The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT: Basilisk

Showing posts with label Basilisk. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Revisiting the Basilisk - Talisman: Frostmarch

On Monday I shared with you some memories of working with Zoe Robinson at Fantasy Flight Games. In that post I mentioned that the first piece I ever did for her was a Basilisk for the Talisman expansion, Frostmarch. That piece is seven years old and very very flawed to my eyes. After reflecting on Zoe's time at FFG and all that we worked on I decided to revisit that critter and give it another pass in pencil to see what it would look like now. Of all the pieces I did with Zoe, the Basilisk is the only one that really makes me cringe. Here is my fresh pass at the Basilisk...

Basilisk - Revisited

12 x 9 - Pencil on paper

I am sure you are thinking to yourself, why on earth am I showing you the redesign before I showed you the original... BECAUSE I don't want seven year old work as the thumbnail for this post. Okay, now that you have seen the rework, lets travel back in time to 2009 and look at the original drawings that I submitted for the Basilisk...

Original Basilisk drawings for Frostmarch

Original on two sheets of 9 x 12 paper - Pencil on paper

These were all that I submitted for the Basilisk. These were the thumbnails and the final drawings all in one. Because I had not developed my now ubiquitous process for making art that use for everything today. I got a couple sheets of paper and just scribbled on them. The bounding box I drew on the paper to do these in was not even the right dimension for the final piece... I had to add some more drawing digitally after I scanned the scribbles into the computer. Now THAT is professionalism! AND somehow I continued to get work in the gaming industry.

By the way, I have never shared these three Basilisk scribbles before. These drawings most likely have only been seen by three or four people before now. Not that you all were missing anything. As you can clearly see, option 'A' was the winner. Isn't option 'C' just the cutest widdle Basilisk EVAR! Let us have a look at 2009 and 2016 side by side to see what has changed...

Basilisk comparison 2009 / 2016

Everything wrong is right again?

I continue to mention all the flaws with this piece. Here is a real quick run down of everything I did wrong with the fundamentals of the drawing and we will forgo this issues with the painting. In no particular order: anatomy of the head is all kinds of wrong, the eyes, teeth, mouth, tongue, horns all do not line up in perspective or have any cohesive or realistic symmetrical order, that head is super wrong, one more time - HEAD = WRONG, arms are uniform and boring, arms don't seem to connect to the body and appear to be just slapped on the sides, and finally... THAT HEAD. The painting did not remedy any of the major issues and seemed to add some more, but that is for another day. Here is how the final painting turned out for the Basilisk...

Basilisk

5 x 4.5 -Digital

Pay $100 for an illustration, get a $100 illustration. I won't even go into how much blood, sweat, and tears I pumped into this to get a finished painting. I worked SOOOO much on this, because at the time I was learning and ever piece was a fight to finish. I did learn a lot, and in a way that is what is important. Fun fact, for a brief time this piece was in my portfolio that I showed to clients. THE HORROR! THE HORROR! Thankfully the Talisman cards are SUPER TINY and once this piece was shrunk down it masked many of the flaws. Maybe. Here is the final card...

Basilisk in handy dandy card form!

Print it SMALL and make all the mistakes got away.

Seven years, at times it feels like so much more and so much less all at the same time. Just glad to see that my skill set has improved over the years! The last thing we needs is more cards being made like this original Basilisk.

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, May 6, 2015

Basilisk - Lands and Legends - Process

Continuing to clear out the back log of pieces I need to share the process for. Today I have a piece I first shared WAY back in February of 2014. This Basilisk was produced for the Lands and Legends book produced by Michael Publishing, LLC. I feel like it kinds fell under the radar in the bigger scheme of things, but I still like it. This is my take on the Basilisk as the king of the serpents... or rather the God King of all serpents. Here is how the final piece turned out...

Basilisk

Lands and Legends

Digital - 10.3 x 13.7

I was left to my own devices and could do anything I wanted to for this project. I knew from the beginning what I wanted to do, it was just a matter of execution. As always, I began with a thumbnail. Since I was my own art director on this I show my reference and then worked and reworked the thumbnail until I was happy with. Here is how the final thumbnail turned out...

