How to Draw Gandalf, Lord of the Rings
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Draw the oval lightly with a No.2 or HB pencil. Make sure you draw it as seen in the picture.
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Now draw in the bisecting red line to balance his facial features.
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Sketch lightly the crescent red lines for hair line and head mass.
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You can draw in the lines a. for eyebrows, b. for eyes, c. for nose, d. for mouth, e. for shoulder placements.
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Now draw Gandalf's winged eyebrows and eyes with bags.
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Observe where Gandalf's features appear in relation to the guidelines. Draw in his brow, left shadow mark, nose, and right outline of face.
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Watch closely how Gandalf's mustache, small portion of his mouth and beard relate to the guidelines. As you draw, you will have more accuracy. Also sketch in the hair strands in his beard.
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If you haven't already, you can erase your guidelines. When you sketch in his hair, add those straight lines and curls. Try staying close to the lines that represent the direction & curls of his hair. This will help as you shade it in. Also finish sh
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I made this line drawing especially for you if you don't want to do the pencil shading and blending part. Otherwise, let us continue to the pencil drawing part.
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Here is the outline done with a 0.7mm mechanical pencil. Look closely and see if your lines look something like this. You can erase if certain areas like the eyes or nose don't line up. Be patient with this, it's not as complicated as you may think.
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Before we go any further, I want to mention some tools I used, which is the famous white acrylic and also sandpaper. While shading Gandalf's robe, I used sandpaper. In the upcoming steps, I want to show you some great uses of a pencil.
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Best thing you can do when drawing hair is to establish the general shape then work in the main strands of hair by holding your pencil at a 45 degree angle for stroking and coverage. Then, as in the third picture, you can work in more details. But he
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The picture that goes with this step shows two different ways to hold your pencil to acquire certain effects. OVERHAND: Holding a sharpened pencil in normal writing form with fingers in the middle or near the lead gives you great control and thin/det
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PENCIL STROKES & TONE, SHADING, TEXTURE -- For your convenience, I have inserted this step with different pencils, strokes to use. And you can study the shapes that make up this drawing universe, along with tone, shading, and texture.
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The picture here is a great exercise for value shading. I've got a little secret tip for you to make things easier. You can download this to your desktop. First click on the picture to have access to full size. By right clicking on your mouse, you ca
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After printing out a number of the above template, practice shading in the values like this picture. You become familiar with this shading technique that gives you more control and confidence.
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I confess I have never done an elderly person of this magnitude before. I was like, "What do I do with his beard & hair... there's so much of it." Nervous about this first time I resorted to sketching in the details with my 0.7mm HB trusty mechanical
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With my blending stump, I smoothed out the sketch lines and added texture lines to his robe with my 0.7mm mechanical with F (fine) lead.
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This is the first start with the pastel application. If you do the whole picture in a pencil sketch, this is where you would sketch in small circles or lines to shade the areas. It would take hours upon hours to cover all that area with a pencil. I c
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Here I used my blending stump to "draw" in more lines, add more shading to his beard and side of face. I need to whiten areas like some hair curls on his beard and hair strands on his shoulder. I "kneaded" to give a shine on his nose, too. *wink* Aft
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The first picture, I sketched in the background with my 9B graphite crayon and very dark areas in the picture & added dark gray pastels, which took away most of Gandalf's robe detail (arghhh). The second picture, I blended with my stump and added lin
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I have to say this...OH, I'M GLAD I'M FINISHED... how about you? This was one heck of a learning experience. I can't believe the details that went into his hair and beard. But I think he's handsome elderly man, so that encouraged me along. *wink* You
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Without highlights, your picture would have a flat appearance. Click on this picture to learn how to make your own picture POP out!
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Click on this picture to see how Tone, Shading, Texture, and Reflective Light affects Ian McKellen as Gandalf, who is a brilliant actor! I am closing out now. But you all have been wonderful and it has been a great pleasure to do this tutorial with y
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February 3, 2012
Description: Gandalf is gorgeous as well as complex to draw, which is like his character in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (now a movie that has won 17 Academy awards). In these stories, Gandalf appears as a wizard, member and later the head (after Saruman's betrayal and fall) of the order known as the Istari, as well as leader of the Fellowship of the Ring and the army of the West. In The Lord of the Rings, he is initially known as Gandalf the Grey, but after returning from death as Gandalf the White. I have categorized this tutorial as advanced because of the details in his hair, eyebrows, and beard. I hope you enjoy this tutorial. Please fav, vote, and comment. Thank you all. Peace and love to you.
