Arkham Horror: The Labryunths of Lunacy - The Return of the Faceless Abductor

I recently noticed that an old piece I created for the Call of Cthulhu card game expansion, Silver Twilight Lodge, had made a return appearance. And when I say old, I mean over a decade. This piece was originally released in 2011, so I likely painted it in 2010. For a painting this old I still like it a great deal, and I know I was figuring out a lot with this piece. I produced this piece at a formative time when my skill set was advancing rapidly. While it might not look like it now, this was a piece at the cusp of my abilities. It was not met with much enthusiasm either. I believe this image received two 'likes' on Facebook at the time, and one of those was me. For many reasons, it is nice to see this piece pop back up. Maybe, just maybe, this time around, it will get some love. For its return, the card was included in a new Arkham Horror card game expansion, The Labyrinth of Lunacy. To start things off, here is a look at the front of the box for this new expansion.

The Labyrinth of Lunacy, an Arkham Horror card game expansion

This piece was called initially Nightgaunt, as that is the type of monster it is. When it was released, it was given the title Faceless Abductor which I am sure made more sense in gaming terms and added more spice to the game. No matter; it is nice to see this one come back around for a second look at the world. Here is the final art for the Faceless Abductor, as it was in 2011 and in 2022.

Faceless Abductor

Silver Twilight Lodge - Call of Cthulhu Card Game

(and now The Labyrinth of Lunacy - Arkham Horror Card Game)
9.3 x 6.9 - Digital
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Lastly, here is the new card for the Faceless Abductor. As I never played either the Call of Cthulhu or Arkham Horror card games, I do not know if the monster stats are different or how different the game mechanics are for their monsters. Either way, here is the new card in all its glory. RAWR!

Faceless Abductor in new handy dandy card form

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

Call of Cthulhu: Silver Twilight Lodge (part 2)

On Monday I shared the first of two cards I produced for the Call of Cthulhu: Silver Twilight Lodge expansion. Today, I have for you my second one, Unbound! (it has TENTACLES!). This was a great piece to work on, the art order allowed me to choose any Cthulhu mythos monster I wanted and depict it expectantly appearing in a ritual gone wrong. For reasons I can not yet share (save it being neat and having tentacles) I picked the Crawling One. So here is the Crawling One, UNBOUND...

Unbound!
(RAWR! Behold my glistening tentacles! THEY ARE MIGHTY!)
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Again, thanks to the internet I have an image of what the final card turned out. The big bad Crawling One gets to strut his stuff... I wonder if he is going to eat that 2...

Unbound!
(now on a piece of card stock for your convenience)
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Here is the drawing for Unbound!, unlike the Faceless Abductor there were not really any major changes to the overall piece as it went from drawing to painting. As I have mentioned previously I started with several loose thumbnails and then settled on this final composition after sharing them with the client. Originally I liked another composition much better, it had the Crawling One more in a profile, turning back to take notice of the fleeing cultists. Looking at them all agian now, I think the better decision was made...

Unbound!
(now on a piece of paper in pencil for your convenience)
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

This was a really fun one to work on and my favorite of the the two piece I contributed to this expansion. I did get to pose for photo reference for all the monsters and fleeing cultists, which is always fun. Running around in a cloak in the yard and imagining I have a torso of tentacles can really get you in the right frame of mind to work on a piece.

That is all for an exciting tentacled Wednesday, 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

Call of Cthulhu: Silver Twilight Lodge (part 1)

Late last week I received permission to start sharing recently released work, so expect lots of new work to be appearing on the blog in the coming weeks!

First up, I have a piece I did for the Call of Cthulhu: Silver Twilight Lodge expansion, the Faceless Abductor (imagine that, a monster!). This is one of two cards I created for this expansion and this is the first time I have worked on the Call of Cthulhu franchise. Hard to believe I did these practically a year ago now. The assignment was easy, depict a Nightgaunt with no face hanging out in the shadows of a cave, here is what I came up with...

Faceless Abductor
(How can he say 'RAWR' without a mouth??)
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

This expansion has been out for a little while and I have yet to see the cards in person. I was able to find a scan of the card on a fan site that gives me some idea of how it turned out. Looking forward to finally holding my contribution to the Cthulhu mythos in my hands.

Faceless Abductor
(now on a piece of card stock for your convenience)
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Here is the drawing that went into the piece. As with other projects I have shared with you here on the blog, I started with several very loose thumbnails before moving onto a more finished drawing and eventually the final painting. You might notice a couple of things that ended up changing from the sketch to the final piece...

Faceless Abductor
(now on a piece of paper in pencil for your convenience)
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

First off, the final piece ended up flipped horizontally. When working on a piece I always flip it to get a fresh look at it, sometimes I realize it is just better off to stay flipped. The second change, and the one that means more to me, is that the rocks in the background went from looking like formless drippy blobs to looking more like actual underground rock formations. As I talked about at the beginning of the year I spent a lot of time last year trying to break old bad habits and use more reference. In the drawing I was making marks of what I thought rocks were like and when it came to the painting I was faced with big formless masses of drippy garbage. I stopped myself again from going down the bad habit highway, got a bunch of good rock reference and got back to work with a better understanding of what these forms needed to look like. They might be just rocks in the background, but they deserve the same attention that the monster gets or the whole thing will fall apart.

That is all for today, see you back here on Wednesday for something with TENTACLES! Until then...

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