Looking Back: Hellborn Legionnaire - Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures

Today I am looking back at a miniature design produced for the Dungeons & Dragons miniature game ten years ago that I have neither shared nor was it ever actually made. The assignment was to design a new armored mutated demon for the miniatures game which I assumed would mean it would eventually make its way into the RPG. Ten years on, of course, we can see that neither of these things happened. Here is a look at the turnaround for the never produced Hellborn Legionnaire...

Hellborn Legionnaire (Final) Turnaround

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper (multiple sheets)

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

The assignment was fairly open ended: weird mutated demon, weird weapon, horns, misshaped body. Sounds good to me! I got to work on an initial version... back then I still had not gotten my head around thumbnails so I was still doing fully finished and rendered drawings for preliminary sketches. A lot of wasted time, but it sure did help with my speed and skill set. I do not advice this method of improvement. Here is the first version of the Hellborn Legionnaire...

Hellborn Legionnaire Versions 1

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Needless to say it did not hit the mark. I totally misunderstood the description of the new weird weapon, the body masses needed to be pushed more and made more extreme, and the horns need to be clearly on the demon's head and not look like they are part of the helmet/mask. All valid and all will help make this more interesting for sure. It would have been quicker and easier to have addressed with thumbnails, and I may have explored different avenues, but I didn't. As I have mentioned here on the blog before I was really self conscience about my skill set and abilities not too long ago and the idea of sending in sketchy concepts terrorized me. I felt like I would loss the job if I turned in a rough sketch. This is of course crazy thinking... but I did not know better and no one I was working with told me otherwise. Here is the second version of the Hellborn Legionnaire...

Hellborn Legionnaire Versions 2

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

This version was very well received. Thankfully. It was approved without comment and I was given the go ahead to complete the turnaround. I love doing turnarounds and miss it a lot sometimes. Something so meditative about doing the back view, I know the silhouette and some of the major elements, but there is this huge space that I can fill with all kinds of detail. But I digress... Here is a look at the FIRST version of the turnaround for the Hellborn Legionnaire...

Hellborn Legionnaire Version 1 Turnaround

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper (multiple sheets)

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

After the turnaround was all said and done, and approved if I remember correctly, there was an issue with the design. Someone in production realized there would be a molding undercut issue if the design went into production as is. I was asked to rotate the weapon arm outward so that the piece could work in a two art mold. These things happen. It would have been nice if it was caught earlier, but it wasn't. I ended up just drawing new weapon elements and adding them onto the original drawings digitally. Here is a comparison of the two versions of the turnaround...

Hellborn Legionnaire Turnaround Comparison

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

No idea why this one never saw the light of day. It would have been a near little guy. No matter, I had fun designing it and I have the drawings to show for my time and effort. They all can't made!

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