File:Matěj Čadil - Grey Wanderer.jpg

For the fourth week of the Amon Hen Art Challenge (theme: “Wandering but not lost”), I chose to paint Gandalf, the Grey Wanderer.

When I first read the prompt, my mind naturally jumped to Aragorn, specifically his persona as the Strider. After all, the words of his riddle, “Not all those who wander are lost”, are among the most quoted lines from The Lord of the Rings. But perhaps because of that, it felt a little too obvious, almost expected.

So I turned instead to another character who is equally, if not more, defined by wandering. One of Gandalf’s names, Mithrandir, literally means “the Grey Pilgrim” or “the Grey Wanderer”, and Tolkien himself once described him as an “Odinic wanderer” in one of his letters. That image of Gandalf roaming Middle-earth, often alone, carrying news, wisdom, and hidden fire, was what I wanted to capture here.

Although I managed to make a larger and more complex illustration than in the previous two weeks (it is on A3 paper, drawn with watercolour pencils), this piece still came together unusually quickly by my standards! I finished it essentially in a day, really just a few hours of drawing, and I’m happy with the result I was able to achieve in that time.

I chose to place Gandalf in the Shire, walking along the road towards Bywater. You can see the village next to the Bywater pool, and in the distance there is Hobbiton Hill.

In a way, it’s also a small homage to other Tolkien artists whose work has inspired me. It is really interesting that John Howe has painted illustrations of Gandalf walking or standing beneath a single tree several times, and I had that iconic image in mind while planning my illustration.