Recent Small Monster Pieces

I recently made several small monster pieces to have with me at conventions. I will have all five at Infinity Con Gainesville this coming weekend. These are all fun little pieces using pencil, marker, ink, and paint. Similar to the larger pieces I had planned to bring to Gen Con earlier this year. These are priced to sell, so I hope they find their forever homes. Feel free to reach out if one of them catches your eye.

Small Monsters

5 x 7 - Pencil, marker, ink, and acrylic paint on board
© 2025 Christopher Burdett 

That's 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

Gen Con Monsters Now Available!

UPDATE: All three have been claimed. THANK YOU! 

Did you miss out on Gen Con?! Cause you know I sure did (due to situations beyond my control that all worked out in the end, and it was all just bad timing)!! Did you miss buying one of my ink and paint monster tributes exclusively made for Gen Con?! Cause you know I sure did (miss selling you one)!!

Well, the wait is over! You can now head to my store, where you can find all three of my monster tributes! Each piece is 9 x 12 with pencil, ink, and acrylic on illustration board. Available are a Beholder, a Beholderkin, and a Mind Flayer. Get one before one gets you!

Monster Tributes

9 x 12 - pencil, ink, and acrylic on illustration board 

© 2025 Christopher Burdett 

That's all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog. See you back here tomorrow. Until then...

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

NEW Spectator Miniature

I have another recently released miniature that is based on my designs that has also already been turned into multiple miniatures. Last week, it was the Hydroloth, but today is the return of the Spectator. Again, I am speaking loosely with the word 'new,' when this mini came out this past October. If you are curious about the first Spectator miniature or even the most recent 2D mini, I have you covered. Here is how the final concept design for the Spectator turned out.

Spectator (originally Gauth during the concept push)

5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Monster concept

© 2014 Wizards of the Coast

Who can't love a floating ball with a single eye, teeth-filled mouth, and tentacled eye stalks? While I have been a fan of all of the Spectator miniatures, this one is particularly nice. The paintwork and detailing is great and really make this monster look cool. Here are some images of the new mini.

The NEW Spectator miniature for all your new Spectator miniature needs.

Lastly, here are some images of the original Spectator mini so you can see how it has evolved over the past eight years. While the color on the original mini is closer to my concept, I do like the lighter green in the new version. 

The original Spectator miniature from 2015.

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

Spectator 2D Miniature

Today, I have another recently released 2D miniature based on one of my Dungeons & Dragons concepts. As with the others, this is a monster that already received a 3D mini, so now we have more minis, and that is a truly wonderful thing. This time around, it is the Spectator that I designed during the concept push for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Here is how the final concept design for the Spectator turned out.

Spectator (originally Gauth during the concept push)

5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Monster concept

© 2014 Wizards of the Coast

 

If you want to seek out the set this miniature is in, here is an image of the packaging. The 2D Spectator can be found in the Beholder Hive set of the D&D Idols of the Realms line of miniatures.  

Beholder Hive

The 2D minis are very high quality, and the printing is excellent. There are bases for all miniatures, which are arranged by size. Here is the 2D miniature of the Spectator.

 

Spectator 2D Miniature

I mentioned that this particular monster already has a 3D miniature. I always liked how the original miniature turned out, but this new 2D mini has a ton of detail and look awesome. Here is the 3D mini for the Spectator.

The Spectator miniature in all its glory.

That's all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here next week. Until then...

 

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

Gazer 2D Miniature

Today, I have another recently released 2D miniature based on one of my Dungeons & Dragons paintings. As with the others, this is a monster that already received a 3D mini, so now we have more minis, and that is a truly wonderful thing. This time around, it is the Gazer that I designed and illustrated for Volo's Guide to Monsters. Here is how the final illustration for the Gazer turned out.

Beholder Gazer

Volo's Guide to Monsters

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

 

If you want to seek out the set this miniature is in, here is an image of the packaging. The 2D YGazer can be found in the Beholder Hive set of the D&D Idols of the Realms line of miniatures.  

 

Beholder Hive

The 2D minis are very high quality, and the printing is excellent. There are bases for all miniatures, which are arranged by size. Here is the 2D miniature of the Gazer

 

Gazer 2D Miniature

I mentioned that this particular monster already has a 3D miniature. As this is a tiny monster, the miniatures are always too small to get all the detail in. With the 2D printed mini, you are able to get a bit more in there, and it really reads well. I love how faithful it is to my painting, even at this size. Here is the 3D mini for the Gazer.

