Illustrated Blog Posts

"'They are sailing, sailing, sailing over the Sea, they are going into the West and leaving us,' said Sam..." -The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, Chapter 2: The Shadow of the Past Sam Gamgee's poignant observation captures the feeling of longing evoked by J.R.R. Tolkien’s elves. Here, a silver-haired elf mother leads her two children towards the waiting ship. They drift across the sand like the clouds in the sky, a gull accompanying them on this pilgrimage. The identity of t

Have you ever gotten very far away from the thing known as "modern civilization"? If so, you'll be able to imagine the clarity of the...

This simple painting is set in the long span of years between Bilbo's great adventure and his even greater deed. He looks out from the...

People-centric stories can be so moving, but they are only one strand of all that is going on in Middle-earth. For an expanded view of...

Last weekend I had the wonderful experience of presenting at Signum University's Cascade Moot, and a very kind audience member asked if I...

In the opening pages of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo Baggins is given the honorific "gentlehobbit", in part,...

While the Pevensies adventure through a single wardrobe, Bilbo Baggins has many of them, and J.R.R. Tolkien facilitates our escape into...

By my count, there are 34 references to water of one kind or another in the three chapters that make up the hobbits' encounter with Tom...

First, I'd love you just to spend a moment imagining yourself in this mountain spa of Frodo's healing, this living library of elven lore,...

Even Professor Tolkien wasn't sure what Sam Gamgee's cousin Hal saw when he was hunting at the top of the Northfarthing, looking across...

We have heard tell of the adventurous spirit of the Tooks, but it's the Bucklanders' capacity for wildness which has earned my special...

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit may be the perfect fairytale. It's a little glade of all the best wildflowers amid an ancient wood of such...

I've done it, too. Our hearts are racing at the thought of getting to the confrontation with the Black Riders on Weathertop. Or out of...

I'd live in the Shire if I could, but if I were to have just one epic adventure in my life, I'd let The Road sweep me off to Rivendell....

The first few pages of Chapter IV of The Fellowship of the Ring give us one of the finest examples in all the lore of Tolkien's wizardry...

In the above video from Uppsala Books, the world's foremost Tolkien scholar, Professor Tom Shippey, gives a short and brilliant talk on...

I have often wished that particular Pre-Raphaelites could have illustrated from Tolkien. They had a way of using their paint to glorify...

Exactly how spellbinding must the music of Thorin's folk have been to counteract generations of Baggins' respectability and sweep Bilbo...

One of the greatest joys I've found as a Tolkien illustrator is the way in which meditating on a particular scene as I research, sketch,...

The Window on the West is one of the last glimpses of beauty vouchsafed to Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee on their darkening Road....