Project #1. A Troll: The Sketch

Somewhere in the past decade or so, Trolls have changed into big, kind of fat, monsters. In video games, in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, in Harry Potter, or whatever it might be, you see a big brute. Really, they appear to be what I used to think of as Ogres.

Well, my childhood imagination was fuelled by videogames with simplistic artwork, that had you leaving things up to your imagination, like Phantasie, Ultima and Wizardry.

"awesome" Phantasie graphics!

So, considering that, as well as first edition DnD, with the help of nice artwork by guys like the late David Sutherland (who just passed away in 2005), I'd always pictures Trolls differently than they are portrayed in today's world. I always imagined trolls to be a lot more thin and wirey than the Trolls we see in games and movies today. Green skinned, warty, sinewy, evil bastards to be sure.

So my first, relatively simply, undertaking is going to be a painting of my, childhood imagined, troll. As I've said, I'm on the other end of the spectrum from the world's best painter, but I'm trying to improve and having something to work on, like this troll will be a good start.

So, first up, a sketch or two, in my sketchbook of the shape I want my troll to take on:

After a couple pages of rough sketching, I've "settled" on these two examples of my troll. While I do like them more slender than today's Ogre shaped trolls, I think I like the slightly thicker build of the first troll. I think I can work from these though, for my next step in this piece.

Blogging through my inspirations

Welcome to my little blog here on the web.

I'm using this blog as a bit of a journal, as well as to help with motivation, for getting myself back into "artistic shape" as well as to work on areas where I have not traditionally been a very strong artist. I was a digital artist in the past, though I am not working in the Art field right now.

But, I always wished my traditional painting skills were better. Well, for that matter, I wish I had them at all. I never spent much time painting, or using ink, I would just draw and transfer to the computer for finishing, if I even drew at all. Often I would start on the computer, with a Flash drawing, or 3D modelling.

My inspiration for art comes from my imagination and my passion for entertainment...games and books mostly. And my plan is to honor some of my favorites, put things that had been in my imagination down on paper and canvas and see what happens. I will also explore some compositions of other pieces of art that have inspired me, not just games and books, but we'll start at the beginning.