A Study in Green (Final)

I was on the right track, I really liked my Goblin design! But looking back at the Troll I had sketched for the concept, and the goblin I now had, they did not look very similar at all. Plus, I didn't like that troll a whole lot. So I decided to go backwards, sketch my troll, based off my goblin. I liked the goblin nose, so I made it bigger and rounded it, I kept the pointed ears, and his head shape is actually quite close (I made it by styling it off of my goblin head- in the pencil sketch he still had an oval for a lower head). I made him hunched-back, gave him clawed hands, and he still has those teeth. To show how clever he is, I gave him better clothes than the MM gives their trolls, but the clothes are tarnished because he doesn't get many opportunities for sewing new ones.

A very drastic change from the D&D troll indeed, but I think he looks good. He certainly reminds me of the trolls from when I was younger. As for magic, I think D&D covers it really well with the regeneration. Although my troll caves are likely to have some dangerous magic in them to reflect that aspect not really covered in combat.

And then there were ogres. This guy was very simple. Take the toll, give it a more human head, add a bit more neck, and make it look a little dim. Voila.

The fact that he looks like a polka player is purely by chance. I had the individual pieces of clothes in mind, but didn't look at it as a whole until I had already drawn it down. Then I fell over laughing. It's probably why this guy is so mad, maybe somebody just insulted his sense of style. I gave the ogre tattered clothes and a dinky piece of armor, since that is what people tend to give ogres.

Final thoughts? Well I really like how they turned out, it's what I was aiming for when I set out to draw these monsters. However, I have... a nagging doubt playing in the back of my head about the troll. I love how he turned out, and he really does look like the trolls I had always pictured while growing up and listening to those stories, but does that make him a good troll for D&D? I still don't like the D&D trolls however. They're too big and stupid, and not related to the mythology which they are supposed to come from. There may have to be more work done on this in the future... probably when our party actually faces a troll.

These are actually to scale with each another. The ogre should maybe be a bit smaller, but I figure he is just a large ogre, and the troll is on the short side. As for the goblin, I made him slightly larger on purpose, so you could see him in better detail, and so he would be less pixelated.

Cheers.