The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT: Air Caste Courier

Showing posts with label Air Caste Courier. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Air Caste Courier - Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Process

Back in December of last year I first shared with you my contribution to the Legions of Death expansion to Warhammer 40K: Conquest, the Air Caste Courier. Today I have for you the process and steps that went into making that piece. To start things off here is what final version of the card looks like as well as what the final version of the painting looks like...

Air Caste Courier (Modified final)
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board with digital edits
Original available over on my web store

Air Caste Courier (Original)
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board
Original available over on my web store

There were some revision requests made after the painting was completed that involved global changes to the piece so they were done digitally, which is why there are two versions of this piece.

As with everything I create, there was a photo shoot for reference and then I got started on thumbnails for this piece. It needed to depict a big headed blue alien from the Warhammer 40K universe carrying a case onto a dropship as it prepares to take off. Pretty straight forward even though the alien is a little silly. Here are how the thumbnails turned out...

Air Caste Courier - Thumbnails

Did I say reference? Here is a look at one of the many images taken during the photo shoot to work out this piece. It was also the image used for the approved thumbnail, option "C".

Air Caste Courier - Reference

Photo by Achsa Nute

With an approved thumbnail it was time to get started on the final drawing for the piece. Here is how said drawing turned out...

Air Caste Courier - Drawing
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
17 x 14 - Pencil on paper
Original available over on my web store

There was some concern the head was not long enough and I was asked to extend it. I still think it ruins the perspective a bit and makes the whole face appear to be more parallel to the viewer than it is meant to be, but I make the revisions requested of me. There were some other little edits here and there to the drawing that I was asked to make as well. I made all of these edits digitally since I didn't want to risk messing up the final drawing with an incorrect revision and I did not have time to redraw the entire with with the revisions. Here is how the revised drawing turned out...

The revised drawing was approved and I was ready to get started on the painting. For some reason I took a photo of my work space right before I got to work on this painting. It was mixed in with all the process images I took and I had completely forgotten about it. For those interested in seeing what my painting space looks like, here you go...

Work space before painting begins

The painting portion for this one was relatively straight forward. Just fumbled my way through it until I had a finished painting, or so I thought. As mentioned before, there were some global revisions requested after the painting was considered completed by me. Making these revisions digitally took a lot of the guess work, anxiety, and risk out of making them. Here is a look at the piece coming together (including digital revisions)...

Here is an animated version of the painting coming together so you can better see the stages building on each other as well as the edits that were done digitally. Besides making the entire piece more yellow, there were small changes to his anatomy were the interruption of the miniature and the painted figure were ambiguous.

Here again is the final version of the Air Caste Courier painting as well as an image of the final production card for you viewing pleasure. It is funny how some of the things I was asked to edit, revise, and change in the final are not even visible on the final card do to cropping. Oh well, that is the way of things...

Air Caste Courier (Modified final)
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board with digital edits
Original available over on my web store

Air Caste Courier 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

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Me vs. Varnish - Varnish: 1 / Me: 0

Today I have for you the ups and downs of working with traditional materials and how the day was saved by my dear wife, Achsa...

When my paintings are approved by a client or I decide a personal piece is finally finished I ready them to be varnished so that they can then be framed. Varnishing is suppose to be a fairly straight forward process and something I have been doing for a little while now. Mostly varnishing has all been happening behind the scenes without much issue or concern. That all changed recently.

I was a little behind in varnishing my paintings and was tackling several all at once when it all went horribly horribly wrong. I still do not know what actually happened, but the varnish ended up streaked, drippy, and pretty much unacceptable. It seemed to happen when I was not looking. It went from completely fine to ruined in a blink of the eye. I was trying to stay positive about all of it and make the best of it, but in the end, the varnish was ruining these paintings. It was not necessarily obvious when you looked directly at the painting, but a little cross light showed the extent of the problem...

Everything is perfectly fine, nothing to see here...

This is when Achsa stepped in to save the day. Thankfully I was using a removable varnish (Liquitex Soluvar - Gloss) which meant that there was some hope of fixing the situation. Starting with the least precious of the paintings, Achsa attempted to smooth out the rippled areas of the surface, trying to be as noninvasive as possible...

Using a solvent (mineral spirits), Achsa brushed down the ripples and imperfections in my horrible varnish application.

While the attempts to smooth the surface were effective, they were not perfect. After several passes to simply refinish the surface of the varnish, Achsa decided that if the problem was to be addressed that she would need to remove the varnish completely and start over.

More images of Achsa working on the surface layer of the varnish.

While I don't think I would have been able to do it myself, Achsa removed the varnish from the paintings without any real concern or issue. This was done while I was not around to witness it or to freak out about it. Once the varnish was removed from the surface of the painting and it had dried Achsa reapplied the varnish to the paintings in a better more controlled process, which turns out to be far superior to whatever I had been doing. A quick glance a the painting's surface can show the difference...

Everything that was wrong is right again...

Achsa has stepped up to take on varnishing duties for my paintings. She jokes that I did a bad job so that she would do it for me, but there is no way I would intentionally risk multiple paintings to get out of something I was already happily doing. In the time she has been varnishing my paintings the quality has greatly improved and all of my paintings are now in better hands.

Fixed and with a fresh application of varnish, 4-LOM is now framed up and finished.

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

Monday, December 21, 2015

Air Caste Courier - Warhammer 40K: Conquest

I for you a new piece of Warhammer card art that was spoiled last week with the announcement of the newest expansion of Warhammer 40K: Conquest, Legions of Death. While the piece was painted traditionally the final art was edited digitally to give production what they wanted. Here is how the final production art for the Air Caste Courier...

Air Caste Courier (Modified final)
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board with digital edits

Original available over on my web store

To compare that with the original painting you will see the entire image was color shifted more yellow and that the entire drop ship in the background was made significantly more yellow. While easy to do on the computer it would have meant a major edit to the painting to make happen. Here is what the original painting looks like...

Air Caste Courier (Original)
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board

Art Director - John Taillon

The drawing for the Air Caste Courier will also so another change that was made after the drawing and prior to the painting, the head of the Courier was elongated significantly. This guy could not catch a break... edits and every turn. Oh well, things happen... especially when I work on Warhammer...

Air Caste Courier - Drawing
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
17 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - John Taillon

Finally, here is a peek at the final production card that will coming out sometime first quarter of 2016...

Sneak peek of the Air Caste Courier in handy dandy card form

I will have more stories about the ups and downs of this piece (and some classic reference images of me as the Air Caste Courier) once the set is released next year!

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