#Vis Dev: Andy Murray

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Skrael Design Path

Rolling onward to the second of these Arcane Order closer looks and this time it's Skrael at the helm! As ever with these it is far from impossible something else will belatedly turn up. Should this occur, wherever it is added will have a [/edit xx/xx/xxxx] which includes a date marker. Just makes it easier to find the “new” thing :)

Given Skrael is often written by many fic writers as He/They, suppose we got some more non-binary wrongs going on. All for a good cause tho, right?

Skrael is unusual of the three in that his design, from what work is public, was cemented pretty early on. Still, Francisco Ruiz Velasco did have his own stab at a bunch of wizards which are nigh impossible to pin down if it was for any of the Arcane Trio specifically or not. This one will very understandably appear in all three as there could well be a Skrael potential here.

Source goes to Linkedin so may require an account.

According to Yingjue Chen who drew the below Ice Wizard designs, Sean Murray did a sketch which the most Skrael looking one is based. It's a pretty low chance of said sketch ever turning up but you never know.

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A coloured version of this very Skrael looking Skrael is also shown in the Art of Wizards panel on the height comparison chart too.

From there comes his final design plus quite literal gesture sketches. These are again by Yingjue Chen!

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Skrael next pops up in the hands of Betsy Bauer for his paint and turn around which much like Bellroc is a reference goldmine. He is no longer on her website but you can check out other things she did for ToA here.

Decided to add a trio of bonuses just for fun. You might have noticed the Order pops up in the Wizards credits sequence though unlike Trollhunters and 3Below, it is not Headless Studios. They were drawn in a similar way though! They are by Alison Donato.

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This is also a great excuse to yet again break out Francisco Ruiz Velasco's Order band poster again! In part due to him only appearing in colour keys for RotT otherwise.

Source goes to Linkedin so may require an account.

Of all the Order for some reason there's a lot of detail for Skrael's staff. Starting off we have the painted concepts by Yingjue Chen which we lack for Bellroc at this time.

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And from theeeere we have a whole bunch from Alison Donato including callouts! The small and texture free Skrael model resized for height comparison purposes will have been made at Leo Sanchez Studios.

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On the more magical front there is a tiny screenshot from the Art of Wizards panel which shows the magic effects for Skrael. It is unknown who the other images including what could be the ice bridge belong to however -

We do have a bigger version of the left image which we know is by Yingjue Chen! Aren’t effects neat?

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[/Edit 13/02/2025] The following was missed due to no obvious note of what it is on the original tweet this version is from and it's being added in now. This is the spell effect combining Bellroc, Skrael and the Green Knight's power into a single shot! It is by Isaac Orloff.

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Poking Rise of the Titans a moment, thanks to Andy Murray we have the glow up eye effect for Skrael. This has been cropped from a larger image for fitting this post reasons only.

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And for fun since we also have it, this is the Arcane Circle for Skrael which is shown on the Ice Titan. The Genesis Seal marker is on the same row as Bellroc so is not shown here. As above it has been cropped for fitting this post reasons only. This time they are by Sean Wang.

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Much like Nari, we do actually know what Skrael's development name: Thule! They're not in the most easy to spot place mind and likely why many have missed it over the years. One of them is in Alison Donato's file names on her website like so:

The other location is on one of the Felix Yang sequences that hasn't been converted from nyoom status yet. In this case, yeah you have to be very lucky to spot it:

It can can be found Here.

When all three posts are up there will be a link here to the other two members. For now it is a half completed placeholder:

Bellroc - Nari - Skrael

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Do you want more because:

Artist: Sean Wang (Tanginova) - Source

Artist: Sean Wang (Tanginova) - Source

Artist: Betsy Bauer - Source screenshot from this video

Artist: Betsy Bauer - Source

Artist: Betsy Bauer - Source

Artist: Aaron Loftis - Source

Artist: Yingjue Chen - Source

Artist: Yingjue Chen - Source

Artist: Andy Murray - Source

Artist: Isaac Orloff - Source

Artist: Sean Murray - Source

I might have missed one but I think I got all the public ones.

found some rott concept art for the titans which i love so so so mucj i like it all better than what they went with 😭😭😭

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Bellroc Design Path

As per Anon request there's going to be three posts regarding the Arcane Order consisting of any and all concept art we have of them. As ever with these it is far from impossible something else will belatedly turn up. Should this occur (And in this specific case would not be surprised), wherever it is added will have a [/edit xx/xx/xxxx] which includes a date marker. Just makes it easier to find the "new" thing :)

Also per Anon request we're starting with Bellroc! As a fun bonus fact, the voice meandering from masc to femme is both really cool and a Angel of Death from Hellboy reference. Particularly in this climate, we support non-binary they/them wrongs. So let's get to it!

