Gandalf a work in progress ( initial sketch and clay mixed with Andalucian earth figure ready for painting)

Sketches /doodles (affectionately know as end of day sketches) are very crude at this stage, its just about getting basic shapes colours down on paper.

Humphrey Carpenter in his 1977 biography relates that Tolkien owned a postcard entitled Der Berggeist (German: "the mountain spirit"), and on the paper cover in which he kept it, he wrote "the origin of Gandalf". The postcard reproduces a painting of a bearded figure, sitting on a rock under a pine tree in a mountainous setting. He wears a wide-brimmed round hat and a long red cloak, and a white fawn is nuzzling his upturned hands.