Revisiting the Monsters - Goblin

In 2010, sixteen years ago now, I began a personal project to redesign most, if not all, of the monsters in the original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. That original MM had a profound effect on me and led me to eventually work on the game. While I was already working on the game when I began this project, it did prove useful as I have redesigned many D&D monsters in my career on the game. In the end, I completed over 100 drawings for the project and even had a gallery show featuring the work. 

I thought it would be nice to look back at some of my favorites. Today, I am sharing the classic of classic monsters, the Goblin. Enjoy!

Goblin redesign (2010)
© 2010/2026 Christopher Burdett 

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

Chucklehead 2D Miniature

I mentioned last week that I would have more of the monsters I painted for Dungeons & Dragons making a return appearance as a new miniature. What I did not know, on top of some of my monsters getting updated miniatures, was that some of the monsters were getting 2D acrylic miniatures too! I stumbled upon the line of D&D acrylic miniatures by accident and was thrilled to see so many of my monsters included in the various sets. To start things off, I have for you the 2D mini of Chucklehead. I painted Chucklehead for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, and here is how the final painting turned out.

Chucklehead

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Now that I know there is a line of 2D acrylic minis, I have been looking into all of the sets. If you want to seek out this set, here is an image of the packaging. The 2D Chucklehead can be found in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight Set 2 of the D&D Idols of the Realms line of miniatures.

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight Set 2

I find these to be very fun. They are very high quality and the printing is excellent. There are bases for all of the miniatures, and they are arranged by size. Here is the 2D version of Chucklehead.

Chucklehead 2D Miniature

I find it interesting that the pose of the 2D image is flipped from the 3D miniature. I guess this is an easy way to make them different and unique. You can compare the 3D mini to the 2D. I like them both and would always go for a 3D piece in the end, but the appearance, color, and detail are all superior in the 2D mini. To each, their own, and more minis are fine by me. 

Chucklehead 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

Chucklehead Miniature

I am thrilled to share with you today another miniature inspired by my illustrations for Dungeons & Dragons. This time around, it is a pre-painted miniature of Chucklehead from The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. To start things off, here is my painting for Chucklehead.

Chucklehead

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC

I had a feeling that this particular monster would end up a miniature. He seemed to stand out in the adventure, and who doesn't want a miniature of a goblin with a caramel apple head? The miniature is interesting in that its pose is neither represented in my illustration nor the concept art for Chucklehead. It was usually a direct pull from the art or a more neutral pose in past miniatures. It is interesting to see him have a little more action going on. Here is the miniature for Chucklehead. 

Chucklehead 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

Chucklehead - Dungeons & Dragons - Process

Today, I am happy to share the process and steps for my contribution to the Dungeons & Dragons supplement, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. This contribution is none other than the goblin with a caramel head, Chucklehead. Chucklehead was described as a little goblin with an apple head. There was also a piece of concept art provided as a starting point for this little monster. Here is the final painting for the Chucklehead.

Chucklehead

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC

With the concept art and a brief description of the character, I got to work on some thumbnails. There was a lot to work with, and I was excited to do something fun with Chucklehead. He was described as:

"This goblin works in the Goblin Market, trading toys to visitors. He has a toffee apple for a head, with the sugared glaze chipped away to form a jagged mouth and eyes. His apple flesh is bruised and rotten, and he has a maggot companion who lives inside his head."

This was enough to get my head spinning with ideas for this piece and a chance to breathe some personality into this character. It didn't hurt that characters like Warduke and Zarak were being introduced in this supplement, and as they were favorites of mine from the 1980's toyline, I wanted to see if I could have some fun and combine them all. Here are the thumbnails that I submitted.

Chucklehead - Thumbnails

© 2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC

I will be honest, I really, and I mean REALLY wanted to paint option 'A.' Chucklehead holding some action figures of Warduke and Zarak would have been the BEST. But sadly, it was not meant to be. Even though the character was described as trading toys with customers, Production wanted something more reserved. They wanted Chucklehead to be more of a stern boss and not depicted holding or touching toys. As much as it crushed my dreams of painting a Warduke action figure, I knew what needed to be done and got to work on new thumbnails that better fit what I was being asked to create. Here are the revised thumbnails for Chucklehead.

Chucklehead - Revised thumbnails

© 2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC

While I was not thrilled with these new thumbnails, they were what was asked for, and option 'B' was selected. With a thumbnail chosen, it was time to get started on the drawings. I got some additional reference together and got to work. Here are the two stages of the Chucklehead drawing, the mid-stage line art, and the final rendered drawing.

