Book Review: Goblinoids

I picked up the book because the art was quite good. The artist is Scott Purdy, so called Illustrator of the Weird and Wonderful.

The book is a basic goblin drawing guide. It's split into two parts. The first touches on goblin anatomy, basically the features that makes a goblin look like one. There are also information on different classification of goblins, like the hobgoblin, half orcs, trolls and ogre.

You'll get more out of the book if you know some basic anatomy. For example, the book highlights features of a goblin hand but you need the anatomy knowledge to be able to create your own hand gestures.

The second part dives into the the different races of goblins. Scott Purdy has drawn for each race several characters each with a different class/occupation, such as a traveling salesman, rocketeer (on the cover), bone collector, etc. This section is a look at the process of creating the goblin, from sketch to the coloured version.

There are a lot of characters but each are only given 2 pages so the guided instructions can be a bit brief, usually in the following sequence: rough sketch, detailed sketch, detailed sketch with colour, colour. There are useful tips on how to create visually engaging characters, and specific parts to pay attention to.

On the last few pages, there are several tables with keywords to help you get started on designing your own characters. There are tables for race, class/occupation, skin colour & texture, clothing & accessories, weapons & armour, mood and quirks. These are very helpful tables when you're stuck in a drawing block.

Nice book if you're into drawing goblins.

You can check out more work from Scott Purdy at www.scottpurdy.net and purdsscribbles.blogspot.com.

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