Beginnings: The Strange Drawings of Sam Flegal

I wanted to take today and share with you a super awesome Kickstarter project by my friend Sam Flegal! 'Beginnings' contains sketches from Sam's work on Warhammer Invasion, Legend of the Five Rings, and other projects! The Kickstarter is doing GREAT and he has already hit 2 milestones! You can get all the details and get involved with his project HERE!

Beginnings: The Strange Drawings of Sam Flegal!

A little about the project... Beginnings: The Strange Drawings of Sam Flegal will be a sketchbook-style book, sized at 9"x12", with a full-color cover and 16 pages of black and white drawings. Sam plans to sell his book at conventions and via the web. Sam has been working as a professional (full-time) illustrator for the past two years, and in that time, he has created a number of drawings. 'Beginnings' is Sam's opportunity to share those drawings with you! Here are some samples of Sam's work...

Steady Resolve for L5R by Sam Flegal

Orc Charge for Warhammer Invasion by Sam Flegal

Remember to stop by Sam's Kickstarter page to get all the details and to take part in Sam's book! To see more work by Same Flegal, you can visit his web site HERE! 

That is all for today, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

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

My life as a crappy artist - Sahrvin Demon

You of course remember the Sahrvin Demons from episode 9, Harm's Way, from season 5 of Angel, right? Any good Angel fan would, right? I barely recall the dang thing and I was on the design team for it. So that everyone is on the same page, this is a Sahrvin Demon...

The Sahrvin Demon is on the left the one on the right we will address another day since I am solely responsible that that visual atrocity...

I was able to find some time to take a fresh pass at another monster that I designed while working on Joss Whedon's Angel series. This time around the Sahrvin Demon was the lucky winner. Here is my original design for the Sahrvin Demon from 2003...

 

RAWR! I am a demon of the desert so I of course have a head wrap and bad skin.... and quills... desert things have quills, right? RAWR! MY, look at that impressive signature... you must be a really good artist....
© 2003 Almost Human

Okay... so they wanted two desert demon clans,  one male and one female and they were going to be feuding or something. Fair enough... My art director at the time did a really cool design of a demon in a very large head wrap, goggles, and more wrapping around the neck so you could just see this horrible mouth. Production loved it and approved it... they just wanted us to loose the wrapping and goggles......... AND so begun a really protracted redesign of the demon with production disliking everything that was sent to them. They obviously already approved a design and we were being dumb and difficult be giving them the wrong stuff........ JUST TAKE THE GOGGLES AND WRAPS OFF! Fun fact, I was not originally on the design team for the demon but I really wanted to be. So I did a bunch of designs on my own time and brought them in to try to convince my boss that I could do more then just photo composite in photoshop. Eventually, I was brought on this demon and that is when I created the above image. This and one by another of our artist is what finally got approved.  All things aside, here is something... newer, for the design of the Sahrvin Demon...

 

Taking the Sahrvin Demon back! 

© 2012 Christopher Burdett 

The motivation to go ahead and do this redesign was I thought it would be a good way to test out doing a time lapse video. If you missed it, you can see it HERE! I wanted to do a desert demon creature, but I wanted it to feel a little more natural and realistic, instead of a generic demon with a vague head wrap. I got some reference and thought about desert animals so this thing ended up with a reptile / bird deak face. Not sure if it is really scary, but I like it better and it was fun to draw... and made for a good time lapse test. And the turban thing is a lot better designed and thought out! 

I painted a LOT of Sahrvin Demon makeups. Not only were there a bunch in the episode, but they popped back up later in the season. One of my tasks was to paint the armies of makeups that were often called for. Multiples, repeaters, and anything were there was to be more then one makeup artist applying a makeup. Here are some additional images from set and the shop of the Sahrvin Demon army. RAWR!

 This is why you do not use a flash when photographing a makeup... YIKES!

 Complete turnaround of a Sahrvin Demon makeup in all its glory.

The Sahrvin Demon army is ready to deploy to set with face pieces, cowls, hand appliances, and teeth (in the turquoise container). Everything you need for a demon invasion!

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see you back here on Monday! Until then...

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

Sahrvin Demon drawing time lapse test

Friend and fellow artist Justin Peterson recently posted a time lapse video of him drawing on a cover of one of his trade paperbacks. I thought that it looked a fun and interesting way to share his process with everyone and was instantly interested in doing one too. I was able to get some time together over the weekend to do a test to see how it would turn out and what it would involve to make time lapse videos of my drawings. This is how that test turned out...