Chucklehead  - Line art

 The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

© 2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC

 

Chucklehead  - Drawing

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Original - AVAILABLE

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC

The drawing was approved without comment, and it was time to start painting. I will be honest, even with reference, even with thumbnails, even with a drawing, I was not happy with the look of Chucklehead's folded arms. This character has weird long arms with some unique anatomy, but even taking that into consideration, it still felt off to me. Even though it was approved, I knew I needed to make things right going into the painting. This meant shooting more reference and reworking the drawing as I began the painting. You will notice the new arm arrangement happening in the early stages of the process. Here is the painting for Chucklehead taking shape.

Chucklehead - Process

© 2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Once I fixed the arms, the painting was straightforward. The concept art for this character was in color, so I had a lot of the work done for me regarding what color clothes and skin he should have. I wanted to make sure the entire piece had a green cast to it. It felt like it worked with this piece. The painting was approved without comment, and the arms change was never brought up. Sometimes you need to get in there and make things right because if you don't, you will definitely hear about it. I wish I had the time to have done more for this book, but if I only had one piece to do, I am glad it was this one. Here again, is the final painting for the Chucklehead.

Chucklehead

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

© 2021 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

Dungeons & Dragons - The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

The newest Dungeons & Dragons supplement, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, was released yesterday, and I was lucky enough to have contributed a piece to it. For this book, I was asked to illustrate a goblin whose head is a caramel-covered apple named Chucklehead. Chucklehead was already designed for me, but I got to flesh the character out and breathe a little life into him. This was one of two D&D projects I was working on at the same time earlier this year. I ended up with more pieces on the other project and only one for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. If I had known how amazing this book would be, I would have taken more on, but alas, my only contribution will be Chucklehead, and to be honest, if I was to only paint on monster for this book, I am glad it is Chucklehead. Here is a look at the final painting for Chucklehead.

Chucklehead

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC

As with all my D&D pieces, even though the final is digital, there is an original drawing available. A keen eye will notice some changes between the drawing being approved and the illustration being completed. I will go over those changes and why they happen in the coming weeks when I share the process and steps for this painting. I will also share all of the thumbnails and the alternate directions I wanted to take this piece. Here is the drawing for Chucklehead.

Chucklehead  - Drawing

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Original - AVAILABLE

Art Director - Kate Irwin

© 2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Lastly, here is a look at Chucklehead in the book. It printed beautifully and looks so good with the texture and patterns that they added behind him. A miniature for Chucklehead is already works and should be out sometime in October. When I get my hands on one, I will be sure to share it here!

Chucklehead in book form!

That is all of 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

Bestiary: Lost World - Process

Been talking a lot about Magic the Gathering recently and thought I would switch it up today with some Dungeons & Dragons. Still clearing out my blog queue of items that have been patiently waiting to get posted. Today I have the process that went into designing and making the cover for Dragon Magazine issue 42. I first shared this with you way back in September of 2013... it sure has been waiting awhile to be posted! So that we are all on the same page, here is how the cover for Dragon #42 turned out...

Bestiary: Lost World - Dragon Magazine Issue 427
Digital

© 2013 Wizards of the Coast

Not only was I tasked with painting the cover, but I was also asked to design three new prehistoric drakes that would be featured on the cover. One was the size of a large dog and was to be used as a hunting pack animal, one was big enough to ride, and one was a massive monster of a creature. Three new monsters mixed in with a hunting party of goblins and hobgoblins, what could possibly go wrong? I got to work on concepts and thumbnails, first on the new monsters concepts and then on the overall composition thumbnails for the illustration. Here are how the monster concepts turned out...

Venomous Urdrake Concepts

© 2013 Wizards of the Coast

Sabermaw Urdrake Concepts

© 2013 Wizards of the Coast

Ironclaw Urdrake Concepts

© 2013 Wizards of the Coast

Now that I had some monster concepts I began working up the thumbnails using my favorite designs. Subtle influence on the art director? Possibly... but Kate has always been an amazing AD and she had her favorite monsters and her preferred thumbnail. Here is how the thumbnails for the illustration turned out...

Bestiary: Lost World - Thumbnails

© 2013 Wizards of the Coast

Thumbnails turned in and decisions made. A little from column A, B, and C and the monsters and composition is all decided upon. Time for the final drawing and time to work up all the detail and figure out all the vague bit in the thumbnail. Here is how the final drawing turned out...

Bestiary: Lost World - Drawing

11 x 14

Pencil on Paper

© 2013 Wizards of the Coast

The drawing was approved and it was time to paint! In just 12 easy steps... yeah, right... This was a cover and it had a ton of stuff going on, so I was a little apprehensive about this one. All in all, much to my surprise, it came together extremely quickly and without any major brain melting moments. Here is the painting coming together in 12 steps...

