![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZijYMrr3txm1rtv1tucN3EADHNzRpUsLLpKt4HVy5o74/image.png)

# Akox Shortwick As more and more people know @steemmonsters is a thing now. Steemit's own phantasy card game that is slowly rolling out and most certainly worth to have a peak at!

## The Monster trader Together with the heroes @calumam and @penderis we decided to join forces and create one Steemmonsters persona together ---> @themonstertrader *One for all, all for Akox*

During our first brainstorm we discussed what our persona would be. We decided to go for a trader/merchant as we are planning to be trading cards and doing so in the form of a story. Uncertain as what race our persona should be we considered: Pig, fox, Human but ended up with Goblin as... let's be honnest... who doesn't love a clever sarcastic Goblin!? So goblin it is. Aptly named **Akox Shortwick** (thank technology for name generators to get the inspirational juices flowing) To read up a bit about Akox check out the first chapter of [The Traders Tale](https://steemit.com/steemmonsters/@themonstertrader/a-traders-tale-a-tinkering-beginning)

### The style Even though we did talk about different styles (realistic, Clash of clans 3D ish, etc) as soon as Cuphead / Rubber hose / 30s cartoon was suggested (think cuphead, felix the cat, betty boop, early disney, etc)... we kinda knew we just had to go into that direction as for one it is an amazingly entertaining style and it would stand out.

### Design

![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmWihu3tuXxcu3vyygfzqpxcB79FNxohPKGH8baeknpSf4/image.png)

As one tends to do I started with a sketch, not knowing where to go exactly I decided to look at goblin references and from there on just draw a head and see where that would take us. Many sketches later I decided to go for this one (as quite honestly... it was the only one that looked semi decent)

![Goblinx.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUf7JgREND6CdhqRB7MwGqAV9NFFvB9pa3dYvoD1kYqLz/Goblinx.png)

### Making it digital What followed next was making it digital. Not that hard of a task but still time consuming. Especially choosing the right color scheme. But in the end this was just a matter of trial and error leading to success. Yay! Our persona had a face! What was lacking was a body... Goblins are short and even though there are some nice short characters in the 30s cartoons, we felt that a longer sluglish body would just be more fun. So we created worlds first tall Goblin. (Who cares about hand and feet anyhow...)

### The loss of focus... I honestly did try to stay focused and finish the design... But my mind just steamrolled from one idea to the next without halt. As something else needed was transportation for our lovely persona.... We all decided that our persona would be driving a bike. So we went looking for bike images to use as reference. We found these two lovely ones on pixabay:

![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmeQsYjqHhrVErugqA9JudDDoDBziq5mJmHxoab8vb3i1K/image.png) _{[by Roi Dimor](https://unsplash.com/photos/Ftp97Iok6ak)}

![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTNab3Jg7BgBzCoTdk5tCeRZYmRqJ34XE9PzfbT6zMhZF/image.png) _{[by Isai Ramos](https://unsplash.com/photos/K0yNjawjRkM)}

Gorgeous as they were I decided to combine these two into a nice car and wagon. *"THOSE ARE NOT BIKES WOLV! DO YOU NEED GLASSES?"* ... Ssshh! So by the magic of photoshop and CC0 images these two lovely vehicles transformed into: ![wagon.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmd29w3avDex5SU7rDpLR5rDyFPSMyyfRLHrwfzj9QwMsY/wagon.png) To me this looked perfect for a Goblin Merchant! *"Pfff... still not a bike tho..."* ... SHH! This lovely vehicle was skillfully placed into a nice backdrop by @calumam and can be viewed in all it's glory in our persona's [first auction](https://steemit.com/steembay/@themonstertrader/akox-auctions-elemental-phoenix-lvl-1) Working on these just spun out of control into multiple different art projects for Akox. But we still want to be able to surprise you all. Although.... for apparent reasons I can not withhold this little gem from all of you ![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmabTWppZxNQLzMAUUWBmmsJqKydR8XTu8q27sbDugxij4/image.png) Follow @themonstertrader to see the newest and latest art, stories and auctions from Akox [![follow.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUGwfQXm6u1WSGZZ1XQFRGUGodg4hAYcq2MmRxyjiKgMS/follow.png)](https://steemit.com/@themonstertrader) 🐺 @wolv