UPDATE: This same artwork was featured in October 2012's magazine by Topix Media Lab. It's only available in the US, though.
I chose to draw Gandalf not only because he's my personal favourite character in the Lord of the Rings movie, but I wanted to challenge myself to draw this particular portrait, and see how far I can make it. I guess I'm okay with this for now, but I'll probably work in a bit more of the highlights later (noticed a few parts were lacking something after I transferred this on screen). For now it's time to move on, got commissions waiting.
10-12 hours between 4 days. 8 x 11 inches on a 150gsm sketchbook. Obviously a reference was used I actually started this almost immediately after posting that Iron Man sketch.
Rendered with 8b, 6b and 4b wooden pencils. A tissue paper for blending. A 4b (0.5mm) mechanical pencil for the detailing, a kneaded eraser for value control and a regular eraser cut into small triangles for the highlights (I pretty much drew the hair and beard with it). Contrast was increased a bit in Photoshop CS.