Basilisk - Thumbnail

Once the thumbnail was finalized I moved to the drawing. I skipped the line drawing on white paper and proceeded directly to the toned paper with the intention of finishing out the toned drawing once the line art for the painting was complete. Unfortunately, I have yet to get back to this drawing and take it to its toned papery goodness conclusion and it still lives on in the "to be completed when I have all the time in the world" pile. Here is how the line are for the Basilisk turned out...

Basilisk - Drawing

Now that I have the line drawing it was time to get started on the painting. Since this was created at the beginning of last year it was produced digitally. In just twelve easy steps this piece came together! ...or not. It was really straight forward and since I was creating it for myself I could do what I wanted, have a lot of fun, and not worry about meeting the needs and exceptions of someone else, since ultimately I was the client on this project. My focus was to make something I was really happy with and so I got to painting to create just that...

Basilisk - Process progression

Like magic paintings take shape. To better show the piece coming together, here is another little animated process progression for you...

Basilisk - Animated process progression

When I originally posted about this piece last year I also shared some close ups of this piece so that you could get a better look at what my paintings look like up close. I thought I would include this again so that you can have another look. A glimpse at the tightness and looseness of my digital work.

Basilisk - Detail

Basilisk at 100%... RAWR!

Lastly, I will leave you again with the final painting of the Basilisk. If you are interested, I highly recommend you checking out the Lands and Legends book! It is full of great art!

Basilisk

Lands and Legends

Digital - 10.3 x 13.7

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, February 3, 2014

Basilisk - Lands and Legends

I recently finished a personal piece / commissioned piece of a most monstrous nature. Perhaps you have heard of Lands and Legends, the first in a series of art anthologies being put together by Michael Publishing, LLC? If not, you should head over to have a look at look, there is a very impressive list of artists involved with the project... as well as myself. My contribution to the book is the mighty King of the Serpents, the Basilisk...

Basilisk

First, since most of the work I show here on the blog is a year or more old by the time I can share it, if you were wondering what my digital work looks like RIGHT NOW... well, there you go. Secondly, the Basilisk is described in mythology as the king of the serpents and is sometime portrayed with multiple limbs... I took is a bit further and created a God King of the serpents for my Basilisk. I wrote a little more about this monster, but that is for the book.

I created this piece at a higher DPI then I usually work at as well as a larger size then was needed for the commission, so I have a nice huge file of this guy for my own uses. By doing this I also taunted myself with that much area to render with all the details. Speaking of details, here is a detail of the painting so that you can get a better a look at it...

Basilisk - Detail

Not close enough? Here is a piece of the painting at 100% for your viewing pleasure. Just look at those pixels! RAWR!

Basilisk at 100%... RAWR!

I will have more about the Basilisk and the Lands and Legends book as things progress. In the coming weeks I will also bring you the process that went into making this King of Serpent Kings!

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

Monday, January 6, 2014

Talisman - The Nether Realm

Quick note before I get things going today... at the beginning of each January here on the blog I have done a previous year's highs and low and lessons learned. The look back at 2013 is coming, it has just been a little delayed due to events beyond my control.

With that out of the way... I have a interesting piece for you today. Not only is this piece very old, it is just now being released, and with its release it marks that last work done for a license that I am fond of. I am referring to the Sea Drago... er, I mean the ARCANE Dragon that has recently surfaced in the newest expansion for the Talisman board game, The Nether Realm...

Arcane Dragon

I created this piece in November / December 2010 for The Dragons expansion for Talisman. For whatever reason this particular dragon did not make the original cut, but finally... after three years... here it is. YAYS! It is finally out... too bad it is three years old and I would have done is all totally differently now. The Dragons expansion was also the last time I worked on the Talisman franchise... though I have had new cards in almost all the expansions since. I did so much work the The Dragons that is was not all used and kept appearing in various later sets. Also, if you didn't catch it earlier, this piece was originally called the "SEA" dragon... since its uncanny resemblance to the leafy and not so leafy sea dragon (look them up!). Here is how the final card turned out...

Arcane Dragon in handy card form

The Arcane dragon was not the only piece of mine that appears in The Nether Realm! A pair of other previously released piece show up as well. The much more successful and better looking Storm Dragon is always a welcomed sight... then there is the... uh, Basilisk...