This video is 21 minutes of drawing time sped up 850%. I started with a light sketch to map out placement and to make the video more interesting. The creature is a Sahrvin, a demon I designed for the 5th season of Angel which I will be sharing with you in its entirety on Friday.

I am really happy with how this turned out and how easy it will be to make more of them. Due to file size limitations I will most likely have to record in 30 minute blocks and then move them from my phone to the computer and begin again. Once Gen Con is behind me I hope to be able to record an entire drawing start to finish. I hope you find this as interesting as I do, it has definitely given me some insight on how I draw! I can't wait to do more of these!

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday for more of the Sahrvin demon! Until then...

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

The Rising Tempest

Late last year I was approached by the good folks at Fantasy Flight Games to help out on the newest supplement for the Deathwatch RPG, The Rising Tempest. They needed a new monster for the Warhammer 40K universe designed and I was put to the task. I am always happy to be able to design a new monster for a project. To make this more interesting the assignment called for me to produce drawings as the final art (a bonus!). The drawings were to be rough and sketchy as if done as field notes with some spot art elements to be added in. I handed over the elements and the design team at FFG put them all together. The book arrived in the mail on Friday so I can now share it with you! Here is my contribution to The Rising Tempest, the Ghanathaar...

Ghanathaar (disguised)

© 2012 Fantasy Flight Games

Ghanathaar (revealed)

© 2012 Fantasy Flight Games

These were the the two main creature designs that I was asked to produce. After these were all set I did some quick detail spot art elements that would be added in to make a sketchbook/field note book type graphic...

Ghanathaar (spot art elements)

© 2012 Fantasy Flight Games

The wild scribblings of a deranged madman? Here is how the final pieces all came together in the book...

Ghanathaar art as it appears in the book

© 2012 Fantasy Flight Games

Here are the early sketches that I submitted for the approval process. It was nice to be only producing drawings for the assignment, though it was a little weird since they had to be rough and sketchy. But I was drawing, so it was all okay in the end! 

Ghanathaar sletches

© 2012 Fantasy Flight Games

 
That is all for an exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday to see the first test of something new! Until then...

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

Where the pencils falls - Demon

Quick post today, much to do and always just a little less time needed to get it all done...

A lot of the time when I am drawing I have an idea, a plan, or a fully formed image in my head that I am trying to get out on the paper as best I can. There will always be the happy accidents, the unexpected details, the changes to make the image better but for the most part I know what I am doing and where I am going. Sometimes it is good to switch it up a bit and see if you can work outside the comfort zone. I have heard a lot of this lately and thought I should give it a try. I knew I was going to draw a monster head and I drew a general sketchy shape but as I worked to create the drawing I was just trying to see where the marks take me without thinking too much about it. A stray mark could suddenly become some new element and I tried not to judge the decisions and just let them happen. This is what I came up with when I was all said and done...

Demon

© 2012 Christopher Burdett

I most likely need to do more of this kind of thing to make sure I keep things loose and fresh. We will see where it takes me...

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see you back here next week! Until then...

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

More recent life drawing

Before I left for IMC 2012 I had the chance to do some more life drawing. It was a real treat to get a chance to draw from life so soon after my first time after a very long hiatus. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to return since, my schedule has been rather full and it just has not worked out again. Here are some of the highlights from the session...

I wish I could have had much more time on all of these poses, but I take what I can get. Her warm up and short poses were really dynamic and offered some really interesting forms to draw, too bad those poses could only be held for a few minutes. I know I need to get back for sure, I hope my schedule will accommodate me... there have been just too many dragons to work on...

Speaking of work, I have been busy... really busy since returning from IMC last month and it looks like I will be that way through Gen Con. Seems like I have a lot of work just waiting to drop from the client so that I can share it and I am trying to be patient... but that means in the interim that the I have been draining my blog material reserves. I realized yesterday that I am about to run out of content that is ready to share here! YIKES! Looks like I will need to get my ducks in a row and see what I can come up with while I wait for projects to be released. I better get to it!

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

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

Monsters A-Z second pass complete!

If you have been following my blog for any length of time you should be familiar with my 'Fresh from the drawing table..." series where I re a classic Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual entry. As of last Friday I completed my second pass through the book and so marked the completion of 47 monsters. Since some letters only have a few or even just one entry there will less monsters each pass. Let's take a look at the second pass altogether...

 Monsters A-Z the second pass

© 2012 Christopher Burdett

If you are keeping track the very first entry, the Bugbear, was posted on May 7th, 2010. I started with the Bugbear and not the Axebeak because I like the Bugbear better. The Bugbear is also the first of the current 47 monsters to see completion. Speaking of 47 monsters, let's have a look at what they all look like together, drawings that spread over 2 years worth of time...

