Today there are two artists I want to introduce to you – because they are intrinsically tied together for their work at J.R.R. Tolkien and his epic novel ‘Lord of the Rings.

Artist Name: Alan Lee

Date of Birth: August 20, 1947

Where From: Middlesex, England

Short Bio:
Alan Lee is an Academy Award winning, English book illustrator and movie conceptual designer. He and John Howe are best known for illustrating the 1991 one-volume hardback edition of ‘The Lord of the Rings’. They also served as chief conceptual designers for Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ movie trilogy.

List of Books:
- Von Elfen, Goblins, Spukgestalten
- Faeries
- Black ships before Troy
- The Wanderings of Odysseus
- Castles
- The Lord of the Rings (Illustrated Edition)
- The Hobbit (Illustrated Edition)
- The Mabinogion
- The Children of Hurin

Movies as Coneptual Designer:
- Legend (1985)
- Erik the Viking (1989)
- Merlin and the Dragons (1991)
- Merlin (1998)
- The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
- The Two Towers (2002)
- The Return of the King (2003)
- King Kong (2005)
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
- The Hobbit (2011)

Artist Name: John Howe

Date of Birth: August 21, 1957

Where From: Vancouver, British Columbia

Short Bio:
John Howe did the illustration for the ‘Lord of the Rings’ Boardgame (created by Reiner Knizia) and re-illustrated the maps of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘The Hobbit’, and ‘The Silmarillion’ in 1996–2003, too. His work is however not limited to this, and includes images of myths such as the legend of ‘Beowulf’.

He also illustrated many other books, amongst which many belong to the fantasy genre. Howe also contributed to the film adaptation of ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’ by C. S. Lewis. In 2005 a limited edition of George R. R. Martin’s novel ‘A Clash of Kings’ was released complete with numerous illustrations by Howe.

List of Books:
- Fantasy Art Workshop
- Forging Dragons

Movies as Conceptual Designer
- The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
- The Two Towers (2002)
- The Return of the King (2003)
- King Kong (2005, Carpenter)
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
- The Hobbit (2011)
- The Hobbit 2 (2012)

Read more on Alan Lee and John Howe HERE.

This week OBS bring you another incredible artist; continuing our bi-weekly article, we bring you M.C. Escher.

Artist Name: Maurits Cornelis Escher

Date of Birth: June 17, 1898

Where From: Leeuwarden, Netherlands

Short Bio:
The youngest son and a sickly child, Escher was placed in a special school when he was seven and failed the second grade. From 1903 until 1918, he attended primary and secondary school and though he excelled at drawing, his grades were generally poor. As an adult he briefly studied architecture, but failed a number of subjects and switched to decorative arts. In 1922, Escher left the school, having gained experience in drawing and woodcuts and traveled through Italy and Spain, where he was impressed by the Italian countryside and the Alhambra in Granada. The same year he met his wife, Jetta Umiker. Escher became a Dutch-Frisian graphic-artist who was best known for his mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints when he died on March 27, 1972 in Hilversum, Netherlands.

Drawing Hands                                 Sky and Water

Circle Limit III                                 Relativity

Selected Bibliography of M.C. Escher

M.C. Escher: His Life and Complete Graphic Work
by J.L. Locher, Amsterdam (1981)

Een Biografie
by W. Hazeu, Amsterdam (1998)

The Graphic Work of M.C. Escher
by M.C. Escher

The Magic of M.C. Escher
by J.L. Locher and W.F. Veldhuysen, New York, London (2000)

M.C. Escher: Visions of Symmetry
by D. Schattschneider, New York and London (2004)

Escher on Escher: Exploring the Infinite
by M.C. Escher, Amsterdam (1986)

The Magic Mirror of M.C. Escher
by Bruno Ernst, Amsterdam (1976)

Read more about Escher and his works HERE.

The second artist I want to introduce to you is H. R. Giger. I guess we all know his works – but maybe not him.

