#vis dev: yingjue chen

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Give it up for Papa Skull! This artwork is by Yingjue Chen and you might be able to spot it in various places throughout Trollhunters, particularly when Claire's involved :) This version was nabbed from twitter so you can enjoy it as is/print out/what have you.

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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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Any typos are due to brain mincing headache and also why this is late as memory holes are the worst.

We do know of various things that never made it into Wizards because of strict time constraints though the one we know least about is there being a Hex Tech related storyline. To date the only thing we do is these ladies by Yingjue Chen:

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Well that, Conrad/Connie being named and Zoe losing a line. Scraps! Scraps everywhere! We run off with whatever we can and hope one day to find out more.

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I've recently found out about this archive and im obsessed!! I was wondering if you have anything on the Akiridion royals, more specifically, Krel and Coranda

Going to need to split this into two and do a King and Queen bundle to boot because of how little there is of Coranda and Fialkov online. More might yet show up but this is what we have at the moment:

This first image is a complete guesstimate as you can see from the attached tweet by Yinjue Chen. Only reason think it might be royal related is mostly vibes, four arms and the cloak/jacket effect she's got going there. Could be completely wrong of course!

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This one is by Francisco Ruiz Velasco aka Fruiz and is likely when their designs settled enough for refinement/modelling. He reused this particular versions for the various throne room concepts and they also show up on a mixed artist 3Below cast image.

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Then we have these expression sheets by James A. Castillo when he was with Headless for a little bit! First up a bitta Fialkov.

Annnd Coranda. These actually caused a bit of panic when his website got revamepd and these vanished for a while. Thankfully everything came back fine as these are pretty unique and fantastic reference.

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Last off is these two by Jessica Bulinski, one of which might recognise from a recent post. It is a unique opportunity to see Coranda's final model if in yellow though so:

... And halves of them being obliterated if that's more your thing.Really cool effects at least and of course somebody needed to figure it out.

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As usual if anything pops up after this is posted they will be added to the thread! Fruiz has been quieter of late but he has done it on us multiple times at this point.

Krel is kinda scattered all over the place, well even more than this. This has been thrown together first thing in the morning so will start pooling the various Krel bits and pieces in drafts throughout today. It's highly likely going to forget something and found doing that helps. Started gathering these last night and left them in tabs because yesterday me is very nice.

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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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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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The second part to this Ask, here's all the Krel stuff we have at this current time! Sorry for the delay. System jank mark 3 in a month plus clock change/birthday/mother's day yesterday has done me in.

First up is this poster for 3Below which you might not think much of except...

Yeah Krel's shirt is green for some reason? Given this made it all the way to the poster and one netflix background, his model must have had a last minute change for blue. Very unusual and figured best to include it for the record.

Anyway weirdness aside, the earliest Krel we know about is the artwork in Defenders of Arcadia/3Below credits which uses official Headless studios artwork. This left is screenshot from a youtuber due to not having a screenshot of him handy apart from the ending:

Thanks for that resize tumblr good job.

There is also one other instance from The Animation Magazine. This is spliced together of various assets in the order of:

Francisco Ruiz Velasco - Morando, Fialkov, Coranda and Varvatos Vex

Yingjue Chen - Aja and Krel

Luug - Betsy Bauer

Corgi Luug, Krel, Aja and Vex as an old man however have never shown up anywhere else. It is very possible they are also Headless Studios though they could also be someone else entirely.

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Whatever the case is, Krel pops up again in this paint by Yingjue Chen based on the Headless Studios artwork.

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The last of the human art we have at the moment is this one by John Bell showing him in his room on a skateboard. He is used as a height reference in multiple of his 3Below pieces.

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On the Akiridion side of things, the earliest currently known is this pair by Yingjue Chen. This has been cropped from a larger image for relevance sake.

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After that we have this image from a bunch of sketches she did. The rest were heavily Aja leaning or too difficult to be sure so went with this one since yeah that's Krel. Either way ~weaponry~.

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This one is part of Alfonso Blaas' portfolio and yeah got nothing, absolutely no idea what this was made in relation to whatsoever. Only possibility ever been able to come up with is something to do with hiding their Akiridion forms but even that's, yeah.

This one is another piece by Alfonso Blaas namely a piece of visual development included as hey, Krel's there.

Source for both the above

Moving back to Francisco Ruiz Velasco a moment, he has this piece of key art from Mother's memory. There are quite a bit of various Akiridion tech in his work but going with being 98% sure it's Krel for this post. The hoverboard might be him for example but they have two arms so eeeeeh.

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The last known is this piece of art by Yingjue Chen squirreled on Eli's conspiracy board!

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To finish, Krel actually appeared on the Dreamworks 25 years in a unique model pose that has never shown up on any other marketing material.

There is a lot of Aja specific art dotted about including a second version of the above graphic with just her and a model paint. While artists of course can put in their portfolio's whatever they want/get permission for, there is undoubtedly a heavy Aja leaning going on.

Either way hope this helps and if anything else turns up, will sneak them in.

Also went with this screenshot because these three idiots are chaotic it's great.

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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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Do you have anything related to the illustrations shown in the books like a brief recapitulation of troll lore and the book of ga-huel that appear in the series? Ty c:

Right now it's not coming up to 1am: The answer is kinda.

So an important note first, this is indeed Gunmar!

It is also a very specific Gunmar that to date has only shown up in one place online and it is a part of this thing:

Enhancing:

Source - This particular art is by Headless Studios.