First up is some initial concepts from Yingjue Chen! While this was originally figuring out Nari and thus forest themed, the left most one was repurposed into a fire wizard. Never went any further of course but still very neat to see how just changing some shapes and adding colour make something fresh from old ideas.

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Francisco Ruiz Velasco had his own stab at a bunch of wizards which are nigh impossible to pin down if it was for any of the Arcane Trio specifically or not. Still important to include tho :) This one will very understandably appear in all three.

Source goes to Linkedin so may require an account.

Then seemingly all of a sudden Bellroc as we know them pops up, also by Francisco Ruiz Velasco, who would finalise their design. This is a crop from a height chart shown during the Art of Wizards panel and when you compare it to the artwork below (Also from the panel), they do seem to get tightened up considerably.

Now this was uploaded outside the panel as well, which is great as can see it at a decent size, though does lacks one sketch and the specifics of their eyes. It's very possible that someone else drew/painted those though who if that is the case is currently unknown.

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The next one to appear is their texture markup by Isaac Orloff! This is an absolute goldmine for your reference needs, particularly all their little details.

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Decided to add a trio of bonuses just for fun. You might have noticed the Order pops up in the Wizards credits sequence though unlike Trollhunters and 3Below, it is not Headless Studios. They were drawn in a similar way though! They are by Alison Donato.

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Ivan Gozali, who boarded on Wizards, had a bunch of Bellroc sketches on his website which were likely related to boards he may have done that are not public. Sadly, said sketches suddenly vanished one day and to date only one of these has been recovered. This is a good a time as any to show it.

This is also a great excuse to yet again break out Francisco Ruiz Velasco's Order band poster again! In part due to them only appearing in colour keys for RotT otherwise. Well, there's one exception but want to save it for it's own post...

Source goes to Linkedin so may require an account.

Can't forget Bellroc's staff! Presumably it was modeled after Fruiz's design as Alison Donato mentions her texture work here was painted over a blank. Unlike the other two which do have 2D reference art for the design, it's not been seen publicly at this time.

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On the more magical front there is a tiny screenshot from the Art of Wizards panel which shows the magic effects for Bellroc. It is unknown who the right two images belong to however -

We do have a bigger version of the left image which we know is by Yingjue Chen! Aren't effects neat?

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[/Edit 13/02/2025] The following was missed due to no obvious note of what it is on the original tweet this version is from and it's being added in now. This is the spell effect combining Bellroc, Skrael and the Green Knight's power into a single shot! It is by Isaac Orloff.

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Poking Rise of the Titans a moment, thanks to Andy Murray we have the glow up eye effect for Bellroc. This has been cropped from a larger image for fitting this post reasons only. Have to scroll back up for the Wizards version!

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And for fun since we also have it, this is the Arcane Circle for Bellroc which is shown on the Fire Titan including the Genesis Seal marker. As above it has been cropped for fitting this post reasons only. This time they are by Sean Wang.

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To close up a fun little tidbit! Thanks to Bianca Siercke we have the temporary name for Bellroc before they became, well, Bellroc. It was Belrog!

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When all three posts are up there will be a link here to the other two members. For now it is a placeholder:

Bellroc - Nari - Skrael

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Nari Design Path

We're now on the final of the trio and we're finishing up with Nari! Part of the reason she's last is there is So Much and given smacked straight into the image limit it was the right call. Think she is also a great reminder that there is no "central hub" for finding information scattered across multiple artists with some being lost over time. The only place that is anything like that is the Dreamworks vault, all this is by one dedicated person who despite doing their best can still miss things.

As ever with these it is far from impossible something else will belatedly turn up. Should this occur, wherever it is added will have a [/edit xx/xx/xxxx] which includes a date marker. Just makes it easier to find the “new” thing :)

Much like with Skrael opening with these guys again if for flow reasons this time round. Francisco Ruiz Velasco had his own stab at a bunch of wizards which are nigh impossible to pin down if it was for any of the Arcane Trio specifically or not. This one will very understandably appear in all three as there could well be a Nari potential here for all we know.