Artist Name: Hans Rüdiger Giger

Date of Birth: 1940

Where From: Chur, Switzerland

Short Bio:
He is recognized as one of the world’s most well known artists of Fantastic Realism and he achieved international fame with his work on Ridley Scott’s movie ‘Alien’. For his designs of the film’s title creature and its otherworldly environment H. R. Giger received the 1980 Academy Award for ‘Best Achievement for Visual Effects’.

He studied architecture and industrial design at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich and by 1964 he was producing his first artworks. By discovering airbrush he also found his own unique freehand painting style. That was the beginning of the creations of many of his most well known works – the surrealistic Biomechanical dreamscapes.

Work in Movies:
- Dune
- Alien
- Alien 3
- Poltergeist II: The Other Side
- Kondom des Grauens
- Species
- Batman Forever
- Future-Kill
- Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis

Giger’s Bar

LP-/CD-Cover, Videos:
- The Shiver – Walpurgis
- Emerson, Lake and Palmer – Brain Salad Surgery
– Magma – Attahk
- Island – Pictures
– Debbie Harry – KooKoo
– Celtic Frost – To Mega Therion
– Dead Kennedys – Frankenchrist
– Pankow – Freiheit für die Sklaven
– Steve Stevens – Atomic Playboys
– Atrocity – Hallucinations
– Sacrosanct – Recesses for the Depraved
– Danzig – Danzig III: How The Gods Kill
– Carcass – Heartwork
– Hide – Hide Your Face
– Dr. Death – Somewhere in nowhere (Birthmachine)
– Böhse Onkelz – Dunkler Ort

PC/Games:
- Dark Seed
- Dark Seed 2

Read more about H.R. Giger and his work HERE.

Reading, watching and talking about supernaturals and werewolves and vampires and fairys always brings pictures to your head. Imaginations in my head, too. And very often mine pictures are kind as one of my favorite artists – pictures by Luis Royo.
If you don’t know him, I’ll tell you a few things about this really gifted wonderful man.

Artist Name: Luis Royo

Date of Birth: 1954

Where From: Olalla, Spain

Short Bio:
Royo studyed technical drawing, but discovered quite fast that geometrical shapes did not satisfy him – that’s why he began to study painting, decoration and interior design at the ‘Industrial School’ and ‘Hardworking Arts School’ in Zaragoza.

Biased by May 1968, he created large format paintings with social themes for expositions in 1972, 1976 and 1977, but when he discovered adult comics, from the artists Enki Bilal and Moebius, he let off his work in design studios and started to dedicate his time entirely to comics.

List of Books:
- Tatoos
- Women
- Malefic
- Secrets
- III Millennium
- Dreams
- Prohibited Book
- Prohibited Book II
- Prohibited Book III
- Prohibited Sketchbook
- Evolution
- Conceptions
- Conceptions II
- Conceptions III
- Visions
- Fantastic Art
- The Labyrinth Tarot
- Subversive Beauty
- Wild Sketches I
- Dark Labyrinth
- Wild Sketches II
- Dome
- Wild Sketches III
- Dead Moon

Here are a few more of Luis Royos paintings

Sword, The Black Elf                                 Wild Sketches I and II Book

Conceptions I – Conceptions II – Conceptions III – Conceptions

Subversive Beauty

Pleasure and beauty as a subversion, even of the power of religions.
Pleasure and pursuite of pleasure, as a human right.

Speaking about the beauty in this society there always appears a light and plain concept of this theme, while in fact the beauty is provoking, it is the soul of human splendour, no matter if it is looked for with realistic charachter or with a more abstract one. ~ Luis Royo

Prohibited Series

Dark Labyrinth

Bit by bit he entered his own labyrinth and, as he profounded, the darkness appeared on this paintings. He wanted to go back and come out of the infinite underground corridors, like Teseo did, but there was no thread tied at the ankle which would take you to the exit. He succumbed to the glooms, approaching the black dangerously and without fail. The incisive undressing black. ~ Luis Royo

Read more about Royo HERE.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and watching the pics. That I could show you – with this few impressions – why I love Luis Royo and his great work. And why I often see them while reading supernatural books.

Do you know Luis Royo and his work?
What do you think of his work?