Goodbye Rock Kingdom...

Goodbye Rock Kingdom...

This is my idea for what specifically the far north-west region of the Rock Kingdom looks like, the part bordering the forested colorful Pop territory, and known as the backwater, hick part of the country. It's very scarcely populated with mainly woolly caterpillar farms and small settlements, and it's where Les and Hed are from.

While the center of the kingdom is a large active volcano which doesn't lend itself to most plant life, I imagine there's more and more the further away you travel from it. My main inspiration for this part of the country were the tundra biome and the Scottish highlands — with the ground mostly being covered in rock and a thin layer of soil and flora: mostly low growing vegetation like lichen, moss and herbs, and nothing taller than subshrubs such as heather and berry bushes. Actual shrubs and trees start to show up only when you start to near the Pop Forest.

The nature is mostly in various shades of reds, browns, grays, and earthy greens, basically the colors Rock Trolls come in, since my headcanon is that their colors are like camouflage in their natural environment. (I don't think Rock Trolls can change the color of their hair the way we see Pop Trolls do in the first movie.)

And their shaggy hair textures are supposed to resemble the environment too. With all the lichen and other rough and patchy textures, I was also trying to bring out a bit of a "grunge" effect. Though I feel like this part didn't come out in the illustrations the way I wanted it to. ':)

Overall I imagine it being a very pretty place, with open skies and amazing views, the downside is the close-mindedness of the trolls living there and the fact that there's not much going on.