Cover 2 Cover / Trolls

The lady who initiated this theme has an interest in Scandinavian folklore, and her trolls were all dignified, forest dwelling creatures.

Mine are a hotch-potch. Here they are with descriptions.

What Are Trolls?

I started with an investigation, an exploration, of what a folklore troll might be. I looked them up in two reference books and got three descriptions. I drew the first troll, with fir trees on his head, trying to sit under a too-small bridge. And I made cartoons of the other two after getting distracted by kobolds (also known as goblins: mine-dwelling not-trolls who gave their (German) name to the elemental metal cobalt, which just happened to be the colour of the ink I was using.

Troll dolls / Dam dolls

I put the call out on Facebook and was rewarded with a neighbourly loan of three troll dolls.I drew one in Coloursoft pencils, painted another in palette-knife acrylics, and made a present back to my neighbour of the third's portrait.

The Inevitable Goat (from The Three Billy Goats Gruff - Fairy tale)
Thud (game pieces from a Terry Pratchett/Discworld board game)

The inevitable goat is drawn in Derwent Grafik Line Painter pens, with some inevitable white acrylic where I got carried away. The Thud images are in 8B graphite and acrylic left over from Caramel, with extra yellow ochre and black.

Sleeping Trolls

This is a sort of extrapolation of a troll's stoney countenance (maybe that's just Pratchett-trolls) to petrification and a stone circle in a wood. I was thinking of Fernworthy on Dartmoor with little bits of Rempstone in Dorset, but I think I actually found a distant relative of Easter Island.

A friend tells me it reminds her of Didcot (not the cooling towers of power station, but the stone circle at Millenium Wood).

Newbury Water Bridge and Rumpelstiltskin

Two very different images.

Might there be a troll under this bridge? I watched very carefully (while sketching from the lock) for 10 minutes, but there was no sign of one. Original sketch in watersoluble graphite and drizzle, colour added later using watercolour pencils and water.

Rumplestiltsin may be a troll. It's true; the Internet says so (ahem).  The second fairy tale of the theme! Acrylic, glue and unravelled gold trim.

And that's it.

I'm exchanging sketchbooks tomorrow (a few days early), and I'm looking forward to discovering what the new theme is and to meeting whatever challenges it may bring with it.