"The Road Goes Ever On and On" - Gandalf

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Hello one and all, and welcome to The Art of Caesura!

Having spent the last couple weeks looking at the Balrog, lets turn our attention to the one who rid us of it: Gandalf!

It was fun to go from such a large complex model to such a small straightforward one. And I think that, of the Lord of the Rings miniatures, this rendition of Gandalf really captures the actor, Sir Ian McKellen's face very well. 

I started by bringing up some reference images of Gandalf online, and quickly noticed that while he wears the "Gandalf the Grey" moniker (at this point in his journey anyway), he's actually "Gandalf the Grey and Light Blue". Yes, in the films his hat is actually a different colour from his robes. 

From a black undercoat, I started by mixing approximately 3:1 Abaddon Black to White Scar to make a nice dark neutral grey for the base coat of his robes. 

I then mixed 2:1 Black to The Fang for the basecoat of his hat. My plan was to get most of the base colours in and then shade the whole model with Nuln Oil at the same time. With this in mind, I painted the staff and satchel Doombull Brown and his beard 1:3 Abaddon Black to Ushabti Bone. I left the flesh unpainted for now. 

Then came the aforementioned Nuln Oil, followed by a nice long drying period.

For the first layer of highlights I began with the robes. Enjoying the organic contours of the fabric, I worked quick and a little rough with a more dilute (lahmian medium) version of my original robe mix (the joys of a wet palette!). I then simply added more and more White Scar (also adding more Lahmian Medium to maintain the consistency) to each successive layer of highlight. 

I used the same process to highlight the hat, but for the staff, rather than add white to Doombull Brown to lighten it (which just turns pink / flesh coloured), I added Skrag Brown, which keeps it in the yellow-brown range. Once I got to pure Skrag Brown, I added a tiny touch of Yriel Yellow and then White Scar (for the tip of the staff). I left the satchel at the Skrag Brown stage, using broader highlight lines to give the feel of softer leather. 

On Gandalf's impressive beard, I started with my black and Ushabti mix, adding more Ushabti bone and then White Scar. 

At this stage most of the miniature was complete, save for his skin and the base. I didn't go too far to town on his skin - I was going to give him a bit of a ruddy nose, but under the shadow of his hat, it would just get lost. I base coated the skin Cadian Fleshtone and then used Scale 75's Basic Flesh mixed with Pale Flesh for the highlights. These are most prominent on his hands. 

The model's base was very straight forward: sand PVA-glued down, painted Steel Legion Drab, washed Agrax Earthshade and then dry brushed Steel Legion Drab and then Ushabti Bone. Glue a couple bits of static grass down, and we're away!

Gandalf is a fantastic character in the LotR and the Hobbit and it was a joy to paint this faithful representation of him in miniature scale!

Watching: The Gentlemen (2020) - Guy Ritchie

Reading: The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai

Gaming: Jurassic World Evolution

Next Week:

Out the gap...