Vorimeraak - Process - Pathfinder Adventure Path #75

I am away from the computers and the monsters are in charge... so of course they are eager to show how they are made. Next up is the Vorimeraak from Pathfinder Adventure Path #75. I first shared these pieces over a year ago, so here is how the final Vorimeraak turned out...

Vorimeraak
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

This may be a surprise to no one who has ever seen this blog, but I started this monster off with some thumbnails. This particular monster is a modified version of an existing Pathfinder monster so a lot of the over all design was already worked out. For my thumbnails I was focusing on a pose and composition that would work for the book. Here is how the thumbnails turned out...

Vorimeraak - Thumbnails
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

With an approved thumbnail in hand it was time for some drawing! I got to scribbling on some paper and in a short time I had myself a drawing of a crazy scaly bird monster with a scythe. Here is how that crazy monster drawing turned out...

Vorimeraak - Drawing
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

The drawing was approved without issue and it was time to get to painting. Over the years these digitally painted isolated figure pieces got to a point that they started painting themselves. I just get in a grove and they come together. Perhaps in eight easy steps or perhaps not, the painting comes together...

Vorimeraak - Process progression

Does it RAWR? I must be done. To better show how this piece came together here is another of those little animated process things...

Vorimeraak - Animated process progression

Another monster is all done, again here is how the final painting looked when it was all done and turned in...

Vorimeraak
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

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

Svennarobeth - Process - Pathfinder Adventure Path #75

I am away from the computers and the monsters are in charge... so of course they are eager to show how they are made. Next up is the Svennarobeth from Pathfinder Adventure Path #75. I first shared these pieces over a year ago, so here is how the final Svennarobeth turned out...

Svennarobeth
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

This may be a surprise to no one who has ever seen this blog, but I started this monster off with some thumbnails. This particular monster is a modified version of an existing Pathfinder monster so a lot of the over all design was already worked out. For my thumbnails I was focusing on a pose and composition that would work for the book. Here is how the thumbnails turned out...

Svennarobeth - Thumbnails
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

With an approved thumbnail in hand it was time for some drawing! I got to scribbling on some paper and in a short time I had myself a drawing of a crazy monster with moth wings and a long weird tongue. Here is how that crazy monster drawing turned out...
 

Svennarobeth - Drawing
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

The drawing was approved without issue and it was time to get to painting. Over the years these digitally painted isolated figure pieces got to a point that they started painting themselves. I just get in a grove and they come together. Perhaps in eight easy steps or perhaps not, the painting comes together...

Svennarobeth - Process progression

Does it RAWR? I must be done. To better show how this piece came together here is another of those little animated process things...

Svennarobeth - Animated process progression

Another monster is all done, again here is how the final painting looked when it was all done and turned in...

Svennarobeth
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

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

Skulgrim - Process - Pathfinder Adventure Path #75

I am away from the computers and the monsters are in charge... so of course they are eager to show how they are made. Next up is the Skulgrim from Pathfinder Adventure Path #75. I first shared these pieces over a year ago, so here is how the final Skulgrim turned out...

Skulgrim
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

This may be a surprise to no one who has ever seen this blog, but I started this monster off with some thumbnails. This particular monster is a modified version of an existing Pathfinder monster so a lot of the over all design was already worked out. For my thumbnails I was focusing on a pose and composition that would work for the book. Here is how the thumbnails turned out...

Skulgrim - Thumbnails
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

With an approved thumbnail in hand it was time for some drawing! I got to scribbling on some paper and in a short time I had myself a drawing of a crazy monster with wings and horns and a big axe. Here is how that crazy monster drawing turned out...

Skulgrim - Drawing
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

The drawing was approved without issue and it was time to get to painting. Over the years these digitally painted isolated figure pieces got to a point that they started painting themselves. I just get in a grove and they come together. Perhaps in eight easy steps or perhaps not, the painting comes together...

Skulgrim - Process progression

Does it RAWR? I must be done. To better show how this piece came together here is another of those little animated process things...

