Lord of the Rings Boardgame
Friends and Foes Expansion.
Sophisticated Games
59.4 x 89.1 cm
2000
I find squeezing tall towers into square formats VERY hard to do, so I naturally ended up drawing a lot that will never be on the box.
The design of the tower is very different from the Tower of Orthanc in the film trilogy, which Alan Lee designed from top to bottom.
A bit of a digression here: Alan had done a wonderful illustration of the base of Saruman's tower for the Lord of the Rings, which Peter had always admired. When the time came to do the concept in its entirety, Peter asked Alaln to pan upwards as it were, and Alan began at the bottom and added huge sheets of paper as he got to the top edge of the first, and eventually finished a drawing about 3 or 4 metres high. It was incredible to watch.
I'd love to do the same, but the bottom is certainly more than enough for the box cover. My main inspiration was an ancient and scraggly rose bush in on our front lawn.
