Paper submissions are invited for a proposed panel on Fantasy Illustration which I will be organising and submitting for selection to the Once and Future Fantasies Conference.
The conference takes place on 13 - 17 July 2022 and is organised by the Cen...
Joel Merriner
Posted on August 5th, 2021
This piece is an excerpt from a larger work exploring visual responses to Tolkien's legendarium.In Pyre of Denethor (1989) (Fig. 1, below.), Iukhimov has presented an image of strong vertical symmetry, based around the central axis of an old man with w...
Joel Merriner
Posted on August 1st, 2020
The more theoretical aspects of my Tolkien visual research often involve some form of enquiry into the nature of images. One of the most useful visual aids to this subject is art historian and theorist W. J. T. Mitchell's "Family Tree of Images". Featu...
Joel Merriner
Posted on September 11th, 2019
Those of you who follow me on twitter will be aware of my more light-hearted postings. In this particular strand I scour the history of art for images which possess a flavour of Middle-earth. Here we have ten favourites.
The faux-Tolkienian details c...
Joel Merriner
Posted on September 5th, 2019
The following piece is an excerpt from a much larger research project involving Sergei Iukhimov's illustrations for the 1993 TO Izdatel' edition of Natalya Grigor'eva and Vladimir Grushetskij's translation of The Lord of the Rings (Властелин Колец).Fla...
Joel Merriner
Posted on September 5th, 2019
Did a Japanese illustrator bring the motif of the shōji to the pages of Tolkien’s novel?Of the seventy-seven black and white illustrations by Ryûichi Terashima contained within the two volume 1997 edition of Teiji Seta’s 1965 Japanese translation of J....
Joel Merriner
Posted on September 5th, 2019
Roger Garland’s 1983 illustration Battle of Pelennor Fields depicts a pivotal moment in the narrative of The War of the Ring. To provide context, battle is raging about the city of Minas Tirith. South of the road, the Haradrim chieftain has been slain ...
Joel Merriner
Posted on September 5th, 2019
