Flesh, Bone and Mortar - Dreamblade

I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel in regards to my current workload. I figured I could afford the time to find something else to post this week while I patiently wait for new work to be released. So it is back to the Baxar's War expansion of Dreamblade and a couple of miniature designs and their early incarnations. Today I bring you the Citadel of Torture and Skinless, two piece I believe I have never shared with anyone yet.

I received the art order for the Citadel well into the production of Baxar's War. I think in an interview about Dreamblade someone in production mentioned that the locations were a late addition to the game. Most of the locations I worked on for the base set as well as Baxar's War came to me much later then the other pieces. The Citadel was a fun piece to work on and was the first bit of architecture I ever had to work on. Granted I did design the Darkheart Cottage for the base set but that was still just a huge giant laying on the ground. The Citadel was really straight forward and only needed minimal revisions save for the skull base that went though several versions before the final was approved.

The final turnaround for the Citadel of Torture. For this piece I also made extremely loose quick color comps to distinguish different materials so that the sculpture could more easily understand want all was going on in the design. As a side note, I was given this assignment late in the afternoon and had the first drawing back to the Art Director before she got into the office the next day. That kind of extra effort goes a long way. To see how the Citadel of Torture turned out you can see the production miniature HERE.

Oh Skinless... I have included him here today to make the point to ALWAYS READ CAREFULLY when reviewing you art assignment. You see in my haste to get started I some how thought that the word "crossbow" was spelled "crowbar". It was no real calamity that I made this error, but it could have been. I just felt like an idiot after I found out I turned in a design with the completely wrong weapon. Especially after spending all that time to figure out the best way to give a common a crossbow and to make it a cool crossbow.

Besides the crossbow / crowbar issue the feedback was to have more fun with it. The Art Director felt is was to much like an anatomy study rather then a crazy monster. She suggested more gore and nasty bits and to play with the forms to make it more monstrous. Taking all this into consideration I came up with the above turnaround. Looking back now, I could have done more... but that is the way with many of these. Live and learn. To see how the Skinless turned out you can see the production miniature HERE.

That's it for today. I will be descending into my art bunker later today and will resurface on Monday with what will hopefully be a completed assignment. Cross those fingers. I will try to get back on a more normal posting schedule next week as well (hopefully). Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com