Looking Back: Skull Hill - Dreamblade

Today on the blog I am looking back at another Dreamblade miniature design that I have never shared before. Here is the design for the Skull Hill which was part of the Core Set to Dreamblade released back in 2005...

Skull Hill

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

This assignment called for a hill with a gibbet atop it. The hill needed to have a vague, or not so vague, appearance of a skull. As in... Skull Hill. This was one of the first location pieces that I designed and I was still figuring out what they did and did not want for these types of pieces. Whatever I did seemed to work because with only one tiny fix my one and only design for this miniature was approved. Here is the original, so that you can see what has changed...

Skull Hill (original)

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

With an approved front view I was given the go ahead to do the rest of the turnaround. Here is the entire design for the Skull Hill miniature...

Skull Hill

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper (multiple sheets)

© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

When I was doing all of these designs back in 2005 and 2006 I was learning a lot, getting a lot faster with my drawings, and improving my skill set. I was also taking a lot of shortcuts to get all the work done that I now regret. To save time with many of my Dreamblade designs I only drew what I had to to get the work done. So in the case of the Skull Hill I only drew the hill sections for the turnaround. The gibbet was flipped and edited digitally. If I was doing this design today I would draw the entire piece in all three views and I may have even redrawn the entire front over after the request came in to remove the rope. I would at least have erased the rope from the original drawing and not removed it digitally so that I would have a 'clean' final drawing that matched the final design. At the time I was much more interested in getting all the work done and approved and these days I am a lot more interested in having a pleasing finished product... that is also done on time and approved. My skill set definitely now allows me this. Here is how the production miniature turned out for this one...

Skull Hill Miniature

That's 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