Monsters A-Z the first 47

© 2012 Christopher Burdett

Now that I am done with two passes... WHAT NOW?! At this point I think I have resigned myself to completing what I began and will draw everything in the original D&D Monster Manual. I am just trying to decide what 'everything' will mean for me and how I would like to go about moving through the book hear on out.

Not only are there MANY entries for demons, devils, dragons, and giants - all of which will be fun to explore and create - but will I want to draw them in waves or in mass? And there is also the issue of the Dinosaurs... there are pages and pages of Dinosaurs in the MM. I LOVE Dinosaurs, but I do have my limits and that goes for the Demons, Devils, Giants and all the rest. I am still working out if I want to do another standard pass through the book or if it is time to just start with "A" and do the remaining and then move to "B". I have already completed my first new "A" entry and there is a "B" monster I would REALLY like to do, so as of right now it looks like a third A-Z pass is in my immediate future. I have resigned myself to the reality that eventually I will just be drawing "D" and "G" entries. I will finish what I start! It is just those completely invisible monsters that have me worried... here is a blank sheet of paper, isn't it scary!

I will be updating all the monster entries to show the following collections of links so that you can access all the monsters! Wave 3 will be beginning soon, I hope you are ready! RAWR!

My first 100 original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual redesigns (A - Z): Aerial Servant, Ankheg, Ant (Giant), Ape (Carnivorous), Ape (Gorilla), Axe Beak, Axe Beak (version 2), Baboon, Badger, Barracuda, Basilisk, Baluchitherium, Bear (Black), Bear (Brown), Bear (Cave), Beaver (Giant), Beetle (Giant) - Bombardier, Beetle (Giant) - Boring, Beetle (Giant) - Fire, Beetle (Giant) - Rhinoceros, Beetle (Giant) - Stag, Beetle (Giant) - Water, Beholder, Black Pudding, Blink Dog, Boar (Giant), Boar (Warthog), Boar (Wild), Brain Mole, Brownie, Bugbear, Buffalo, Bulette, Carrion Crawler, Catoblepas, Cerebral Parasite, Chimera, Cockatrice, Coutal, Crab (Giant), Demon Type III (Glabrezu), Demon (Juiblex), Demon (Manes), Devil (Ice), Dragon (Red), Elemental (Earth), Ettin, Eye of the Deep, Flightless Bird, Frog (Giant), Fungi (Violet), Giant (Hill), Goblin, Golem (Flesh), Hobgoblin, Homunculus, Hydra, Imp, Intellect Devourer, Ixitxachitl, Jackal, Jacklewere, Jaguar, Ki-Rin, Kobold, Lich, Lizard (Giant), Lizardman, Manticore, Mind Flayer, Minotaur, Naga, Neo-Otygugh, Nixie, Ochre Jelly, Ogre, Owlbear, Peryton, Pixie, Purple Worm, Quasit, Ram (Giant), Roper, Rust Monster, Sahuagin, Salamander, Shambling Mound, Treant, Troglodyte, Troll, Umber Hulk, Unicorn, Vampire, Wasp (Giant), Wight, Wyvern, Xorn, Yeti, and Zombie.  
   
That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

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

Fresh from the drawing table... Wight!

I have for you another drawing that is fresh from the drawing table. This time around it is a Wight! In the original Monster Manual there were only one listing for "V" and I did the Vampire on the first past so we are jumping from "U" to "W" which has several listing. This time around I felt it was time to do something undead and that mean the Wight. You can't go wrong with undead fiends that hate the living that dwell in burial mounds and lost tombs of kings and the like. I present to you my version of a Wight...  

Wight
© 2012 Christopher Burdett

When I think of Wights I think of Fellowship of the Ring and the trouble that the hobbits get into at the burial mounds (stuff that was not in the movie, FYI). I see Wights being the undead horror that is a cursed king or the spirit of a noble that still seeks to avenge his murder, but only has those foolish enough to wander into his crypt to attack. Smarter, deadlier, and more powerful then any Zombie but completely corporeal so you can hit them with weapons I see the Wights as a real and horrific threat to players.