Gazer Miniature

That's all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here next week. Until then...

 

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

Gazer Miniature - Monster Menagerie 3

Last year the Monster Menagerie 3 miniature set was released, and in that set, you can find a Gazer miniature. You might remember that I designed and illustrated the Gazer for Volo's Guide to Monster. It is always exciting to see miniatures based on my work, and this one is no exception, though you have to look very closely. Here is my illustration of the Gazer to start things off.

Beholder Gazer

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

I knew that this monster was not the largest creature on the block, but I guess I didn't imagine it being a very tiny monster. The miniature makes it clear just how tiny it is. It was a little challenging to get some image, here are the best that I was able to take.

Beholder Gazer miniature in all its MINIATURE glory!

I have had plenty of larger miniatures made of my work, but this is most definitely the smallest. All the same, it is always exciting to see something I designed living in the real world as a piece of plastic.  For better or worse it will be around longer than humans usually last.

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

Beholder Gazer - Volo's Guide to Monsters - Process

The monsters are in charge of the blog, and they have decided to share with you the process and steps that went into making the five paintings that I contributed to the Dungeons & Dragons supplement, Volo's Guide to Monsters. I hope you enjoy it!

Today's selection is the Beholder Gazer. It is hard to go wrong with any type of Beholder. It is also hard to think of any other monster more directly tied to D&D, except for maybe a dragon. I have always loved Beholders and I probably always will. Here is how the final Beholder Gazer turned out...

Beholder Gazer

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

There was no need for a photo reference shoot to start off these thumbnails. I am more than familiar with the beholder form, and I was able to sit back and play around with making a funny little beholder-Kin. Here are how the thumbnails turned out...

Beholder Gazer - Thumbnails

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Option C was the winner, and I can't object. Looking back at them now, C is the obvious pick of the litter, though at the time I think I really wanted A to win. Live and learn and have confidence that production will pick the right ones! I got the go-ahead to move onto the final drawing. Production thought the eye stalks of the drawing were a little, um, naughty and I was asked to change them out. I did a new version with less naughty eye stalks, and it was approved. Here are the two versions of the drawing...

Beholder Gazer (Original Version)

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Kate Irwin

Original - SOLD

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Beholder Gazer (Final Version)

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Kate Irwin

Original - SOLD

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

With an approved drawing I was given the go-ahead to start the painting. With all of these Volo pieces, the painting went quickly, smoothly, and there were no issues or concerns. Which is always nice. I just got to sit back and have fun making pretty monsters. Being an isolated figure helps out a lot too. Here is the paint work for this piece coming together...

Beholder Gazer - Process steps

You will notice that the eye stalk furthest on the right looks a little weird throughout the process. This is because late in the painting I realized it was a little off. It just wants not in the right place, and I needed to move it. Because of how I build up my files this meant permanently shifting my work on many layers. This also meant when I went back to share the process that it would look a little weird. The background mask layer was shifted, and a later flattened paint layer was moved to match it. Happened pretty regularly when I work on isolated figures. To better show how the painting developed, here is an animated progression of it taking shape...

Beholder Gazer - Animated process

While there is a fair bit of pushing and pulling of form and value the painting was extremely straight forward. I get into a zen state when working on isolated figures as I work the large forms and then lay in all the detail work. I just want to make a really pretty monster for these types of pieces, and hopefully, I did. Here again, is how the final painting turned out...

Beholder Gazer

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

That's 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

Volo's Guide to Monsters - Dungeons & Dragons - Part 1

I am happy to be able to start sharing my contributions to Volo's Guide to Monsters, the newest gaming supplement to Dungeons & Dragons. Volo's is just the kind of project I like - Dungeons & Dragons, monsters, and getting to work with the most excellent art director, Kate Irwin. Kate assigned me some really awesome monsters and this was a really really fun assignment to work on. I produced a total of five illustrations for the book, I will be sharing three today and the last two on Wednesday. Enough yammering, here are my illustrations of the Lizardfolk, Beholder Gazer, and the Mind Flayer Tadpole...

Lizardfolk

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

I think the Lizardfolk was my favorite piece from the book. I have a soft spot for the D&D Lizardmen that goes back decades. I played a Lizardman back in 2nd Edition and after reading the section of Volo's Guide to Monsters that had the player character Lizardfolk I am ready to roll up a new one! Thrilled to have been able to create the illustration for this section of the book. I love to work on scaly lizard people.

