About
Welcome to my little corner of the web!
Hi! I'm Deven Rue, the official cartographer for Critical Role, Beadle & Grimm, WotC, Steamforged Games, and many more.
First, I answer & update most things about me on my Commonly Asked Questions page. You'll find a lot more about me on there than here.
That all out of the way, about me... I define myself as a queer, visually impaired, Goth, and Dark Druid. I spend most of my days drawing and keeping my business running. Mornings are spent with my cats & wife, relaxing and doing personal life stuff. Evenings are spent gaming; usually ESO, Assassin's Creed, Valheim, Baldur's Gate, etc. I love making magical spaces, albeit often dark and creepy but magical nonetheless.
I love creating maps and world building. I spend a lot of time developing stories, histories, lore, etc. for the maps I create that usually don't see the light of day but occasionally are just too much fun not to share.
I'm a "traditionally trained" artist, which basically means I learned to draw on paper first then digitally. I actually started in painting before I took up drawing. I've made paper props for various small theatre productions for what feels like forever. I'm a complete Earth Science nerd and am fascinated with how our planet works. I wanted to be an arborist as a kid and even learned landscape design believing I would possibly go into that field as well. However, life had other plans. Ok, life decided to instead, use that knowledge in a completely unexpected way several years later.
I am not "professional trained" however, which means I didn't get a formal education in art aside from the landscape design (which technically still isn't an "art class" per se). This is solely due to my visual impairment which makes it so I cannot see 3D and thus live in a 2D world. It made taking instruction in class a little difficult. However, I've mastered various techniques to make my art visually appealing to normal sighted people though a lot of study and practice. I highly recommend practicing lighting techniques and learning about how to best use negative space if you feel your art looks "flat".
Other than that, I love dancing, collect skulls & miniature coffins, always somehow have whatever crafting supplies I need for odd projects, and love to cook! I mostly play druids or clerics. I love a good villainous campaign. I collect dice. I'm a pirate at heart and my office looks more like a captain's quarters than anything else.
And...that's all I can think of for now. Thanks for reading!