Skulgrim - Animated process progression

Another monster is all done, again here is how the final painting looked when it was all done and turned in...

Skulgrim
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

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

Neh-Thalggu - Process - Pathfinder Adventure Path #75

I am away from the computers and the monsters are in charge... so of course they are eager to show how they are made. Starting things of the Neh-Thalggu from Pathfinder Adventure Path #75 has scuttled onto the blog. I first shared these pieces over a year ago, so here is how the final Neh-Thalggu turned out...

Neh-Thalggu
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

This may be a surprise to no one who has ever seen this blog, but I started this monster off with some thumbnails. This particular monster is a modified version of an existing Pathfinder monster so a lot of the over all design was already worked out. For my thumbnails I was focusing on a pose and composition that would work for the book. Here is how the thumbnails turned out...

Neh-Thalggu - Thumbnails
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

With an approved thumbnail in hand it was time for some drawing! I got to scribbling on some paper and in a short time I had myself a drawing of a crazy monster with brain pods and tentacles. Here is how that crazy monster drawing turned out...

Neh-Thalggu - Drawing
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

The drawing was approved without issue and it was time to get to painting. Over the years these digitally painted isolated figure pieces got to a point that they started painting themselves. I just get in a grove and they come together. Perhaps in eight easy steps or perhaps not, the painting comes together...

Neh-Thalggu - Process progression

Does it RAWR? I must be done. To better show how this piece came together here is another of those little animated process things...

Neh-Thalggu - Animated process progression

Another monster is all done, again here is how the final painting looked when it was all done and turned in...

Neh-Thalggu
© 2014 Paizo Publishing

That is 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

Pathfinder Adventure Path #75: Demon's Heresy

It has come to my attention that Pathfinder Adventure Path #75: Demon's Heresy has been released... last year. So I am a little behind in sharing these with you it look like. When it comes to monsters... better late then never, right? Anyway, I produced four demony monstery type critters for the book. I hope their names have not changed during production since I have not seen the final product yet. Without further yammering on my part, here are some new monsters...

Skulgrim
© 2013 Paizo Publishing

Vorimeraak
© 2013 Paizo Publishing

Neh-Thalggu
© 2013 Paizo Publishing

Svennarobeth
© 2013 Paizo Publishing

I understand that the Skulgrim made it onto the back cover... which of course is really cool! As a side note, I have not worked on the Pathfinder Adventure Paths in a while... actually, it has been a long time. I last worked on the Adventure Paths on issue #29 (PART 1 / PART 2)! How time flies, glad my skill set has improved since then. Not sure what else to add about these, they were super fun to work on and I they really added to my "year of wings" that was my 2013.

I would like to extend a huge thanks to Andrew Vallas for including me on this project! He and I just don't get enough chances to work together, but when we do it is a great experience! Thanks, Andrew!

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

Chronicle of the Righteous Process - Demons and Kitties

On Monday I shared with you the first part of the process and steps that went into making my good monsters for the Pathfinder supplement, Chronicle of the Righteous. Today I have for you the remaining two pieces from the book. One is a demon having a bad day and the other is a little black kitty. So that we are all on the same page, here are how the final pieces that appeared in the book turned out...

Angel Spell and Agathion Familiar

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

For the Angel Spell, production wanted me to show vines representing all four season wrapping around the demon as every last hit point was squeezed out of it. At this stage in my career I can read an art order and get a feel for which pieces are going to take longer then the others... and when I things like "many vines representing the four seasons" I will be putting more time into this piece compared to others. Not that there is anything wrong in this... it is just how things are and getting a feel for it allows yo to budget your time so much better. As always, I got to work on some thumbnails... some very sloppy thumbnails actually, but I made the demon red for clarity of view for my art director...

Angel Spell - Thumbnails

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

All I knew going into this was that I needed to have a spiky winter vine wrapping across the demons mouth... NOMS! Options "B" was picked and I moved onto the drawing...

