Books, they open unexpected doors…

The theme of the month for July over on John Howe’s website is ‘Books‘, which started me thinking about books and what they mean to different people. To me they often open doors to unexpected places, or sometimes to expected places but where you often discover something new πŸ˜‰ So this is a composite in photoshop of a book opening a doorway into the Shire, with a willing Hobbit ready for a wander πŸ™‚

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Going Underground

The theme of the month for May on John Howe’s website is ‘Underworlds’ and I jokingly said… Which started me thinking, there should really be a London Underground style map for Moria. So I started plotting and planning, the trouble was there were so few places mentioned in Moria to map out, so I decided to add a few places. It turns out the map I came up with was Moria as seen a few hundred years after the events in The Lord of the Rings. I realize not everyone…

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Thria Dimensio Transferer

Just in case you were wondering, I discovered how the 3d concept art by John Howe and Alan Lee which was featured in one of the ‘making of’ videos was actually made. There has been a fair amount of speculation online has to how the 3D concept art was created, so I decided to put stop any further speculation and reveal the machine John and Alan used. The Thria Dimensio Transerer was developed in New Zealand in 2008, though it took a year or so to get the gremlins ironed…

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