Spookypop's Troll Corner

I finally got some time to put together somewhat of an answer for this?? Again, I'm not so great at explaining things so I'll do my absolute best!

I used to struggle so much with drawing her ponytail, a lot of my older art bothers me tbh because I don't like how I approached drawing her ponytail. I tried looking up images from the movies and even the video game, and I experimented with a few different methods. I actually found that the Poppy ornaments I have on my desk served as the most solid reference material I could have. So I studied the figure and have been incorporating that into my newer works, and it absolutely changed how I approached drawing it.

Here are some photos I took from different angles to really show off the shapes, second image is how I visualize it when drawing. Thinking of the hair as "pieces" or "tufts" really help, and breaking them down between foreground and the background.

Try practicing off these images and see if it shifts the way you draw hair! Tracing helps too because it helps your brain just figure out shape language. After doing some traceovers, I then just tried sketching some very quick Poppy pony's and it already felt a lot better

And then, here are two illustrations where I'm proud of Poppy's hair because I incorporated these refs into them:

I personally feel like thinking of the hair this way really sells the volume of it, as well as showing that it's soft and fluffy as opposed to strands of hair.

But yeah! That's how I do it. The more you draw it over and over the more it starts to become natural!

Oooh I'll go ahead and give ya the names and direct links to download them!

The first one is called Manga Speak, you can download it here: https://www.dafont.com/manga-speak.font

The second font is called Jack Armstrong BB, which I BELIEVE came with Procreate? If not, you can get it from here (The website is a little funky but the download works just fine): https://fontzone.net/font-details/jack-armstrong

Hope this helps!! <3

so uh when is someone gonna make/host a broppy zine....I would so contribute if there was a broppy zine project...

A lot of practice, also reference! IMO drawing troll kids isn't too bad when you realize they are just cuter, softer, tinier versions of an adult. And I'm still learning how to get it right so I still lack consistency when I'm drawing them, and that's ok haha.

Ivy STILL isn't final but I'm drawing her more to get her right. Her little self has bigger and rounder eyes, bigger ears, button nose, scruffy hair. She sort of grows into those features as an adult, but as a little baby she is so round and squishable :3 It IS tricky drawing trolls as children but I feel the more you draw them the easier it gets. But looking back at this art I do see things that could change, like her hairstyle and maybe exaggerating the features more.

FUN FACT I actually do not come up with most of my poses cause when I try and tackle them on my own, they just don't work sometimes. I'm almost always looking for reference to act as a guideline for what I'm trying to achieve. First I focused on getting comfortable drawing Trolls anatomy and getting the basic shapes down, which made it easier for me to draft poses. I have a good example I made a few months ago when designing Darcey!

I spend so much time on Pinterest looking for images and photos to act as my inspiration and general reference. Then I sketch until I get the end result! Reference is vital tbh and for a large majority of my pieces, I started with gathering images first. Drawing this way has allowed me to branch out and become more comfortable drawing poses out of my head, but I always feel better having images to look at!

Color blocking/rough sketch for my next environmental Broppy painting 👀 I think it would be fun to share steps of the process for this one. This stage is where I visualize the idea of what I'm trying to go for in the end result, the next part is refining the characters, anatomy, and scale :)

Kinda wanna share what my thumbnail/color blocking stage of my paintings look like

I've been cooking up another Broppy painting based on the Life is Strange soundtrack because I've been obsessed with it, also a little Twilight inspired 😂

I'm trying to find a good balance between the Trolls style and my own style. I feel like I'm getting there...I was very focused before on trying to nail the official style but I'm sort of happier mixing my own into it now that I'm more comfy drawing trolls. That's why some of my stuff might look a little different time to time lmao, everything is experimental at this point

I don't have the means to produce and sell stickers on my own rn so I'm setting up a Redbubble shop :) What kind of designs would you guys like to see made into stickers? Could be anything broppy related or general Trolls stuff. I'm making a list of design ideas so I'd love to hear some suggestions!

*CRACKS KNUCKLES* You've mentioned something that relates to what I am passionate about- design! Apologies in advance if this is long but I am so excited to dive into this.

