Drogon - Toned Paper Drawing (and Gen Con!)

Through the magic of the Interwebs this post is going live while I am in route to Indianapolis to attend Gen Con. If you are heading to Gen Con as well for the best four days in gaming, be sure to stop by the artist alley and sample my artistic wears. Speaking of artistic wears...

Here is a drawing that somehow fell through the cracks that will be with me at Gen Con. Way back in January I shared my dragons from The Hidden Agenda expansion of the Game of Thrones card game. Among these dragons was of course, Drogon. Drogon just so happens to have himself a toned paper drawing...

Drogon - A Hidden Agenda

14 x 11 - Colored pencil on paper

Original available over on my Web Store!
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

If you are attending Gen Con and have really wanted to own a toned paper drawing of a dragon that was drawn by me... then you are in luck! Stop by my booth in the artist alley and I will hook you up with some hot Drogon action.

RUN, don't walk!

That is all for another exciting Wendesday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow for the beginning of my 2014 Gen Con coverage! Until then...

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

AGoT - A Hidden Agenda - Viserion Process

And then there was only Viserion... Back in January I shared with you my updated versions of Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal. Last, but not least, today I have for you the process and steps that went into making Viserion. So that we are all on the same page, here is how the final version of Viserion from A Hidden Agenda turned out...

Viserion - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Mentioned now twice before, I worked on the initial thumbnails for all three dragons all at the same time. Here is how those original thumbnails turned out...

Dragon thumbnails
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Viserion needed a little additional attention after the initial thumbnail to get everything working. In no time though all was right as rain and the third and final thumbnail was ready for submission...

Viserion - Thumbnail
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Viserion was approved and it was time to get drawing on this last dragon. I worked on all of them at the same time up until it was time to paint them. I drew them and painted them in the order I have shared them to you here on the blog. ...which was also the order in which I painted the original set of the three dragons back in 2010. I am a creature of habit and are only mindful of superstitions while painting. Here is how the Viserion drawing turned out...

Viserion - Drawing
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

I had two dragon paintings already done and was on the home stretch when it came to painting Viserion. Of the three, Viserion was the most straightforward and low stress to work on. The biggest challenge was to work out the crepuscular lighting. By the time I was working about the light rays the painting was done and it was just a matter of playing around to figure out what worked right. Here is Viserion coming together in 12 easy steps...

Viserion - Progression steps
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

From my interactions with people this seems to be the favorite for the majority of them. I make no judgement call over this, I just find it interesting. I can never predict what people are going to like or not like. Most of the time I pick the completely opposite choice. Oh well... Here is an animated gif of the Viserion painting coming together so you can see how it came about and what changed...

Viserion - Process progression animation
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

And so concluded all the time and work that went into painting the three Game of Thrones dragons for the card game. RAWR! Again, here is how the final piece turned out as well as the final production card...

Viserion - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Viserion in handy dandy card form

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

AGoT - A Hidden Agenda - Rhaegal Process

Back in January I shared with you my updated versions of Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal. Today I have for you the process and steps that went into making Rhaegal. So that we are all on the same page, here is how the final version of Rhaegal from A Hidden Agenda turned out...

Rhaegal - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

As mentioned with the post about Drogon I worked out all the initial thumbnails together so that they were working as a set and individually. ...and so that they could potentially be interchangeable if one thumbnail suited a different dragon better. Here is how those original thumbnails turned out...

Dragon thumbnails
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

There were some notes to take into account with Rhaegal as I moved forward with this piece. I implemented the edits and resubmitted the thumbnail. Here is how the updated and finalized thumbnail turned out...

Rhaegal - Thumbnail
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

With the thumbnails now approved it was time to get drawing... and that is what I did. After some good old scribbling time on paper with pencil I had a finalized drawing of Rhaegal...

Rhaegal - Drawing
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Drawing approved it was time to paint! In just 12 easy... MOVING ON... Not as many major edits as Drogon, but there were some definite tweaks and edits to make the piece work better. Here is how the painting developed...

Rhaegal - Process steps
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

I wanted to achieve something different with each of these dragon pieces while calling back to the original 3 dragon paintings that I did for the AGoT card Game. Many people have expressed to me which piece is their favorite or not their favorite, for me, this piece is my favorite of the three. I have been holding onto a set of photos of a forest fire for a while and I knew there would be the right piece to use them on eventually. When I got this assignment, I knew immediately Rhaegal needed to be flying through a red/gold environment of fire and burned trees. I love yellow skies... I love red skies... I love green skies... I love skies that are not blue and the images I was using as reference had this amazing colored sky. Add in the burnt trees, smoke, fire, and a big green dragon and I was super happy. Here is an animated gif to better show the progression of this piece...

