Take Two... Bossk - X-Wing Nationals Tournament Alternate Art

Trying this again... You might remember last week when I posted about my alternate art used on the Bossk card for the X-Wing Nationals Tournament. This post got a lot of attention from a lot of people all over the internet. Due to the attention it received I was asked to remove my original version of my painting. I was asked, so I did it. That is how these things work. What I can share is the final version of the piece that was used for the card...

Bossk - Final Version
X-Wing Nationals Tournament Alternate Art
Traditional with digital edits and finish

Art Director - John Taillon
© 2016 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games

I previously talked about the level of changes this piece went through, and of course it was easy to see those changes when juxtaposed with the original. That is no longer an option, so here is the part of the original that made it through to the end piece...

Bossk - Original Version (What I can share of it)
X-Wing Nationals Tournament Alternate Art
16 x 12 - Acrylic and pencil on board
Art Director - John Taillon
© 2016 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games

Clients have every right to expect edits and changes to work they are hiring an artist to create. I have made every change to every piece I was ever asked to make. I am a professional and that is just what you do. I started my career as an artist in 1999 when I started working in the movie industry and I have worked in the gaming industry since 2005. I don't mess around and I perform my job with the utmost seriousness and professionalism. This piece meant a lot to me when I accepted it and I put a lot of myself into it. I am committed to creating the best work I can for my clients and at the same time giving my own artist voice and vision to everything that I do. Was I happy about the changes to this piece? No, but I did them anyway, all of them, to the best of my abilities. I don't have to like things for me to still do them.

This blog has always been a place for me to talk about the ups and downs of working as an artist. This is my little corner where I make the rules. I have stated time after time that if you are a professional artist you make the changes. You suck it up and you do the work. It is not always easy, but that is part of the agreement when taking on assignments. I continue to stand by all of this. BUT, in my corner, I speak freely and if I don't like something I say it and it is in NO way a disparagement to the client, the product, or anyone else involved. It is my opinion to events that happened, in most cases, a year or more ago. Changes happen for any number of reasons, for good and bad. I have had changes that have made pieces better (IMHO)... and I have had changes that detract from the piece (IMHO). I explain and talk about this all the time here on this blog.

Everything culminated with complete strangers on the internet criticizing me and my blog and their actions most likely resulted in the original of this piece being removed. Always nice to have people wander in after you have been doing something for 7+ years and tell you are doing it all wrong. Always great to get advice from people who are not artists, have never made art, and have never worked in a creative freelance job. Again, this is my corner of the internet and I get to make the rules here.

Sometimes pieces are super easy and sometimes they are not. For whatever reason, AND TO NO FAULT TO ANYONE, this Bossk piece sure has had a rough time of it. Last week's blog post situation was the cherry on top. I have been SUPER lucky over the years and 95% of my assignments having been smooth and straight forward events. You can't win them all and that is just the way things are.

I was planning on sharing all the ins and outs for the process of this piece getting made, but I guess I can't do that now. I did a LOT of work on the back end to get this piece made. Oh well... I will leave you with the final production version of my Bossk card...

Final Bossk production card

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