Source goes to Linkedin so may require an account.

Next up is Yingjue Chen's initial forest wizard concepts which you may recognise from the Bellroc thread. We've even got some deer ankles going!

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Her next iteration is Nari as we know her for the most part if more "adult" in appearance, longer hair, possible deer ankles and lots of veils.

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The "adult" Nari has popped up one other time namely through Francisco Ruiz Velasco doing his own exploration of the nature wizard and funky magic vines.

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After this it was decided to make Nari "younger" and more childlike in stature though at this point still keeping everything else about her design. Fandom has generally fallen into two camps as either seeing her as a literal child sharing a weird spot with Skrael there or as a small adult. This is in part why the quotation marks are being used. Next to her here is the nature wizard design recast as Bellroc before they went off to a different artist. This is Yingjue Chen again!

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For some reason have the left image entirely on its own and not entirely sure why. Anyway.

On the right is more veil tests that were tried out until it was decided it would be cost prohibitive, a common reason for cape loss in animation. Her hair was shrunk into the snazzy braid for the same reason. Her design would have further tweaks before settling, notably in the legs and how the leaf plates fit together if you compare the above and the below.

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After this we have Nari's paint over a Leo Sanchez Studios model complete with callouts! Thinks ended up being tweaked a little bit more which really shows how iterative the process of concept to final design can be. Bonus is good reference particularly for that braid.

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This is the point where you will see some creative work arounds for the image limit. Prior to his website being changed, Ivan Gozali had a bunch of sketches, some Bellroc sketches and a Jilaire beatboard. The Nari ones are still accessible through instagram if small. These are a smidge bigger though have been grouped into twos because of aforementioned limit.

He does mention a very interesting tidbit however:

Some character studies of Nari. Early in production we didn’t have much to go on. There were several design iterations, we even had several name changes. I was never much of a “concept” artist so please excuse with these off-proportion drawings. I always find joy exploring character behaviours and attitude.

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In addition there was this little animation which is on both instagram and on his tumblr. There he says:

Nari character from Wizards, inspired by a ‘feral boy’ character from Road Warrior, which was a good jumping point, but I’m mostly inspired by @glenkeaneprd Tarzan test.

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Also by one of the storyboarders we have this series of art by Bianca Siercke. Completely non-canon these were part of figuring out her character and no doubt helped the boarders figure her out best for drawing as well.

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This can of course also mean rock fists. Specifically in this case to quote:

"Nari playful personality was especially fun because of how it might effect her fighting style". "This was one of the explorations I did to figure out what kind of magic she might use".

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"This was an exploration of how Nari's magic might change depending on her mood".

Given she can use plants like a telephone according to Aaron, murder hands seem fair even if they were just part of figuring her out.

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"These were explorations trying to find Nari's personality and magic ideas. They're non canon".

This is the last one! Ironically enough the seeds did come back in a sense in the form of her potted plant in Rise of the Titans.

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Decided to add a trio of bonuses just for fun. You might have noticed the Order pops up in the Wizards credits sequence though unlike Trollhunters and 3Below, it is not Headless Studios. They were drawn in a similar way though! They are by Alison Donato.

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Now firmly onto RotT related artwork, these various disguises for Nari are by Betsy Bauer painted over Yingjue Chen's original! Should you so desire you can have chav Nari in your works and point to this as to why.

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Thanks to Andy Murray we have a paint and orthographic turnaround of the chosen Nari in a giant beanie. Gives a good look at the t-posing model as well should you need it.

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This is also a great excuse to yet again break out Francisco Ruiz Velasco's Order band poster again! Some imagery shenaniganry was done purely to ensure this got in here again.

Source goes to Linkedin so may require an account.

Returning to Yingjue Chen a moment, Nari's staff! This and Alison Donato's credits paintings are the only currently known artwork of it. It might not have been used much but she does very much have a stick just like the others.

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In the previous two design paths this is about when the Art of Wizards panel gets pointed to with the really tiny screenshot. In a unique twist to Nari and as a boon when smacked into the image limit, we have the full-sized versions of the very art shown there!

Next to the very tiny Nari is the left most vine.

And beside it is both the "flame" and the beam that will be used to bass boost the Heart of Avalon specifically. The below was originally on Betsy Bauer's website though is no longer available. Why things are saved off :)

Do you recall the green butterflies/moths Nari seemingly produced out of nowhere while at Hex Tech? Well thanks to Isaac Orloff we have their orthographic and their glowy effects!

