Visually Rendering Rue

I've drawn Rue a half dozen times now but this is the first time I did so without trying to ape the way Paizo goblins often look in the supplements. This little goblin is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters and he captures my imagination in all sorts of ways. I've written like 4k words of back story and felt the need to render him visually aside from my weekly Pathfinder RPG.

This was my first try with the Copic pens/colors in Sketchbook Pro and I like the way he turned out. They take a little longer and I'm still figuring out how best to use them, but that'll come in time I think.

 

Rue swallowed noisily, as he approached the counter. Mort, the shopkeeper looked down at the tiny goblin, his face clouded by no small amount of bafflement. Rummaging about in his purple sack, Rue managed to find enough coin for what he wanted it and pushed it shyly onto the counter.

 

“What is it you think you want?” Mort asked gruffly.

 

“D’oes man-rags,” Rue said, pointing to a set of winter garb hanging in the corner behind the counter.

 

Mort looked at the coin on the counter considering whether he was actually going to go through with the transaction. Then, he looked at the tiny goblin shivering in the cold, with only a potato sack and a length of rope to wear. Worse, the goblin’s ears began to droop the longer he equivocated.

 

“Alright, but it won’t fit you,” he said at last, the goblin’s pitiful appearance finally swaying him.

 

“Rue makes it fit,” the tiny goblin replied, producing some cloth shears.

 

Mort laid the outfit on the counter and counted the goblin’s coins. Satisfied, he nodded to Rue who slowly pulled the outfit down to the floor. To his dismay, Mort watched as the tiny goblin vanished inside the outfit and began making hasty alterations from the inside out.

 

“You can’t do that in here,” Mort said, slapping his palm on the counter.

 

“Leave him alone,” Haifa hissed menacingly, putting a small bottle of weapon polish on the counter.

 

There was a flurry of motion from inside the winter outfit as spindly goblin limbs began to make their way out of the elbows and knees. Finally, the goblin’s comically large head emerged from the collar sporting a wide grin. Rue gathered up the excess around the middle and the extra bits flopping about, tethering them off to the rest of the outfit so they wouldn’t get in the way.

 

“Lookin’ good,” Haifa said, putting her purchase in her backpack.

 

“Yup. Deez are good man-rags,” Rue replied, smiling at his own sartorial splendor.



Wacom Cintiq Companion

Like a lot of people probably, I received an email from Wacom announcing their new Cintiq Companion tablets. I clicked it assuming it was just new peripherals and not stand alone computing devices. I was seriously blown away by what I saw when I went to the site.

Some background first. I've been using Macs since 2009 but have had to go back to using Windows machines because Apple hasn't been serious about creating workstation grade hardware for quite awhile now. They are finally getting around to updating the Mac Pro. I could, and probably have written a while blog post on that subject.

Anyway, I've been using my Surface Pro quite a bit to create digital artwork, and it's fast enough to handle working in 300 dpi when I'm doing something for print. The screen resolution is great and the color gamut sufficient. However, it's a 10" screen and there are no physical controls beyond the pen. For ticky-tack stuff I end up on my Lenovo workstation with a Wacom tablet wishing there was some way to have the benefits of both in a single device.

It sounds like Wacom may have gone and done just that. From the specifications it appears to have a lot of what I'm looking for, including a 64 bit OS and 13.3" full HD screen display. I'm sure there are already people grumbling that this doesn't have Haswell, but I'm just happy someone is making a tablet device, with pen input, with this form factor.

Check it out for yourself here.