Storm Dragon

Basilisk

The Basilisk is a number of things, it is not only the very first piece that I ever did for Fantasy Flight Games, it is my very first Talisman card, and it is very BAD. Dating back to 2009 it shows lots of potential... and lots of rookie mistakes and an expected level of inexperience. Which is all to be expected, this was from 2009 when I was getting my career and art rebuilt from the ground up. Maybe at a latter date when it is more relevant to current work I can go in and point out the issues with this piece (oh, the humanity... that anatomy!) and how it could be fixed.

Here are how the cards for this two repeat pieces turned out... for the basilisk, since it was printed so small it actually made it better...

Storm Dragon in handy card form

Basilisk in handy 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

Friday, April 12, 2013

Fresh from the drawing table... Basilisk!

I have for you another drawing that is fresh from the drawing table. This time around it is a Basilisk! Just like the fourth letter "A", letter "B" was voted upon by the fine folks over on my Facebook Fan Page. The Basilisk narrowly beat out several other monsters to be this weeks winner... I present to you my version of a Basilisk…

Basilisk

Let's get this out of the way... historically, the BASILISK and the COCKATRICE have been portrayed VERY similarly and at times have been almost interchangeable. Since I have already redesigned the Cockatrice and brought a lot of my own tricks and bad habits into it I thought I would go to the source material for the Basilisk. The Basilisk is said to be the king of the serpents... though it is (almost) always portrayed with legs... lots of them... and wings... Poor monster must have gotten mixed up with a crazy wizard or lost a bet with a devil. No matter what, make sure you avoid its gaze... that is still a problem...

My first 100 original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual redesigns (A - Z): Aerial Servant, Ankheg, Ant (Giant), Ape (Carnivorous), Ape (Gorilla), Axe Beak, Axe Beak (version 2), Baboon, Badger, Barracuda, Basilisk, Baluchitherium, Bear (Black), Bear (Brown), Bear (Cave), Beaver (Giant), Beetle (Giant) - Bombardier, Beetle (Giant) - Boring, Beetle (Giant) - Fire, Beetle (Giant) - Rhinoceros, Beetle (Giant) - Stag, Beetle (Giant) - Water, Beholder, Black Pudding, Blink Dog, Boar (Giant), Boar (Warthog), Boar (Wild), Brain Mole, Brownie, Bugbear, Buffalo, Bulette, Carrion Crawler, Catoblepas, Cerebral Parasite, Chimera, Cockatrice, Coutal, Crab (Giant), Demon Type III (Glabrezu), Demon (Juiblex), Demon (Manes), Devil (Ice), Dragon (Red), Elemental (Earth), Ettin, Eye of the Deep, Flightless Bird, Frog (Giant), Fungi (Violet), Giant (Hill), Goblin, Golem (Flesh), Hobgoblin, Homunculus, Hydra, Imp, Intellect Devourer, Ixitxachitl, Jackal, Jacklewere, Jaguar, Ki-Rin, Kobold, Lich, Lizard (Giant), Lizardman, Manticore, Mind Flayer, Minotaur, Naga, Neo-Otygugh, Nixie, Ochre Jelly, Ogre, Owlbear, Peryton, Pixie, Purple Worm, Quasit, Ram (Giant), Roper, Rust Monster, Sahuagin, Salamander, Shambling Mound, Treant, Troglodyte, Troll, Umber Hulk, Unicorn, Vampire, Wasp (Giant), Wight, Wyvern, Xorn, Yeti, and Zombie.

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

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Basilisk - Talisman Frostmarch expansion

Frostmarch, the newest expansion for Talisman came out last week and I did some work for it. Well, I say some work, it was in fact one piece for this set, but I figure you have to start somewhere, right? This was the very first project I had the opportunity to work on for Fantasy Flight Games and it was a blast. When I got the assignment I almost missed the art order in the email, there was a single word in a block by itself, "Basilisk". You just can't go wrong with that. I did 3 sketches and the first one I did was picked and I got to painting and a short time later had this...

Not only was this my first project with FFG but this was also my first piece of card art. As a side note my comp copy of Frostmarch arrived in the mail on Monday and I was thrilled to see they used my piece as part of the box art as well. I have been fortunate enough to find myself on several other Fantasy Flight Games projects and look forward to sharing that work as well when I am allowed. Until then...

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