Updated 2 years ago
This art defined my youth, and I was curious as to what it would look like if i ran it through modern AI enhancement, and in most cases, colorization. Not all of them worked out, but most did. Particularly happy with Eowyn in battle, Galadriel & Celeborn, and the Fellowship walking. Great thing about this is that they look great on larger modern screens.
The process usually adds and refines more details. Sometimes I left color enhancement out (or just manually “fixed” the blacks and whites in the case of the Balrog and Gandalf and Farmer Maggot) if it didn’t suit the scene. A bonus is, these are much more robust with less granularization when viewing on larger modern screens.
Until very high res photos are taken of the original art, this is as good as we’re going to get.
Click an image to enlarge.
Brothers Hildebrandt on Wikipedia – Website – Star Wars poster article
Update 10/24/22: In addition to the Brothers Hildebrandt, there are a few by other artists; Galadriel and Celeborn are from Rowena Morrill, the hobbits in the barrow wight’s cave is Michael Herring, and Gandalf and the big eagle is Darrell K. Sweet. Also added in some original Tolkien.
Brief clip of Galadriel and some headshots:
A note on why I did this
At this point it’s like a mad scientist messing with creation. But there is a safeguard, of sorts: that’s why there’s a symbol in the lower left, to indicate it’s been altered so the worst case scenario of it being represented as their work in the chaos of the broader Internet doesn’t happen.
This safeguard doesn’t exist in Dall-E, so this is already quaint and dated.
You know the future will be far crazier, as in animation and the images talking and reacting to you. It can already animate right now (see above), it just looks primitive so I left any of that guff out. I have found static art is largely fine, but Animations REALLY polarize purists.
Already, it’s a thing. Artists are losing control of their art. If it’s online, the Dall-E algorithms will devour it. I’m sure you can ask for Hildebrandt hypothetical art right now.
But rather than focusing on the past, I think it’s more productive (and less depressing) to focus on all the new possibilities. Artists are seers, conjurers, and magicians, now more than ever.
In the end, I got some great high res shots of my favorite art, and that’s all that matters to me.
Fun fact: They also did pinup girls! Sorry ladies, this is for art history!
