Ted Nasmith

Who is Ted Nasmith?

Ted Nasmith is a Canadian artist, illustrator and architectural renderer. He is best known as an illustrator of J. R. R. Tolkien's works — The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.

Nasmith was born in the mid-1950s in Goderich, Ontario, Canada. As the son of a Royal Canadian Air Force officer, Nasmith's early life was characterized by a series of moves as his father was re-stationed during his military career — sometimes within Canada, sometimes to other countries, such as France. By the time Nasmith became a teenager, they had settled in Toronto

Nasmith's family and friends encouraged him to enter a high school which featured a commercial art program. During his third year of high school, however, Nasmith's sister introduced him to The Lord of the Rings, and it quickly became a huge inspiration and focus in his life. Nasmith writes:

"It opened up in me a dormant love of lost and misty times, myth and legend. Not since childhood had I felt such a sense of 'home', unaware of the effects the intervening years had had in displacing it. I began immediately to draw scenes inspired by this magical, nostalgic realm, becoming absorbed for many hours at a time."