Lee made cover paintings for the 1983 Penguin edition of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. [2] [3] He also did the artwork for Alive!, a 2007 CD by the Dutch band Omnia, released during the Castlefest festival. [3] A major portfolio of Lee's Middle-earth illustrations was published in 2005 as The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook, which gained immense popularity. In 2008, Lee provided an Afterword in Tales from the Perilous Realm, for which he illustrated. He went on to provide cover and interior drawings for the publications of Tolkien's Great Tales: The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin. On the release of The Fall of Gondolin, Alan Lee toured in August and September 2018, giving talks and live illustrations at various locations in England, primarily for Waterstones Picadilly bookshop in London. [6]

Alan Lee - Tolkien Gateway Alan Lee - Tolkien Gateway

NBR Award, Best Production Design/Art Direction, for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring bw): Alexandre Trauner, Edward G. Boyle /(c): Alexander Golitzen, Eric Orbom ( posthumous award), Russell A. Gausman, Julia Heronbw): Cedric Gibbons, Edward Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason /(c): Paul Sheriff, Marcel Vertès To be working alongside him is humbling but...also great fun. His wealth of emotional knowledge regarding Middle-earth is astonishing." — Jeremy Bennett, VFX art director for The Two Towers film [5]

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, Alan Lee | Waterstones The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, Alan Lee | Waterstones

Lee took a year out to work as a graveyard gardener, a job that bridged nature and civilisation in the way his Uxbridge childhood had, and also later fed into his Middle-earth work. “Walking through the gates of the cemetery was like stepping into a different world,” he recalls. “It was a portal to a strange realm of overgrown graves and trees.” I have to admit,” he says, “I’m at my happiest when I’m sitting in my studio with a brush in my hand.” Lee also created a series of illustrated books on fantasy, which came to the attention of Jane Johnson, an editor at Allen & Unwin and responsible for the Tolkien list. She showed his work to Christopher Tolkien, who agreed that Lee was the perfect choice to illustrate a lavish edition of The Lord of the Rings, to be released in 1992 to mark the centenary of Tolkien’s birth. bw): Cedric Gibbons, Edward Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis, Hugh Hunt / (c): Lyle R. Wheeler, George Davis, Walter M. Scott, Paul S. Fox bw): Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright, Thomas Little / (c): Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright, Thomas Little

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bw): Richard Day, George James Hopkins / (c): Cedric Gibbons, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason Alan Lee was born in London, and attended the Ealing School of Art. [1] At the advice of a friend, he read The Lord of the Rings when he was 17, and it greatly influenced his professional work. He had at that time never heard of J.R.R. Tolkien or The Hobbit. [2] He moved to Dartmoor and married Marja Kruÿt. They have one daughter together, Virginia. [3] [4] bw): Cedric Gibbons, Malcolm F. Brown, Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason / (c): Lyle R. Wheeler, John DeCuir, Walter M. Scott, Paul S. Fox According to CCSU, some runners-up through 2002 were Commended (from 1959) or Highly Commended (from 1974). There were 31 high commendations in 29 years including Lee and two others in 1988.