(click for DA version)

In Scandinavian folk lore, trolls lived under the hills and in the deepest of forests. They were not necessarily monstrous. Whereas there are stories of evil trolls, others tell of trolls of great beauty or of troll clans trading and granting gifts to their human neighbors. But most often trolls kept to themselves. They avoided humans if they could. But some humans still tended to have an easier time to spot trolls - for some reason the trolls couldn't sense them as easily. Those humans were the feeble, the mad or the very young.

Image in my long-running ... Of Trolls series - there are many more in my DA gallery. I spent longer time on this than I usually do. I also wanted a more muted colour palette. So feedback is highly appreciated!

UPDATE: Thanks to feedback I changed her foot a little. Also made some other variations. It's also up on DA now, available as a print.

MyPaint, Krita and GIMP over about a week of sporadic work.
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Griatch

Fantastic... I am awed.

The foot look a little twigy on the troll and the scene seems to not have a steady atmosphere but that's just how I see it. xD
Good work nonetheless! :3

Thanks for the feedback! I'm not fully sure what you mean though - no doubt due to my failure of grasping lingo. What does "the foot look a little twigy" mean, and what does it mean when you say that the image does "not have a steady atmoshere"? I do appreciate the comments I just wonder if you could elaborate a little more.
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Griatch

Enjoyed the story and wonderful result Griatch. Based on the hair on the human child's head, it may also be able to approach the troll since he has troll blood too. lolol

I am guessing that this drawing made first by MyPaint in greyscale, and color using that ... some layer mode in Krita (I think it is Color HSV or something?)

Very nice Griatch.

Thanks for the comments.


Heh, I guess the kid's head-dress is a little onorthodox. I don't intend it to be hair though (it's way too angular). My idea is rather than the kid has a little makeshift "hat" made of tied-together branches on its head against the rain.


The painting is made in MyPaint up to a certain point of refinery, after which it was moved into Krita for detailed further painting (with GIMP for some minor adjustments). I didn't use greyscale for this though, the colours were painted "on the fly" so to speak.
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Griatch

I love the mysterious atmosphere.
The kid's head-dress looks like a save nest to me.
Very beautiful!

That is wonderful Griatch. I like everything in it.

Wow, beautiful! I hope they catch some fish.
Jag är skogtroll!

lol; OK. I should have seen that but I posted my response with tired eyes Griatch.

Enchants me the talent that has generated this image.
It's hard to say anything other than "wow, awesome, cool, etc."
I would like to have 1% of the talent Griatch.

Griatch if you decide to write mangas, let me know!

Thanks! What is a "save nest" though? I've not heard that expression before (then again I'm not a native English speaker either).


Glad you think so!


Thanks! (If I recall correctly Nidhogg was actually a dragon though, right? )


I have, of a sort; they are not done in this style though, and all the published ones are snippets theoretical longer works. Here are links to a selection:
Where red Apples Lie - The Unknown Girl (9 pages): viewtopic.php?t=997
Where red Apples Lie - Silent Treatment (7 pages) : viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3481
Where red Apples Lie - Ship's passing (5 pages): viewtopic.php?f=11&t=8182
Shrike - Level Up (3 pages): viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10255
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Griatch

What I especially like…the kid's rain hat, the troll's hair, and how the troll's tail swooshes up and around, and both the expressions. The troll looks both amused and surprised and the boy looks a bit like he is surprised that the troll is surprised.
What improvement I could suggest… I'm still looking and coming up blank.

Your troll paintings are all amazing! I love this one and the muted colours add a "grey" feeling to the rainy day which makes it more believable. Nice work as always!!!

Sorry Griatch, it must be "a safe nest" a shelter for the rain.
I find it difficult to explain exactly what I mean. 1 letter can make a very different word

Twigy = Twig like...or ehm..well her foot looks kinda knoby and stick like or a tree-trunk with the roots spreading out...Or that's how I see it what do I know!? xD

As for atmosphere it is raining but doesn't seem dismal or happy, or sad or distressed, it looks (to me) like the child is just there to go along with the description, the troll looks shocked but can also seem just paranoid that the kid is gonna do something since it looks as though the child was there a while, unless he just sat next to the troll girl and that's why I can see a sense of shock. I suppose out of this mess I just wrote, it seems to not have a real emotional impact because I don't know what emotion is supposed to be conveyed. and to add the rendering seems a little TOO clear considering the rainy day would fog up or blur a bit trying to see through moving and overlapping water drops.

Still, I really like the paint job, I don't think I'll ever get that good!

~

To avoid confusion when adding "y" to an existing word, write it as "Twig-y".
Your foot and mine does look like that too, it's just a bit exaggerated here, changing the tendon/muscle ratio. But I've toned it down a bit in the final image, thanks for the feedback on it.


I see, thanks for the more elaborate answer.

It's of course hard to tell just what could be changed when it comes to atmosphere. I didn't want the image to be too depressing in feel since the troll is friendly and this is intended as a birthday gift - and also since the colours of the troll's skin needs to stand out a bit. I deliberately didn't blur the image to account for the impact of rain and mist (although I did try it) - this makes it much harder to parse the image.

As for what emotional impact it has, this is different from person to person as evidenced in this thread alone. My intent with the troll and the child was that that the child sat there fishing in the rain, the troll comes up to drink and only then notices the kid. On one hand it's too bad this image has no emotional impact on you, on the other hand ambivalence can be an interesting effect in itself. Thanks again!


To get smooth colour (depending on what you mean by "smooth color"), you need to work with a multitude of brushes at low opacity as well as with blending brushes to blend things together. It works the same way in GIMP (I've done many tutorials on this if you're interested).
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Griatch