The Lord of the Rings Online: Mordor Interviews

Standing Stone Games is preparing to launch their Mordor expansion pack for The Lord of the Rings Online on Monday, and its impending release has led to the availability of two new interviews. The first is an audio-only Q&A on Dadi's LoTRO Guides with Jerry "Cordovan" Snook, while the other is a standard text Q&A on the official website with artist Ted Nasmith. The latter doesn't focus much on the game itself, but I'll at least leave you with a quote:
You’ve done 2 pieces for Lord of the Rings Online – the art for our Battle of the Black Gate update, and now for our Mordor Expansion! What are you exploring with these pieces?

I wanted both of these works to reflect both the dynamic 'in-motion' experience of the online version of the books in game format, while focusing also on the aesthetic beauty and intricately designed 'sets' players' experience, hoping I've blended my characteristic realism effectively with the architecture that game designers have established.

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What does Middle-earth offer you as a muse, and given that you've been able to explore this world for some time, what kind of impact does it continue to have?

The wonderful thing with Tolkien's vast fantasy is that it is virtually inexhaustible as a source of interesting images. Although I'm long past those heady early years when expressing my passion for the approach to Tolkien I was pursuing burned hottest, it then became a case of both continuing to create new scenes as inspiration dictated (or sometimes formal commissions), as well as moving into applications in publishing or in games (such as the MECCG series from I.C.E.). More recently, it's been interesting, as a now mature artist, to explore reinterpretation of scenes/paintings I'd done earlier, since as someone not formally illustrating LotR or TH, I'm free to allow my ideas of characters, locations, and landscapes to evolve. I nonetheless try to make sure there is continuity with past artworks. I have many many thumbnail drawings of scenes from all 3 main books (QS, LotR, TH), plus a full series of thumbnails from Unfinished Tales (an abandoned project by HarperCollins for an illustrated volume) which I've promised myself ought nonetheless to be realized as paintings in coming years. Those sketches, and any completely new ideas, will keep me busy with Tolkien, on some level or other, for the rest of my life, I expect.