“SIGN ME UP FOR THE FIRST AGE!”

Even after four decades, John still seeks new adventures in Middle-earth

Is there a character or setting in Middle-earth that you would love to illustrate?

“Sign me up for the First Age please! I also very much want to draw the Blue Wizards, the two who wander off to the East and are never heard from again. When I think about the number of times I’ve been standing somewhere, on top of the ramparts of Angband, in the bell tower of Lake-town, or perhaps in Lindon looking out over the landscape, and thought, ‘I know what’s just beyond the horizon there. But the script is not going to let me go.’ I wish I had the opportunity to explore that. It is like discovering a new country except you’re making it up as you go.”

The two trilogies by Peter Jackson afforded you the opportunity to work with an illustrator you admire “I actually wrote this letter to this gentleman named Alan Lee, don’t know if you’ve heard of him at all! I had seen a book called Once Upon a Time with artwork by many people including Alan. I wrote, ‘Dear Mr Lee, I’m finishing high school and would like to pursue a career in illustration. I am wondering if you had any thoughts that you would like to share.’ Of course, he never wrote back. But he has promised to reply, so I’m patiently waiting!”

Do you approach concept art for a movie differently than book illustrations?

“I’m attached to the idea of having some form of depth in every picture, of concentrating detail where it’s of the most use. I love working within the Cinemascope because you have that width, which is exciting to play with. I find now when I’m doing a vertical illustration that it is very constrictive. There has to be an internal logic to the picture, which is no more than an artificial framing of something that goes on indefinitely outside of that frame. It also needs to have a coherent internal narration and pictorial logic, as well as the extended narrative; what happened before and what might happen after.”