Bestiary: Lost World - Process steps

To help better illustrate the painting taking shape here is an animated gif of the process. You can see what changed along the way a bit better. Like when I got rid of a huge vine or changed the perspective of the Ironclaw's head. There is the expected pushing and pulling of the environment to get the right focus and contrast. ANIMATED...

Bestiary: Lost World - Process animation thing

The painting was approved without revision and production was happy. All in all, a success in my books. Covers do not come my way often, but when they do, I ponce on them. Here again is the final illustration and how it appeared as the cover (it was also used as the lead graphic for an article of the same name and appears in the magazine without cropping)...

Bestiary: Lost World - Dragon Magazine Issue 427

© 2013 Wizards of the Coast

Dragon Magazine Issue 427 Cover

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

Spectrum 21 and Artist Selfies

Well... it is Spectrum submission time again. I have written about spectrum several times before here on the blog and you can read more HERE. Not sure I have anything new to add about Spectrum this year save that I did in fact submit some pieces for consideration in Spectrum 21. ...against my better judgment.

If you are going to submit to Spectrum 21 you better hurry, the deadline is today!

I have absolutely no anticipations or belief that my work will get accepted, but if I don't submit I know that it is 100% certain that I will not be accepted. Unfortunately, the pieces I was REALLY excited about submitting I have found myself unable to submit. The License for these images is held by a rather larger company and I tried to acquire the permission to submit to no avail. My art director on the projects tried their best... no luck. I will try again for next year. The pieces fall in a weird gray zone between years so they may be still eligible for submission next year. Oh well... Spectrum time again, time for the best of the best to be honored and I have already established that I am merely, and happily, Okay. 

Hey! On a more positive and fun note, Lauren Panepinto posted a great article about artists and their reference selfies. She got some really great artist to contribute their selfie reference photos and the final illustrations that they belong to and shared them over on Muddy Colors. You owe to yourself to go check out the fun, especially if you don't know about Muddy Colors and especially if you are not using reference!

Selfies... everybody is doing it... why aren't you?

Lauren did a call out on Facebook for additional artist selfies and I could not resist because I have SO many of them. I am every monster I make... so I have just a few silly photos laying around. SEE, all these years of me preaching about using reference is not some personal cause, EVERYBODY uses reference. For my submission of a selfie I went with my piece I did for the D&D Halls of Undermountain book, Wroot the Goblin. It was a fun photo shoot and I am happy with how the final turned out...

  Ridiculous artist selfie and final Wroot the Goblin

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

Again, take some time if you haven't already to go check out Muddy Colors and the artist selfies! RAWR!

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

Bestiary: Lost World - Dragon Magazine Issue 427

After posting my first Magic the Gathering cards on the blog on Monday I was wondering what I was going to do today that could hold up against that news. Well, a quick glance at the Dungeons & Dragons website solved my dilemma... My cover to Dragon Magazine issue 427 is now out! And look, there are LOTS of monsters on it...

Bestiary: Lost World - Dragon Magazine Issue 427

© 2013 Wizards of the Coast

Besides being the cover for this month's issue of Dragon, this illustration is also the main piece for the article, Bestiary: Lost World. Not only did I get to paint hobgoblins and goblins but I got to design and illustrate three brand new prehistoric D&D monsters (RAWR)! This was a big piece for me... on many levels and I am very happy with how it turned out. I have produced a lot of single monster pieces over the years and this asked a lot more from me. Here is how the illustration looks cropped down for the cover...

Dragon Magazine Issue 427 Cover

The D&D home page today! RAWR!

I am looking forward to sharing with you the process that went into this piece. I did a bit of design work on the three prehistoric D&D monsters and I have been looking forward to sharing it. The final drawing that I did for this piece was also larger then my usual drawings since there is so much more going on. Hopefully I will have the process post for this piece on the blog in the coming weeks!

I would like to extend a HUGE thanks to Kate Irwin for involving me on this project and for her art direction on this piece! This piece was a big step forward for me and I am glad I have shown her I was ready and prepared for this assignment.

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

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

Fresh from the drawing table... Goblin!

I have for you today another drawing that is fresh from the drawing table. This time around it is a Goblin! 'G' had a lot of great options; Gnoll, Giant and Golem were all high on my list, but I HAD to go with a goblin. Here is my take at a what makes a good Goblin...

Goblin
© 2010 Christopher Burdett

While listening to a program on the radio I heard a story of a woman being arrested for shooting strangers with a blowgun. She claimed that she did it because she liked to hear them scream "OUCH!". I instantly thought that is exactly what a goblin would do! I made a mental note and filed that tidbit away for when I got to this drawing. Hopefully these monsters do not all start looking like me since I am the reference for them all...

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.      

DON'T FORGET! Geek Night 2010 is this Friday! All the details can be found HERE!

That is all for today. See you back here on Wednesday to see some of what I have in store for Geek Night! Until then...

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