As a side note, I have for a while now preached about using reference and have shared a lot of reference that I use here on the blog. When I about to start this drawing I realized I didn't have any reference and since I was out and about when I was to begin sketching I really didn't have the opportunity to get any. Then it hit me, one of the reasons I have been using reference so much was that when I found myself in situations like this I had the skills and knowledge to work out the image myself. For a moment I was a slave to the reference and was not relying on my own abilities. So I moved forward with what I knew and have learned over the last several years and drew this completely on the fly. I am really happy with it and it shows me that all my work and diligence in using reference has paid off... I think...

This completes my second time through the original Monster Manual! There were only one entries for "X", "Y", and "Z" so "W" is as far as I can go anymore. I will have some follow up thoughts on all this and some images to share with you next week and I will be going back and updating all the links on all the pages so no monster will be missed!

My first 100 original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual redesigns (A - Z): Aerial Servant, Ankheg, Ant (Giant), Ape (Carnivorous), Ape (Gorilla), Axe Beak, Axe Beak (version 2), Baboon, Badger, Barracuda, Basilisk, Baluchitherium, Bear (Black), Bear (Brown), Bear (Cave), Beaver (Giant), Beetle (Giant) - Bombardier, Beetle (Giant) - Boring, Beetle (Giant) - Fire, Beetle (Giant) - Rhinoceros, Beetle (Giant) - Stag, Beetle (Giant) - Water, Beholder, Black Pudding, Blink Dog, Boar (Giant), Boar (Warthog), Boar (Wild), Brain Mole, Brownie, Bugbear, Buffalo, Bulette, Carrion Crawler, Catoblepas, Cerebral Parasite, Chimera, Cockatrice, Coutal, Crab (Giant), Demon Type III (Glabrezu), Demon (Juiblex), Demon (Manes), Devil (Ice), Dragon (Red), Elemental (Earth), Ettin, Eye of the Deep, Flightless Bird, Frog (Giant), Fungi (Violet), Giant (Hill), Goblin, Golem (Flesh), Hobgoblin, Homunculus, Hydra, Imp, Intellect Devourer, Ixitxachitl, Jackal, Jacklewere, Jaguar, Ki-Rin, Kobold, Lich, Lizard (Giant), Lizardman, Manticore, Mind Flayer, Minotaur, Naga, Neo-Otygugh, Nixie, Ochre Jelly, Ogre, Owlbear, Peryton, Pixie, Purple Worm, Quasit, Ram (Giant), Roper, Rust Monster, Sahuagin, Salamander, Shambling Mound, Treant, Troglodyte, Troll, Umber Hulk, Unicorn, Vampire, Wasp (Giant), Wight, Wyvern, Xorn, Yeti, and Zombie.      

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see you back here on Monday! Until then...

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

Trobriand's Machinations - Process

Today I have for you another look at my process that went into creating a recent D&D piece. This time around we are looking at the Scaladars for the Trobriand's Machinations article in Dungeon magazine #201.

As mentioned last week I figured I better go ahead and share my remaining process posts before August rolls around when I will be able to share my updated process for working up the under painting. You can always find more detailed explanation of my process on the blog HERE, HERE, and HERE.

As always when working on an illustration with a new creature I have to design I will do several roughs of the creature and several thumbnails of my composition for the illustration. With this Scaladar piece I had to design two new creatures and put them both in a narrow vertical composition. Luckily for me one of them is flying which makes composing them a lot easier. Since space was always a concern I had the composition in mind during the design process for these two mechanical scorpions...

Scaladars - Designs

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

Scaladars - Thumbnails

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

When these were all said and done I was leaning toward thumbnail "A" which had Shadowclaw Scaladar "A" and Winged Scaladar "B" in it. When feedback came back to me they concurred with my thoughts on thumbnail "A" but wanted the more naturalistic cavern interior for the background that is in "B".  I could totally get behind that decision, with pencil in hand I moved onto the more fleshed out drawing...

Scaladars - Drawing

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

This piece depicts two new Scaladars, which are large scorpion like constructs created by a mad wizard (all the best stuff is created by mad wizards). One of the new Scaladar was a straight forward flying variety the second, the Shadowclaw, was infused with powers of the Shadowfell and had claws made of shadow like substance. Those shadow claws were my biggest concern with the entire piece. Dark cave + Scaladar made of black metal + claws made of shadows = my brain hurting to make sure it all reads and is clear. I sometimes feel I illustrate a lot of black creatures in black environments... while trying not to make either black. I got to work on the painting and hoped that it did not get out of control on me...