And that would be Bular during his Gunmar period. You can see that whole mess with bonus Draal in a design path here. No idea why they went with that one specifically but hey! Maybe in universe they thought Bular looked cooler if they aged up him a bit.

As for the books themselves we do have a few of them online which means it's likely all the book illustrations were by Yingjue Chen (@ yingjue here on tumblr). Understandably we haven't got 1:1 for all of them to be 100% certain just that the odds are pretty good.

Also great if you wanted a better view of Draal about to get booted.

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These ones are hers as well!

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Do remember somebody at one point asking if there could be an actual Book of Ga-Huel published though it was pointed out they only made enough illustrations for what was needed. Still we have these and that's neat!

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quick question, there's a art on the wall of claire's room, is it on the artbook? or it have a full art? ;]

The Papa Skull artwork by Yingjue Chen has already been posted Here. Very likely the Chad poster is also hers which guessing entirely because we know for certain the ones below are her work. This of course includes the GDT cameo in the family portrait which know for certain is in the house somewhere :)

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It's the storyboard time of the week again and this is another one by Franke Forte! He has quite a few from The Arcadian job and this is another one.

You can find it here. Make sure when you click through to his website to click one of the images so you can see it in full view. Though wait wasn't it Uhl in the final?

Yeah so a funny story was uncovered with that one. Kubritz might well have always been the bad guy for the 3Below series but for long enough to be boarded, she was a teacher at Arcadia Oaks. Thanks to the artist James A. Castillo we actually have a little bit about it. To quote him from twitter:

Some more character explorations done for talesofarcadia. They were looking for a 50's math teacher type. Done with the guys at HeadlessStudio , which was a dream!

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She does appear in this guise one more time in the artwork currently public. This time by Yingjue Chen:

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The more you know~

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Forgot how much canva despises the idea of previews, anyway.

Couple of weeks ago on Scott Cooper's new website when innocently went to grab the Blinky's Day Out link, something else appeared. What made this even more surprising is it had never been seen previously. So for your humble Tuesday here is a small sequence from A Night to Remember which you can find here! Just click on the right of the screen to move things along, the bar at the bottom doesn't always show up.

Right with that out the way there is something else rather special about this particular sequence, apart from having a date for the Spring Fling, and that's this:

Do any of these girls look familiar at all? Well let's start with the unknown girl on the left. She may have had a tiny appearance in a certain thread posted on this account. If you look very closely at this artwork by Yingjue Chen there is a girl who looks pretty similar on the top row with shorter hair. Not a perfect match of course, just being head and shoulders makes that tricky, but not impossible. That means it is highly likely she was one of the Headless Studios designs and this is not the only indication...

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As the girl on the right is Shannon! But wait you say, that girl is skinny there's no way that's her. This is then slid in front of you:

This is from the Art of Trollhunters artbook. While normally would avoid photos/scans unless officially released, this one never has been and at the precise moment do actually need it. This is cropped from a video as we're not giving keys for the uploader getting a copyright strike. You can see some of the others in the class book as well which is a nice touch.

Finally in the middle? Blonde Zoe returns for one rather unexpected cameo in last place would have expected :) Between her and that very specific version of Shannon this means that Scott must have had some Headless Studios art for student reference when drawing. Which is neat!

Sometimes running this Archive is coming across as an insane conspiracy theorist but equally it's a very neat detail.

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Usually whenever any new artwork from Trollhunters specifically turns up, it's someone's blog or a non-english website. To date that's been a Chinese fan wiki, a Mexican blog, an Italian Disney site and a Brazillian website. These you can't really look for deliberately, you trip over them hopefully before any decay or removal sets in. The other sort which is more common for the entire franchise is artwork will sneak onto existing portfolios which has happened a lot in regards to one particular artist. Those tend to be weekly checks as it happens so frequently you want to grab them before they vanish back into the void.

This next to never happens on artstation particularly post their decisions regarding AI and tearing down any pro Ukraine artwork. Rustam Hasanov however at some unknown point did it anyway and this is just one of the surprises that came with it.

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What makes this even more interesting is that this is not the first evidence of Claire having Morgana like colours for her armour. Yingjue Linda Chen posted these which suggests the idea stuck around before settling on her now signature purple.

Source Tumblr for tumblr reasons is breaking the direct link to the image, it's on the top row.

Bar the body of the purple armour (The head is the 2D artwork with the helmet added), none of these are in the artbook. Enjoy and run riot!

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Sites going down has been a routine theme of late so for something a smidge different, an article that's breaking. Previously on the Animation Magazine article you could see white boxes that you could click for the images but now uh.

Yeah it's pretty broken and the only way to access the 'missing' ones is through the source code. To save you faffing around with all of that, here they all are :) Figuring out the artist behind each has been an ongoing project thus not all pieces have been figured out at the time of typing.

Darklands environment

Rémi Salmon - L shape of art Simon Rogers - Top right

Darklands environment

Unknown artist - Top left pair Rustam Hasanov - Everything else apart from the circular area bottom left Unknown artist - Circular area

Eclipse Armour

Alfonso Blaas - Helmet, shield, glaives, Eclipse armour Yingjue Chen - Eclipse blade

Dictatious

Headless Studios

Gunmar - We do have a larger version of this image though for the purpose of this post the original has been uploaded.

Unknown artist - Top left Rustam Hasanov - All middle images and top right Headless Studios - Bottom left Unknown artist/seeking confirmation - Bottom right

Nyarlagroth

Alfonso Blaas - Middle image painted over Yingjue Chen's lineart Yingjue Chen - All the rest

Enjoy!

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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.

[toa-archive]

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!