Rhaegal - Process progression animation
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Another more or less straight forward painting. I had a clear idea in mind for the finished piece and I set my sites and got to work. Again, here is how the final piece turned out as well as the final production card...

Rhaegal - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Rhaegal in handy dandy card form

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

AGoT - A Hidden Agenda - Drogon Process

Back in January I shared with you my updated versions of Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal. Today I have for you the process and steps that went into making Drogon (the other two dragons will be along next week!). So that we are all on the same page, here is how the final version of Drogon from A Hidden Agenda turned out...

Drogon - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Since I was working on all three dragons at the same time I worked on their initial thumbnails all at the same time. I saw them almost interchangeable at this point. I wanted to do one coiling around in the sky, one flying down in a burning forest, and one back lit flying. While I had a specific dragon in mind for eat situation I could see them changing. While there were some edits, the dragons remained in their original scenes. Here is how those original thumbnails turned out...

Dragon thumbnails

© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Drogon was actually the only one that went through the thumbnail process untouched (more or less). Here is how is finalized annotated thumbnail turned out...

Drogon - Thumbnail
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

The finalized thumbnail was approved, as was my concept for the piece and I was given the go ahead to move forward on the drawing. After a bit of scribbling on paper all done I had myself a dragon drawing...

Drogon - Drawing
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Time to get started on the painting... and for this piece it meant IMMEDIATELY flipping the approved image horizontally and paint it that way. Cause it looks better. To me at least. In 12 easy steps you too can have a Drogon painting... or not. Here is how the painting developed...

Drogon - Process steps
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Looking at the above progression you might not be able to notice how much the image changed along the way. Besides being flipped horizontally there were several key tweaks and edits that needed to happen with this piece to make it work better. A change to the head here, a shift of the wing there. Kill your darlings and make the changes that need to be made. Here is an animated gif that will better show how much and what has changed...

Drogon - Process progression animation
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

This piece was straight forward. I knew what I wanted from the beginning and made that image. It required some finessing along the way, but they all do. Again, here is how the final piece turned out as well as the final production card...

Drogon - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Drogon in handy card form

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

AGoT - A Hidden Agenda - Viserion, Drogon, and Rhaegal

When you get the email that asks if you are available to work on a project because George R. R. Martin asked for you, by name, to paint some more dragons for the A Game of Thrones card game... you make time in your schedule. This happen last January and it is still a little surreal. My schedule was also rather full at the time, but this is one of those times you make the time and you do the work. A year later I can finally talk about this weird chain of events and share the dragony results. I present you with a second pass at Viserion, Drogon, and Rhaegal...

Viserion - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Drogon - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Rhaegal - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Back in 2010 I painted these three dragons for the first time for the Queen of Dragons expansion and they were very well received. If you are unfamiliar with those pieces, you can see them here: Viserion, Drogon, and Rhaegal. For the Queen of Dragons expansion I was given a lot of leeway to give them my own personal spin, as long as I followed the general description found in the books. Which is good since at the time I was not very familiar with the novel and world the Mr. Martin was creating. I was just wanting to make cool dragons. With my return to paint new versions of the dragons I did had approved designs I needed to stick to, but I also had several years more experience so that I could approach the dragons with a fresh pair of eyes. The dragons were to be depicted a little younger then I originally painted them, but I am not sure if that really came across. Again, really more concerned in painting cool dragons. With as much as I did to maintain the look and feel that I had with them originally, I did make sure to correct some anatomical and detail issues that bothered me about those original dragons. When I do my process post for these I will compare the originals to these new versions and talk about what and why I made changes.

Here are how the final production cards turned out and you can see how they were cropped down for production...

Viserion, Drogon, and Rhaegal in handy card form! RAWR!

The back of the card packaging features the Drogon piece very nicely, I may not be on the front of the package, but I am rocking the back of it...

Drogon is hiding out on the back of the package... RAWR!

These three new versions of the three dragons really got me thinking, and by the time the Illustration Master Class rolled around last year I still had dragons on my mind. When one of the assignments turned out to be A Game of Thrones related I took the assignment without hesitation. I really wanted to see how I would have completely redesigned the dragons if I had the chance. If you followed my posts about IMC last year you my remember how the final product turned out...

The Three Dragons

24 x 14 - acrylic on board

© 2013 Christopher Burdett

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