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Moving onto the RotT spell front, when Betsy Bauer revamped her website it came with some brand new art we hadn't seen previously. Not only does it show her potted plant unfurling and name it as a passion flower, there's an additional view of Nari in her "Fish fear me" hat.

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We have that same flower exploding into a massive vine. Even has a callout specifically to Betsy Bauer's spell effects which is neat! This one is by Sean Wang.

Returning to Andy Murray a moment, we have the glow up eye effect for Nari. While not shown here for image limit reasons, the mind swap between Douxie and Nari effects plus the ripping him outta there is on the same sheet. The one below, which is purely Titan related has been cropped for fitting this post reasons only.

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This is the Arcane Circle for Nari which is shown on the Earth Titan. The Genesis Seal marker is on the same row as Bellroc so is not shown here. As above it has been cropped for fitting this post reasons only. This time they are once again by Sean Wang.

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Sean Wang also has this on her website showing additional effects and the rune usage on Nari specifically. The artwork on the left is from one of Alfonso Blaas' colour keys which shows the Genesis Seals being opened.

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Nearly there now! While mentioned earlier and to fit with the format of the other two posts, one of Nari's in development names was Ilnara which we found out thanks to Bianca Siercke.

To close up on a fun note, Yingjue Chen has a headcanon of "adult" Nari having Excalibur which Schildwand went and cosplayed!

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With the trio now complete, all the link hops between now work! When this is uploaded please allow chance for the links to Nari to be updated on the other posts.

Bellroc - Nari - Skrael

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We all need a mephit or six in our lives so how about a lava one by Andy Murray? This guy, who was clearly designed to with editing the existing model than rebuilding from scratch, never made it to screen during Rise of the Titans. Such funky little guys deserve love anyway and hey if you have anything with Bellroc they probably would be hanging about with them anyway...

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Couldn't crosspost this yesterday due to feeling awful and turns out had forgotten to add it to the move over list too. Whoops. Ah well since it's been requested might as well fix that now.

Something curious you might notice in the Wizards episode Wizard Underground are these wand designs that pop up on the various monitors. Not only that, there are strange purple light effects as well that appear to be more fancy than anything. Weirdly specific, right?

Well there's a reason for it! As is often the case not just in the Tales of Arcadia franchise but animation in general what you're seeing is in fact repurposed concept art! Even more specifically, it's from this sheet showing Zoe's wand by Isaac Orloff. Prop is still being used by the Technomancers but it'll always be hers in a sense.

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How can we be so sure it's for Zoe and not anybody else? Well it's that arm being used for scale. A perfect match for the Camelot!Zoe orthographic by Andy Murray and also further confirmation, outside the small cameo, that model exists :)

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Any concept art of the Gun Robot Megasuit (from Rise of the Titans)?

Ah. That blasted thing.

Yeah you can tell been having fun with it.

Very soon after RotT's release, a Behind the Animation video was released on youtube which is thankfully still accessible. Due to being screenshot will have to put up with my browser protection on the side. It gets shirty when turned off even temporarily despite being a big blatant button in the way. Youtube UI as well due to having to frame skip as they're shown in the worst possible way to screenshot.

Cut here due to the amount of images, there's more below!

Who painted these? Good question nothing was labeled.

[Edit 07/02/2025] Shoutout to past me who correctly guessed one of them was Francisco Ruiz Velasco. Bonus is we can now actually see it properly!

Source will request a Linkedin account.

This one at least Betsy Bauer kindly confirmed it was her artwork when I got into contact with her.

Hate having to be vague but this is one of the long term ARGHs of the franchise. We do know who did the poster at least! Andy Murray thank you for my sanity.

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You say Camelot!Zoe reference and the only piece we have will be happily shared:

Interestingly this orthographic is labeled "Clerk" though it's unknown what that is about specifically. This was never uploaded to twitter, only Andy Murray's website so it was a nice surprise way back when.

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First thing, just wanted to say this blog is great and all the work you do for it is amazing!

I came here to ask if there’s any concept art for Douxie’s clothes? Specifically the Camelot look, it’s been a bit hard for me to find any good references for the cosplay I’m making, hope you have a great day/night btw!

There is two actually! Two versions of his concept art appearance and his the orthographic which has his front paint included.

