alongside the Father Christmas Letters, Mr. Bliss is one of my favorite children’s books. It’s all written in Tolkien’s crabbed hand and filled with lovely colored pencil drawings.

~*~

Mr. Bliss (he of the many impossibly tall hats) buys a car and goes traveling in it:

In the yellow car with red wheels

~*~

The Girabbit

~*~

The 3 bears

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Thanks for posting those links, pio!! I've been looking for the Mr. Bliss book, hoping that it too, like some of the others, would be reprinted in the wake of increased interest. So far, alas, I've not been successful in finding it - does anyone have the book or information about it?

By the way, did anyone notice that the stamp on the lower right of those four has "2 kisses" written on it? The others have only the number, but I find it amusing that he didn't use a British coinage for the stamp.

[piosenniel]

I have the book. I found it on eBay.

It was originally published by Allen and Unwin in 1982; then, reissued in 1990 by HarperCollins.

However - you can get it through amazon.com (it's unavailable through them directly (out of print perhaps) - but, in their used titles section you can find copies to buy. (I've have good luck geting books this way.)

Here's a link. Just click on 'buy used' in the upper right of the screen.

~*~ Pio