Lungthief Beetle - Dreamblade

Today I have for you another blast from the past and an updated version of that distant memory. After doing the 3/5 challenge on Facebook, that is where you share three pieces of work for five days in a row, I go to thinking about Dreamblade again. For the first day of the Facebook challenge I posted three Dreamblade designs that I did as well as their updated redesign that I did in the past few years. This all got me thinking about Dreamblade again and I recently made some time to work up a redesign of a miniature I have never shared before. Which is crazy after 10 years I still have Dreamblade miniature still hiding in the art vault.

The Lungthief Beetle was designed back in 2005 for the third set of Dreamblade. It was a common and a straight forward piece... bug creature, skull like head, tattooed body, make it cool. So I came up with this...

Lungthief Beetle
© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Okay, it all seems to check out. I mostly nailed this piece on the first pass... mostly. Here is the original version of the Lungthief Beetle where the carapace was a little different...

Lungthief Beetle - Original Design
© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

The final version was definitely an improvement. The production miniature was very faithful to the design and in many way, to me, really made the design way better. Here is how the final production miniature turned out...

Lungthief Beetle - miniature

Fast forward to 2015. Not actually 10 years later since I did the original in October or November of 2005 and the redesign was creature in January, but let's call it 10 for effect. Here is my redesign of the Lungthief Beetle...

Lungthief Beetle Redux

9 x 12

Pencil on paper
© 2015 Christopher Burdett

Original for sale over on my web store!

I never liked the squat posture of the original and while nice, the tattoos were crazy complex. Not sure if I every loved the handling of the face either, but this was one of my first jobs in the gaming industry and I was learning a lot and my skill sets were developing quickly. This time around I dropped the tattoos because I didn't want to do them, my redesign my rules. I know some of the antennae probably would be a molding issue, but I wanted them in there. Much happier with the solution for the head/face and the overall more upright sitting position. Here is a comparison for the two versions of the Lungthief Beetle...

Lungthief Beetle comparison

2005 vs. 2015

Not much else to say really. I think the comparison speaks for itself as well as there being a 10 year gap in the drawings. I would hope there was a pronounced difference in quality and maturity of the design. If not, I am not doing my job!

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