Gandalf the Grey
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I grew up on the Lord of the Rings films and the look of the films and costumes have been ingrained in my mind for such a long time. It’s always such a blessing and a curse when an adaptation of a book takes such care in visualizing the world the way Weta Workshop and the design team did for Middle Earth. A blessing obviously because it adds so much to the cinematic experience, but a curse because when you are trying to develop your own designs you feel like perfection has already been achieved.
Recently I’ve been trying to develop my own look for Tolkien’s legendarium; which has been a fun challenge that has occupied much of my spare time. When going back and looking at the descriptions and notes Tolkien made about Gandalf, to me he seemed kind of rugged and brutish-- some broad shouldered stocky man hunched over and weary from ages upon ages of travel. To me he seemed less of the archetypal wizard and more of an old brutish sailor; still muscular from his days of physical labor, but bent and weary from all of his years of work.