When trying to nail down the aesthetic for a type of media in particular it always helps to STUDY THE SOURCE! I get most of my inspiration from the Trolls movies themselves because the whole franchise is such eye candy. So let's look at it!

The general observation is that everything has been designed to look crafted or handmade, or almost toy-like. Everything is so artsy and creative it looks like someone created everything with craft supplies. The takeaway key words I get when looking at everything is: Happy, bright, colorful, soft, shiny, fun, glittery etc. These are what you take and incorporate into your ideas! It also helps when searching for references too!

I absolutely love the Dreamworks cards at the start of each movie. It's such a perfect way to show how they took the Trolls aesthetic and applied it to their logo!

Everything looks felted, painted, embroidered, pieced together, etc. These cards alone tell you so much about the world of Trolls.

Next is observing environments. The designs for all of these locations are stunning not only because they are creatively done but because the things that make them different from each other are so fascinating.

You've got the visuals from around Pop Village/Troll Tree which feels knitted, crocheted, sewn, felted, etc. It all feels so SOFT.

Then I love this environment because it's all POOL TOYS? the vinyl textures? Foam? Amazing.

Then my fave, The Rock aesthetic is full of flannels, denim, leather, etc. I could go on with more examples but I'd be here all day.

I think understanding the design choice behind the world of Trolls is so important because it'll tell you exactly what you should be looking for in your inspo. From this you can take that everything is fun and very artistic. This can influence your styling, your color choices, your textures, etc.

Creating a guide or inspo board gets a lot easier when you can type in key words or names of objects that are relevant to the world and characters you are working to capture!

Hope this helps some! (Again, I'm not great at explaining things, but this is my approach!)

sksksksk THANK YOU ;; Eyes are my favorite part to draw because they're a window to the soul, and you can really tell how a character is feeling JUST by the eyes. It's so important to me!! And thank you so much!! <333 Would love to be a concept artist/illustrator for Dreamworks tbh...DW my dms are open nudge nudge

Ok apologies in advance because I am NOT great at explaining things.

When I start drawing any character I ALWAYS start with shapes. I feel it's important to get familiar with your subject before you draw it and with enough practice it'll start sticking in your brain. There is no harm grabbing renders or screencaps and tracing over them to get an idea of shapes! I absolutely did a lot of studies that way before I got comfy drawing trolls. Breaking things down to their basic form is important, it helps you visualize shape and volume! So when I draw Trolls, it's a lot of round shapes, bean shapes, and triangles. I made an example with this image of Poppy:

Adding in guidelines is important because it can help you figure out placement for facial features and what direction you'll be drawing them. This is an example of how my starter sketches would look, with similar shapes to this! I just start slapping down shapes and worry about the details much later. I also almost ALWAYS draw this eye mask because it really helps me figure out eye and brow placement.

Now, I have another breakdown but this time with my own rough sketch of Darcey:

Again, more shapes to figure out form. And I sort of make this "mitten" shape to block out hands. You can make edits from this point on to get proportions and perspectives right.

But yeah, this is the shortest simplest explanation I can give regarding the beginning of my process. Understanding and grasping volume is a big thing for me!

OHHHH TRUE!!! Now I HAVE to make him one. He would definitely be based on electronic music or rock. Idk if I'd want to make him a techno troll though...I'm gonna brainstorm tbh because this would be so fun!! My husband is so used to me making characters for him, time for me to present him with a troll next

Heya!! So I'm actively posting work on my Trolls only blogs and I may just keep it that way for now, I'm keeping my professional and personal work a secret (for now) 🤫🤫🤫 And it's mostly because my non-Trolls stuff still needs a lot of work and I'm building my new portfolio. I may share my other stuff in the future but for now, we just got Trolls haha!

TY love!! And that's a good question, I haven't thought about making them in scrapbook style but now I want to? I haven't made Ivy into one yet so now I kinda should...HMMM I'm gonna add it to my list!

Darcey's character sheet is turning into more of a character guide...there's a few slides/pages but there's just too much about her that won't fit on one ref sheet 😂 I'm so excited to finish her up though and have a real ref

I am working on something yet again relating to roller skating (well, drafting out rn). I have figured out what kind of skaters Brozone would be at the rink, but I'm on the fence about John Dory. Help me