Lee has illustrated dozens of fantasy books, including some non-fiction, and many more covers. Several works by J.R.R. Tolkien are among his most notable interiors: the Tolkien centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings, a 1999 edition of The Hobbit that has been boxed with it, and Narn i Chîn Húrin: The Children of Húrin. The latter, a first edition, is his work most widely held in WorldCat participating libraries. Other books he has illustrated include Faeries, Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock, The Mabinogion, Castles and Tolkien's Ring, The Mirrorstone by Michael Palin, The Moon's Revenge by Joan Aiken, and Merlin Dreams by Peter Dickinson. He has also illustrated retellings of classics for young people. Two were Rosemary Sutcliff's versions of the Iliad and the Odyssey—namely, Black Ships Before Troy and The Wanderings of Odysseus. Another was Adrian Mitchell's version of Ovid's Metamorphoses—namely, Shapeshifters. Lee did cover paintings for the 1983 Penguin edition of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. He also did the artwork for Alive!, a CD by the Dutch band Omnia, released on 3 August 2007 during the Castlefest festival. Watercolour painting and pencil sketches are two of Lee's common media.
Film
Lee and John Howe were the lead concept artists of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films and were recruited by director Guillermo del Toro in 2008 for continuity of design in the subsequent The Hobbit films, before joining Jackson when he took over the Hobbit films project. Jackson has explained how he originally recruited the reclusive Lee. By courier to Lee's home in the south of England, he sent two of his previous films, Forgotten Silver and Heavenly Creatures, with a note from himself and Fran Walsh that piqued Lee's interest enough to become involved. Lee went on to illustrate and even to help construct many of the scenarios for the movies, including objects and weapons for the actors. He also made two cameo appearances, in the opening sequence of as one of the nine kings of men who became the Nazgûl, and in The Two Towers as a Rohan soldier in the armory. Lee has also worked as a conceptual designer on the films Legend, Erik the Viking, King Kong and the television mini-seriesMerlin. The art bookFaeries, produced in collaboration with Brian Froud, was the basis of a 1981 animated feature of the same name. Two years after completion of The Lord of the Ringsfilm trilogy, Lee released a 192-page collection of his conceptual artwork for the project, entitled The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook. Film directorPeter Jackson said, "His art captured what I hoped to capture with the films."
