MORE Genasi Armor Sketches

If you missed any of my post on the Genasi armor that I designed for the Dungeons and Dragons Character Visualizer, fear naught! Ever though the posts were spread over 3 months you will be able to relive them all here: Female Armor part 1, Female Armor part 2, Male Armor part 1, Male Armor part 2. You may also remember my first post about the numerous sketches I did for the Genasi armor. I thought I would pull some more of these sketches out to show you some of the early directions for some of the other types of armor. Today I bring you variations on male chain, hide, leather and scale armors.

Genasi Male Chain Armor variations.
© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Genasi Male Hide Armor variations.
© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Genasi Male Leather Armor variations.
© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Genasi Male Scale Armor variations.
© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Of course looking back now I can see some of these may be a bit over the top, but you never know till you try. A lot of these would rather inept suits of armor but made for interesting shapes. What ultimately became the final designs, though simplistic in form for my taste, did prove to be more realistic for the purposes of armor.

Did someone say chain maille? No, I guess they didn't... anyway, I thought I would mention it here since I was showing off armor. Here is a sheet of chain maille I made in photoshop for use in the Genasi and Warforged armor designs. This replaces the first sheet I made for the Tiefling armor which was harder to read when the designs were shrunk down. It all came together pretty quickly and all starts with a circle with a bevel & emboss filter and and a shadow and before long you have chain mail.

Chain maille 'sheet'

Here is the same sheet at 100% so you can get a better look at all my mistakes. Which there are plenty...

Chain maille at 100%

I think that is enough for today... so much to do... so little time. I should be back tomorrow with something, don't know what yet... but SOMETHING! Until then...

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

Genasi Armor Designs #4

On this bright and early Monday morning I bring you the conclusion of my Genasi armor for the Dungeons and Dragons Character Visualizer. I have for you the leather, plate and scale (with and with out cloak) sets. As I mentioned with the female sets I think the stand out pieces for me are the scale sets. I had the most fun with them and I really like the feel and look of the scales. In my humble opinion I think the female sets were more successful, but this is also in line with how I felt about the Tiefling and Dragonborn armor as well. I don't think I have much more to add about these sets, they were fun to work on even though I was not expecting the shear volume of initial concepting that would be involved. If you happen to have a Monster Manual 2 be sure to check out the Genasi half page piece by Lars Grant-West, the figures are sporting my armor designs interpreted beautifully by Lars. Enough of my rambling, here is the armor:

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

This only leaves the Warforged armor left to show you. I will most likely start bringing you it the beginning of next year. I had hoped to have some new pieces for you on Wednesday but a previous engagement out of town has the whole day in an uproar. I will try to have to post to you on Thursday, but it might not be till Friday. Until then...

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

Genasi Armor Designs #3

I made it through the holiday more or less intact and due to a clerical error I was excused from Jury Duty the minute I showed up this morning. With all of that behind me and nothing but deadlines ahead of me, lets get to some blogging.

Today I am back on track with the first half of Male Genasi Armor I designed for the Dungeons and Dragons Character Visualizer. Included today are the chain, cloth (with and with out cloak) and hide (with and with out cloak) sets. The biggest issue with the Male Genasi sets was to make sure they maintained a masculine feel. Due to the openings and diagonal lines it was really easy to make them feel somewhat feminine, especially the pants. Went through a few pants variations before landing on some that worked. I think all of these are successful but none really jump out at me. I would have liked to have them a lot more detailed and fantastical. But the job called for something more simple so that is what I made.

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

I hope to have some new work for you on Wednesday. I had a book released recently I worked on but have yet to see it in the flesh. I am always reluctant to post work that I have not verified in person, but I am willing to take a chance ;) Until then...

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

Genasi Armor Designs #2

Wrapping up the female Genasi armor, I bring you the leather (with and without cloak), plate and scale sets. I think overall I am most pleased with the scale set I designed, for both look and quality of painting. It still is very minimal but has a lot going on at the same time. I am always a little leery of armor that exposes a lot of the body because... well, it stops being armor at that point. The Genasi armor does expose a lot of skin but that is in following with their culture as well as it shows off their glowing patterned skin. It was some times challenging to find a happy medium, but in the end Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy game and this allows lots of room to have fun and not worry to much about reality. Enough of my yammering, lets get to some armor...

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

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

Genasi Armor Designs #1

Today I bring you the first installment of the female Genasi Armor that I designed for the Dungeons and Dragons Character Visualizer. Unlike the Dragonborn and the Tiefling, there were only six variations of armor for the Genasi: chain, cloth, hide, leather, plate and scale. Also unlike the previous two races there are cloaked and none cloaked versions of some designs. All of these ended up much simpler then I was ever expecting them to be, but during the sketch phase more and more layers were stripped away leaving the simplified forms you see below. If you missed it, I have a previous post talking about the evolution of the sketches for the male cloth and plate designs. Compared to the complexity and Dragonborn and Tiefling armor this was definitely a change and required a certain amount of restraint not to go crazy and through back in a lot of detail. Enough talk, here is the armor...

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

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

Genasi Armor Sketches

Coming up for a bit of air and I thought I would put something on the blog while I treed water. I am still plowing through paintings and waiting for projects to be released. I had thought something was going to be released this week (still crossing my fingers) but it looks like it will be next week for sure (hopefully). Until then here is some armor!

I designed a whole mess of armor for the Genasi race for the Dungeons and Dragons Character Visualizer last year. Unlike my previous armor posts where I shared the drawings last I thought I would switch it around especially since there are so many. By the end of it I believe I created around 100 variations for the Genasi armor before painting the final approved designs. Here are most of the sketches I did for the Male Cloth Attire and Male Plate Armor. You can see the evolution pretty well, each row consists of a wave of drawings I created and would then turned in for review before starting on the next set.

Genasi Male Cloth Attire variations.
© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Genasi Male Plate Armor variations.

© 2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC

I will start sharing the finals for these in the coming weeks. I hopefully will also be able to share some of the promised new work too. Cross those fingers! Until then...

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