Canadian Artist on the Big Screen

I've been looking at Fan Art this week, and came across this old news article about Vancouver-born artist John Howe, who'd been drawing Tolkien illustrations for years and was enlisted to work (alongside arch-enemy Alan Lee) on the Lord of the Rings movies. Well worth a read for Tolkien fans and aspiring illustrators.
You can get some tipson illustration from Graphic Design at About.com, including how to go from thumbnails and sketches to final illustrations.