Angel Spell - Drawing

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

To be honest I should have spent just a little more time on this drawing. The demon's right hand and muzzle are a little off and I had to correct this in the painting. If I was not working digitally this might not have happened or would have been a lot harder. Another reason to take your time and do things right the first time! It is our craft and our job to do this right and if it takes a little longer to make sure things like the hands and face are perfect... then so be it. If the hands and faces are off in a piece then the whole piece is going to be off. Viewers always look to the face and hands.

Once I had the approved drawing the painting came together in eight easy steps (not really, because I had to stop half way through it and fix the face and hand)...

Angel Spell - Process

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

For the Agathion Familiar all I had to do is channel the inner spirit of our little bad black kitties. The only thing I had to do was give them violet eyes, white markings, and dial down the evil by about 110%...

Agathion Familiar - Thumbnails

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

Option "C" was picked for its attitude and I got to work on the final drawing...

Agathion Familiar - Drawing

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

Compared to the Angel Spell this piece was a piece of cake. While the Angel Spell may have required more time to complete this piece came together very quickly, so it all evens out in the end. Here are the eight easy steps (and many hours of work) that it took to back a very sassy kitty cat familiar...

Agathion Familiar - Process

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

That about wraps it all up. Demons wrapped in vines take awhile to paint and you need to make sure you draw it right the first time and cat monsters do much quicker if you have convenient reference in your house.

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

Chronicle of the Righteous Process - Feathered Friends

Back in June I brought you my contributions to the Pathfinder supplement, Chronicle of the Righteous, a book containing good leaning monsters. Today I have for you part one of the process steps that went into making these monsters. Since there are five of them I figured it would be best to split them up across two days, so the second half will show up on Wednesday.

Starting things off are a bunch of feathered friends... Tannagar, Shei, and Angelic Familiar. So that we are all on the same page, here are how the final pieces that appeared in the book turned out...

Tannagar, Shei, and Angelic Familiar

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

These all came together pretty much in the same set of step, just like the rest of my work, but since they are on a white background... or rather a transparent background I have to build the image up slightly differently. Once I have an approved drawing to work from I use the lasso tool to make a silhouette of the image that all other layers are masked to. This allows me to be a sloppy as I want to be without worry about the outer edge of the figure. This does not mean that the silhouette remains untouched and unchanged. I will go back and add or subtract from it through out the painting process to make sure the image works. Here is a graphic that hopefully will help explain it better...

Image breakdown with mask layer on bottom

For me, this works very well for creating an isolated figure that needs to be separate from the background. But as I always say, you need to find what works well for you and this method might not. I know there are many other ways to go about creating an image like this.

Since these are all very similar in the process and the only elements that are different are the images I think we will just fly through them and if anything needs to be pointed out I will mention it... other then that... lots of things to look at...

Tannagar - Thumbnails

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

The original thumbnail for option 'B' did not have the normal sized owls in it. They were a request by production so that you could get a feel for just how big Tannagar was. I added them and resubmitted and they really do help the image a lot.

Tannagar - Drawing

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

 

Tannagar - Process

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

Shei - Thumbnails

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

You might notice that option 'A' is taller then the other two. This was another production request. They felt that she was a little to short in the legs so I lengthened her and resubmitted. 

Shei - Drawing

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

Shei - Process

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

If the left hand looks a little weird in the process step by step that is because near the end of painting Shei I felt the hand was just in the wrong position and maybe the wrong size. To deal with that I had to adjust the masking silhouette layer as well as the painting layer. This will sometimes create very weird looking effects when it is all finished.

Angelic Familiar - Thumbnails

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

Angelic Familiar - Drawing

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

Reference is your friend. Wings are complicated and can look instantly wrong if you are not careful. I looked at a lot of birds in flight to make sure I got these to look and feel correct.

Angelic Familiar - Process

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

That is all for the process that went into these. I will have the remaining two for you on Wednesday!

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