Apologises for the teeniness of this, it's a screengrab from the Art of Wizards video. I think there is a larger version of this blowing about somewhere that was screenshot when it was live though not got it to hand.

Then this one is the finalised concept art! Both are by Betsy Bauer.

Tumblr is absolutely going to eat this so do pop it out into a tab, reference wise I prefer the landscape version. This is a full orthographic turnaround thanks to Andy Murray.

It's also thanks to him we have any artwork of Camelot!Zoe too... Got the concept art for his stick too should you ever need it.

Hope these help!

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Troll Jim Design Path

Pain free but a bit under the weather on a Friday is a good excuse for mayhem despite tumblr just wiped the entire post and the backup draft when I was literally looking at it. This is attempt two.

Did you know there was an earlier version of the Beast!Jim design that had toes?

He also had fluffy elbows which is great for your Troll!Jim headcanons.

This artwork is by Francisco Ruiz Velasco also known as Fruiz! If there were any other designs or progress prior to this they are not online as far as we're aware.

We dooo have an updated version (Sans toes) that was shown during the Wizards Art Panel which unlike the RotT one is still accessible though!

Alfonso Blaas has this visual development image on his Artstation which he mentions was drawn over Franciso's linework. It may well have been in between the above versions given the design. Daylight's appearance is either a reference or just coolness factor

This was also one of his works which got him a spot as a finalists for the 2021 Concept Art Awards Category: Animation Series Character too!

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After that comes the orthographics by Andy Murray. This one has a full head turnaround as well as a height reference.

The next one has his carvings including where the Amulet was ripped out.

After that we get the various paint overs which is a reference goldmine! First up is a blue-eyed boy.

Berserker mode.

And finally under The Green Knight's control. Great use of Angor's eye there if you wanted a closer look too.

Nabbed from twitter here and here.

Tumblr please don't wipe the post again already stopped me adding a title.

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Butcher Troll-Dragon Design Path

While they are only in the film for what basically amounts to a few second cameo the troll-dragons went through the same design process as any other design. By luck the Butch Troll-Dragon is one of few that can be followed from the concept to the final.

First up is this lineup by Yingjue Chen of our five funky guys and girls. With the exception of the middle all of these made it into the film for certain unless they're hiding somewhere. The second lady was designed to bounce off Nomura's model (Thus cut development time) though she lacks this tail. That isn't too surprising given tails and cloaks/similar fabrics apart from being a clipping nightmare add to overall costs.

That is also what fanart/fanfic is for.

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They pop up a second time on this orthographic by Sean Wang also known as Tanginova where both he and the turtle had a few adjustments. The butcher knife was taken from the middle troll and given to him along with gaining a change of wrist adornments and removal of the swirly arm things.

There is two versions of this artwork (This being the second) though neither being on her website at present. The above was taken when it was still available. You can find where either version might show up again here.

Now for his own orthographic!

These two are by Aaron Loftis and because there's two we can see just how much detail went into this guy including a mini height comparison! He sure loves to be fashionable.

Source (In the wrong section so this link might break at some point) | Source

This final work is by Andy Murray for his paint/texture and further snazzifiying. The mouth colouration is a frequent pop up on trolls and is suspected to be AAARRRGGHH's reused.

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His back is to the camera but he can be seen doing some butchering in the half second or so he appears. Enjoy!

[theslayerbrother]

Cool

Pain free but a bit under the weather on a Friday is a good excuse for mayhem despite tumblr just wiped the entire post and the backup draft when I was literally looking at it. This is attempt two.

Did you know there was an earlier version of the Beast!Jim design that had toes?

He also had fluffy elbows which is great for your Troll!Jim headcanons. This artwork is by Francisco Ruiz Velasco also known as Fruiz! If there were any other designs or progress prior to this they are not online as far as we're aware.

We dooo have an updated version (Sans toes) that was shown during the Wizards Art Panel which unlike the RotT one is still accessible though!

After that comes the orthographics by Andy Murray. This one has a full head turnaround as well as a height reference.

The next one has his carvings including where the Amulet was ripped out.

After that we get the various paint overs which is a reference goldmine! First up is a blue-eyed boy.

Berserker mode.

And finally under The Green Knight's control. Great use of Angor's eye there if you wanted a closer look too.

Nabbed from twitter here and here.

Tumblr please don't wipe the post again already stopped me adding a title.