Tour 3: The Artists of Middle-Earth

Art by Anke-Katrin Eissmann

"To say that Tolkien's works fascinated me would be a great understatement. They inspired me, and still do, every day. I cannot express this in words; I try to put it down on paper. Ever since I could hold a pencil I have been drawing, and later painting. My chief subjects have always been the stories that fascinated me at a certain time.
    Generally I think an illustrator should not interfere too much with the readers' own imagination. Thus I chose scenes and characters which tend to be overlooked by other artists, scenes not charged with great action or emotion or drama, but nevertheless important for the story and rewarding to paint in my eyes. Since I imagine the setting of Tolkien's works to be in a fictional time and real place similar to early Medieval northwestern Europe, my characters wear mainly costumes and weapons of the Anglo-Saxon, Norman and Viking age. I also try to avoid the clichés so typical for fantasy art nowadays (pointed ears for Elves, for example). All in all I want to stick as close to the descriptions in the books as possible."