Artwork inspired by Tolkien

Why does the knight have boobs? = Orwell
Cos he's got MUSCLES, & cos he's so brave & strong, he's gotta put them somewhere,  

not the most practical dress for walking in a cow pasture... 

Ethereal people, Elves, spirits & the like, dont galumpf thru cow fields   They GLIDE  

Azriel wrote:Ethereal people, Elves, spirits & the like, dont galumpf thru cow fields:)  They GLIDE  

Possibly. But their trains still catch in the brambles and drag in the muck!

but its magical muck  

Mrs Figg wrote:but its magical muck  

Hey, that's a pretty good line! I'll have to remember that next time I forget to take my boots off!

I like that picture Chris, very powerful !

Beorn the Skinchanger, by Leone-art

I like the Beorn.

now thats how I imagined him. His inner wild animal just in the eyes and subtle not full on Sigue Sigue Sputnic.

Yup thats pretty damn close to whats been in my head for Beorn all these years.  

Ditto, cant add to that ! Im wondering WHY PJ is SO blinkered ? I mean, in the film industry you get to travel, see locations, meet various interesting people, & not just the arse licking sucker-uppers, interesting indigenous people, locals. & then theres such a thing as "Investigation"? If you cant do it yourself, (which you should) there is someone allocated to do the job. PJ brags what a great team,crew,staff etc he has, couldnt one spend time delving into anything OTHER than fooking New zealand ? No offence meant to maori's ! The world is FULL of interesting facts, things he COULD have drawn on for inspiration ? Maybe, just maybe we'd get a Beorn closer to the interpretation Tolkien gave us ?.......... & Dwarves also ?

as long as he is muscly, has a beard, is raggedy, kind eyes but can be brutal, a couple of maori tatts don't bother me. it's the sonic hairdo that does.. and he fact that he attacks the dwarves. i want the arrival that is in the book... it's so smart.

yeah the hairdo is too bestial looking, Beorn looked just like a man when he was a man and a bear when he was a bear, not some weird shit hybrid werewolf porcupine. This isnt Japanese Manga or cartoonlandia its Tolkien.  

Though I usually don't agree with Hildebrandt art, this one comes closer to my mental image than others I've seen. Though he still looks too animalistic. I'd prefer a burly, jolly but somewhat suspicious MAN with a decent amount of hair.

Bodies too hairy in that I reckon, but the general big bloke with a hairy face and eyes like an animal- ie kind and friendly when they are in the mood, and scary and dangerous when not- is about right.

One of my favourites.

Who's the artist? And was that painted before the films were made?

I'm not sure if that's a still from the movie or a painting based on it, but that design for Mordor in general and Barad-dur in particular was created during the production of the movies.

Sure its not a still from the film- Ive been through that film frame by frame damn near and there isnt a shot from that angle I can recall- Id say based on.
Pity in the actual film it didnt look quite so grim.

I haven't gone through the film frame-by-frame but I have pored over tons of concept art and other paintings over the years, so sometimes it all blends together, but I thought Mordor was plenty grim in the films.  My only real complaint about film!Mordor is how shrunken the geography is, but that's the sort of thing that only bothers you if you spend a lot of time trying to analyze both the books and the films.

What?! PJ's Mordor is a nice place for a day out with the family and a picnic- almost no fumes- only nasty dark clouds are in the cgi wide shots- its clear skies in the filmed stuff with a hint of blue skies, occasionally overcast with a chance of light rain in the afternoons.
Weather looks worse out my window right now than it does in PJ's Mordor.
Its way to bright and sunny.