Beholder Gazer

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

You can never go wrong with a Beholder of any kind. I was given a tiny little image of an old Gazer illustration and was told to flesh it out and make it cool. I can totally do that! There ended up being two version of the drawing for this one since the first one was found to be a little questionable when it came to the eye stalks. You can see both drawings below and I will go into more detail about this when I share the process and step later.

Mind Flayer Tadpole

9.1 x 10.1 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Last but not least of these is the Mind Flayer Tadpole. This was the perfect opportunity for me to do a self portrait of myself in a D&D assignment. I have some fun photo reference to share for this one that involve me and a kneaded eraser on my face as a stand in for the tadpole.

Below are the drawings that went into these illustrations. Since I was working on five pieces and I didn't think I had the time needed to do these traditionally the painting are digital. It would have been nice to have paintings of all of these, but the final pieces did end up way better by me doing them digitally. At least there are the drawings, get them while you can, they are going fast...

Lizardfolk

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Kate Irwin

Original - SOLD

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Beholder Gazer (Final Version)

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Kate Irwin

Original - SOLD

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Beholder Gazer (Original Version)

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Kate Irwin

Original - SOLD

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Mind Flayer Tadpole

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Kate Irwin

Original - SOLD

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC

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

Spectator - Beholder-kin miniature

Rage of Demons, the newest expansion on miniatures for Dungeons & Dragons is out and one of the miniatures is based on a redesign for 5th Edition. The miniature in questions is none other then the wily Spectator, or Gauth when I was redesigning it. Here is how the final miniature turned out...

Spectator miniature

Rage of Demons expansion

© 2015 Wizards of the Coast

The Spectator was one of my favorites to redesign. I nailed the new concept on the first pass of sketches and it was a lot of fun to work on. I am thrilled to see that it has been turned into a miniature! For those interested, here is my original concept for the Spectator...

Spectator (Gauth) - Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual - Redesign

© 2014 Wizards of the Coast

The miniature also pulls from the GREAT illustration that Kieran Yanner did of it for the 5th Edition Monster Manual. He did a tremendous job breathing life into my design and I am glad to see that the miniature reflects what he brought to the Spectator. Here is a look at the rest of the Spectator miniature...

The rest of the Spectator miniature in all its glory.

 
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

Dungeon & Dragons Monster Manual - Gauth (Spectator) - Redesign

The monsters keep coming, RAWR! Today's monster redesign that I created for the 5th Edition Monster Manual is a wily Beholder-Kin, the Gauth (now Spectator). Here is how the final concept turned out...

Gauth (Spectator) - Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual - Redesign

© 2014 Wizards of the Coast

The Gauth has always been more or less portrayed as a four eye stocked Beholder like creature. Production wanted me to continue this, but give it an update and reworking. I was so excited about this one and the finished piece remains one of my favorite redesigns. Once I started to thumbnail concepts I had to stop myself because I think I could have continued on and on and on working up little floating balls of teeth and tentacles. Here are how the thumbnail concepts that I submitted turned out...

Gauth (Spectator) - Thumbnails

© 2014 Wizards of the Coast

If I remember correctly, "C" and "D" were favorites for production. "C" they really liked but there was a concern it would read as a Beholder that had lost its stalks in a fight rather then being a completely different creature. "D" offered up a unique silhouette and read instantly as a Beholder like creature that is not a Beholder. In the end, it is obvious "D" won because it was more unique... and I think it looks better then some of the more snaky wavy stalked Gauth concepts. Now that I had an approved concept it was time to get started on the drawing...

Gauth (Spectator) - Drawing

9 x 12

Pencil on Paper

© 2014 Wizards of the Coast

Original Drawing - SOLD

I fleshed out the concept and added my usual level of detail that makes me feel that the drawing is finished. I think I could have drawn Beholder-kin for days or weeks. Perpetual production of teeth, tentacles, eye stalks, tongues all on horrid floating balls... sounds like fun to me. The drawing was approved without comment and I moved onto the final color comp...

Gauth (Spectator) - Final Redsign

© 2014 Wizards of the Coast

The final was approved immediately and as I have said, remains one of my favorites produced for 5E. They all can not be Beholders, but when they are, I really try to savor the moments working on them. The final illustration for this monster was expertly handled by Kieran Yanner! RAWR!

A HUGE THANKS to Jon Schindehette for all the monsters and direction during the design phase of 5th Edition!

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday for another new monster! Until then...

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