Scaladars - process

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

And in eight easy steps it is all done... not really... This one took a bit of work and as easy as the Doom Hulk was this one was tough. As I feared those shadow claws gave me fits, but in the end I got them to work out. I had a good track record of late with final paintings until I got to this piece, I actually had to tweak it a tad after turning it in as per some notes from my art director. They were quick for the most part and really pulled the piece together. You can see what I changed in the final tweak in the last step of the above image. A lot of rim lighting going on with multiple light sources... I wonder if I am doing too much of this lately... who knows, but it is sure fun!

Here is the final piece in all its glory and your players now have some new lower level mechanical terrors to deal with...

Scaladars

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

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

Beastly Rider

My studies continue and this time it is a monster riding a monster! You might remember my recent posts about the Beastly Caster, Beastly Fighter, Beastly Archer, Beastly Scribe, and Beastly Pirate. I am trying to make the most of my personal drawing time by incorporating more reference to hopefully improve my overall drawing skills. So today on the blog I have for you the sixth of my studies...

Beastly Rider

© 2012 Christopher Burdett

Not really sure how or why my archers keep ending up birds, but here is another avian archer, this time around it is a mounted warrior. I have been wanting to do some rider / beast drawings for awhile now and this beastly project seemed like a good opportunity to do so. For a first attempt I am satisfied with how it turned out, though I think I have some more work ahead of me until I am completely confident with the rider / beast combo. It is delicate balance with the proportions and size of the beast compared to the rider. There is a great deal of difficulty to get a horse and rider the right sizes in illustration work and once you begin to make up animals and riders it can just be adding to the difficulty. I have seen plenty of people riding horses in person and half of them didn't look correct and they were right in front of me, so I am all too familiar with the complexity of convincingly illustrating it. Hopefully this marks the first of my steps in getting my head around the rider and beast.

That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

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

Fresh from the drawing table... Unicorn!

I have for you another drawing that is fresh from the drawing table. This time around it is a Unicorn! In the original Monster Manual the letter 'U' only has two monsters to choose from and I did the Umberhulk on the first pass. This leaves only one monster... the Unicorn. Like the Pixie I was not going to go into this with established mythological ideas using expected visual choices. I present to you my version of a Unicorn... 

Unicorn
© 2012 Christopher Burdett

It has one horn... which makes it a UNIcorn in my book. The wife was hoping I would have come up with something a bit more NOT like this drawing. I reminded her I just don't do pretty... not without a lot of hard work and complaining. What if the Unicorn was really this horrible creature that used its innate magic to make you think it was a majestic steed with a single horn? What if it actually feed on young maidens charmed by its appearance and the myths that have grown up around it? It is afterall in the MONSTER Manual, there has to be something up with it... Once you leave the tavern with your adventuring party you can not trust anything and might as well attack EVERYTHING you encounter. 

My first 100 original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual redesigns (A - Z): Aerial Servant, Ankheg, Ant (Giant), Ape (Carnivorous), Ape (Gorilla), Axe Beak, Axe Beak (version 2), Baboon, Badger, Barracuda, Basilisk, Baluchitherium, Bear (Black), Bear (Brown), Bear (Cave), Beaver (Giant), Beetle (Giant) - Bombardier, Beetle (Giant) - Boring, Beetle (Giant) - Fire, Beetle (Giant) - Rhinoceros, Beetle (Giant) - Stag, Beetle (Giant) - Water, Beholder, Black Pudding, Blink Dog, Boar (Giant), Boar (Warthog), Boar (Wild), Brain Mole, Brownie, Bugbear, Buffalo, Bulette, Carrion Crawler, Catoblepas, Cerebral Parasite, Chimera, Cockatrice, Coutal, Crab (Giant), Demon Type III (Glabrezu), Demon (Juiblex), Demon (Manes), Devil (Ice), Dragon (Red), Elemental (Earth), Ettin, Eye of the Deep, Flightless Bird, Frog (Giant), Fungi (Violet), Giant (Hill), Goblin, Golem (Flesh), Hobgoblin, Homunculus, Hydra, Imp, Intellect Devourer, Ixitxachitl, Jackal, Jacklewere, Jaguar, Ki-Rin, Kobold, Lich, Lizard (Giant), Lizardman, Manticore, Mind Flayer, Minotaur, Naga, Neo-Otygugh, Nixie, Ochre Jelly, Ogre, Owlbear, Peryton, Pixie, Purple Worm, Quasit, Ram (Giant), Roper, Rust Monster, Sahuagin, Salamander, Shambling Mound, Treant, Troglodyte, Troll, Umber Hulk, Unicorn, Vampire, Wasp (Giant), Wight, Wyvern, Xorn, Yeti, and Zombie.        

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see  you back here on Monday! Until then...

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