THE LORD of the rings and The Hobbit illustrator has greeted queues of fans at Waterstones to sign copies of his latest book.

Alan Lee is the first person to have fully illustrated the timeless and immensely popular novels written by J.R.R. Tolkien, 60 years after their original release of the middle-earth instalments titled 'The Hobbit' in 1937.

Mr Lee said: "Each illustration can take me half a day to create, depending on the amount of figures in the setting, and each piece usually takes a dozen sheets of drawings to get right.

"Depending on whether there are figures in the piece or a simple landscape, it can take longer as each character has to be referenced from the book and requires extra attention to detail.

"I like to use watercolour because it's the first colour medium I ever used, and because I find it to have a very illusive quality on the page. It's my favourite.

"Using watercolours mean that the final piece doesn't always come out exactly how you thought it would in your head, it has a lot more dialogue with the paper."

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Mr Lee was signing copies of his latest collection, The Hobbit Sketchbook - published on November 14, in Waterstones in Reading town centre, where queues to meet the "man who practically invented Middle Earth as we know it today" were out the door and into the street.

The illustrator added: "For me, Treebeard has been a long-time favourite character of mine to draw, and I also spent a lot of time working on Gollum.

"My main focus however has always been on settings such as the towns, cities and castles as well as the equipment used throughout the lore.

Lee spent six years alongside the director for both Tolkien movie adaptations Peter Jackson, cameoing in three of the films - twice in the Lord of The Rings films and once in The Hobbit.

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He said: "The Lord of The Rings was such perfect films, and I loved The Hobbit trilogy, even though it did receive some negative comments.

"The whole filming process, putting on all the costumes and the make-up was just a bit of fun for me really."

Speaking about his inspirations, he added: "I grew up in Dartmoor, Devon, which has beautiful landscapes, and I think that crept into a lot of the illustrations of Tolkien's stories.

"I tried to keep the illustrations of the characters more distant on the page, and focus on the settings in the stories.

"I think the key is to read the text carefully, and to choose the appropriate moment so you don't interfere with the reader's interpretation."

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Anne Marie, travelling from the Netherlands, said: "I'm really happy to be here as I'm only in the UK for three months and I'm just really glad that this event is happening today.

"I first was read The Hobbit when I was six years old, as my father was always a fan of the Lord of The Rings."

Lucy Blumire, a local resident to the Reading area, said: "I'm finishing my fourth read through of the Lord of The Rings series, and I'm exited to meet Alan as the man himself essentially made Middle-Earth into what we know it as today."