Move 'Em On, Head 'Em Up, Trollhide

I'm still trying to get on top of on the work that piled up while I was away, which means that the compiling of Japan bits is taking longer than I'd hoped.  So, in the meantime, I thought I'd just go ahead and toss out a new image from Magic called Trollhide:

©Wizards of the Coast

Like many pieces I've done for Magic, it's pretty straightforward.  A guy is there... kind of hulking out... with his trollhide... or... something.  The only notes I remember getting on the sketch were to push the scale a bit more as the first version wasn't quite as hulky as the folks at Wizards had hoped.  I changed it and this version got approved.  Whether or not I pushed it far enough is probably open to debate, but here's how I approached it:

Picking a moment in a transformation is always tough.  Indeed, trying to decide what moment to pick within any given action can be challenging.  Do you go for a shot smack in the middle?  Something more towards the end?  Or, do you — as I attempted in this case — try and show a range of stages of transformation all at once?  I guess it really depends on the type of thing you're trying to depict.  But, as I said before, in this instance I wanted to show normal bits of the as yet untransformed human, as well as a few more fully transformed bits.  While I sketched, I kept coming back to the fact that he wasn't transforming into a troll, merely gaining the troll's hide.  So, in essence his physiology wouldn't be changing much at all.  Sure he might be hulking out a bit, but he should still retain most of his human traits.

Still, I'm not sure that any of his trollhide has fully developed as evidenced by the fact that his shirt is still tearing.  I mean, we've all seen enough of the Incredible Hulk to know that eventually that thing is going to come off.  His pants, however, are sure to survive relatively unscathed.  'Cause... you know... it's Magic.