John Howe
The latter decades of the twentieth century saw a surge of interest in fantasy illustration, as publishers and filmmakers sought artists capable of rendering imagined worlds with the weight of historical painting. John Howe, born in Vancouver on August 21, 1957, emerged from that milieu as an illustrator, artist, and concept designer whose work became closely identified with one of literature's most elaborately conceived secondary worlds.
A Canadian citizen, Howe studied at the École supérieure des arts décoratifs de Strasbourg and later at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, training that grounded him in European traditions of draftsmanship and design. Working primarily in English, he built a practice as a book illustrator before expanding into concept design — a discipline that asks an artist not merely to depict a story but to construct the visual logic that makes a fictional world feel coherent and inhabited. It is in this capacity that his name became most firmly attached to the mythology of J. R. R. Tolkien: Howe is recognized above all for his artwork depicting Tolkien's Middle-earth, imagery that has shaped how many readers and viewers picture that landscape.
Among the honors he has received is the Amerigo Vespucci Youth Award, a recognition that points to the breadth of his engagement with historical and imaginative subjects alike. That award stands as a concrete marker of the esteem in which his draftsmanship and visual invention have been held.
Quotes by John Howe
I have been illustrating Tolkien’s books ever since I first read them, long before illustration became my profession.
My initial plan was to spend a year in France, go to some kind of school and learn a bit of French. I went a year in an American college in the outskirts of Strasbourg, but got a glimpse of a real art school, L’Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, and enrolled the following year.
I have a website because it’s an interesting tool, very – and quite unexpectedly – useful for my work. It’s become an archive and a fairly complete on-line portfolio, as well as offering an opportunity to write a little.
God loves you enough, trusts you enough, to let affliction come into your life to see whether you will exercise the muscles of faith while your physical muscles begin to atrophy.
Character is power; it makes friends, draws patronage and support and opens the way to wealth, honor and happiness.
Occasionally projects just take off unexpectedly, sometimes you can work away at sketches and ideas for years before they are published. There are a number of authors I would be eager to illustrate.
My initial plan was to spend a year in France, go to some kind of school and learn a bit of French. I went a year in an American college in the outskirts of Strasbourg, but got a glimpse of a real art school, L'Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, and enrolled the following year.
More often than not, however, the person who flatly states 'Elves aren't like that!' is hard pressed to describe how they really look.... as if Tolkien has summoned archetypes from so deep in our minds that we can only recall them incompletely.
I think I was interested in history without knowing it and that became very clear when I arrived in France. Everything that I was really interested in was there, but I knew nothing, no education, no art education, no education beyond high school. It was extremely overwhelming and it still is.