Infected by Art 7 and Spectrum 26

It is art annuals season! As I prepared for Illuxcon, I received my copy of Spectrum 26, and while at Illuxcon, I received my copy of Infected by Art 7. For this year's submissions, I only submitted works from The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia, and the Bazaar did not fail me, finding a place in both Infected by Art and Spectrum. Here are some images of my work in these two publications.

Infected by Art 7

 Hollow Alley received a full page and reproduced beautifully.

Spectrum 26 marks the first time I have been accepted into this publications. After ten years of submitting I made it in with a piece from my book. I have many opinions regarding Spectrum, its place within the greater art community, and the importance artist (especially young artists) place on the book. I don't really want to rehash it all, I have shared some of it here on the blog before. I will say that now that I have been accepted into it my feelings for myself or my work remain unchanged from those before I was accepted. For most of the morning they announced those accepted I had thought I had once again not be included and I was completely fine with it and planned to no long submit. I find solace that after all this time, the work selected was profoundly personal work from my book. That means something to me. The Spectrum box is checked off, and I have no further plans to submit. Maybe in the coming years as I produce some new work for my next two books I will submit some of the large complex pieces I have planned.

Spectrum 26

Strange how clearly I remember when Spectum 1 came out. It had a James Gurney cover and I was working at a comic book store at the time. The store owner made a huge deal about the book, about how important it was and the work within. It took me a quarter century, but I finally made it - not that I needed to.

 Blink and you might miss it.

Quarter page printing of Sunken Stalls. With the original being 16x20 I never imaged it being this small, but it still holds up.

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

Spectrum 26 - Sunken Stalls

To be honest, I never thought this day would come. For many years I certainly hoped and dreamed it would. Now that it has, I find my reaction a little strange. Yesterday they announced the artists included in Spectrum 26, which is coming out later this year. For those unfamiliar with Spectrum, it has been the preeminent fantasy art annual for over a quarter of a century. For a large portion of the morning, I was under the assumption that once again, after nearly a decade of trying to get in, I had been rejected. It turns out I was mistaken. It turns out that I have been accepted into Spectrum 26.

Spectrum 26 Call for Entries poster (detail) by Tyler Jacobson

When I realized my error, I was surprised by my reaction. I did not jump around or feel dumbstruck in excitement. I merely stared at my name and said, "Huh." Maybe it is because I had thought I did not make it in, perhaps it was because going into this year's submission process, I had no expectations, or maybe in it is because I am now in a place with my art that I don't really look to outside recognition to validate my work. Whatever it was, it left me with a quiet, introspective moment when I learned the news. Do not get me wrong, this is a tremendous honor, and I am thrilled to be included in the book with so many other fantastic artists. I have spent close to a decade trying to get here. I have spent a fair amount of money over those years on submission fees. To fight to be included in something for so many years knowing deep down that my work is really not suited for what Spectrum selects and to finally get in, well, it feels strange. I am thrilled, but it feels strange. Here is the piece that was chosen, Sunken Stalls, which will be appearing in The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia.

Sunken Stalls
16 x 20 - Pencil, ink, and acrylic paint on paper
Currently Available Grand Bazaar Originals
© 2018 Christopher Burdett

One of the reasons this all feels rather strange is that being accepted does not make me feel any different about my art. For years I think I was looking for the validation of Spectrum to show me that my art is good and that I am a good artist. I needed someone or something else to prove to me that I was doing a good job. After twenty years of making art professionally with fifteen in the gaming industry, maybe I don't need that anymore. Maybe when I finally get that thing I so desperately needed, I realize I no longer need it. What it does show me is that now that I am doing MY work, telling MY stories, and sharing MY world is when I am accepted. It shows me that I have made the right choice in focusing my time and energy on my creations.

I distinctly remember when Spectrum 1 was released. I worked at a comic book store while trudging through junior college with no goals or plans for the future. An art career was not even a remote glimmer in my eye. The shop owner ordered many copies of the book because it would be the next big thing, and he loved art. I poured over that book, drinking up all the gorgeous work having no clue of how it was made or how one gets to the point to do such work. I guess, for me at least, it takes twenty-five years of life to get there.

I should also mention that I almost did not submit this particular piece to Spectrum this year. I had my favorites from the Grand Bazaar and was planning to only submit those. The way the submission process works is that there is a price break on a series, and I was submitting around two more than the price break allowed. This meant I had to submit an additional series and double my entrance fee. I thought long and hard about it and almost played it cheap. In the end, I decided to do all or nothing. So glad I did.

I would like to extend to huge thanks to everyone at Spectrum, Flesk Publishing, and the jury. It is an honor to be a part of Spectrum 26, and I cannot wait to see the completed book later this year.

That is all for another exciting TUESDAY 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

Another Annual Spectrum Tithe

Yesterday was the deadline for Spectrum 26 submissions. I chose to submit this year after a lot of waffling. Most of my indecision comes from wondering if I should submit my pieces from The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia now as unpublished work or wait till next year when they will be published. In the end, I submitted them as unpublished work since I have already submitted them to Infect by Art this year.

Since submitting I have read and participated in many conversations on Facebook regarding Spectrum and who had and had not participated. Lots of opinions and lots of different levels of participation. I myself have been submitting, off and on, since 2010. This is a drop in the bucket for some people. I know plenty that submitted for ten years, or more, before getting accepted while there are others that got in on their first submission. 

Looking back on my blog I apparently wrote at length last year about Spectrum and submitting. Glancing back at it, I am not sure I can add anything more to it if I wanted to. If you are interested, the post is still on the blog.

Everyone approaches these sort of things differently and gives them a different level of importance. Some people leverage a great deal of self-worth in being accepted into juried events and publications, while others do not. At one point it meant a great deal to me, but as time moved on, I see it very differently. 

To the chosen few who will find themselves in Spectrum 26, I salute you! To those that do not make it, your art is fantastic and keep being awesome! 

That is 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

Annual Spectrum Tithe

Yesterday was the deadline for Spectrum 25 submissions. I have watched a flurry of excitement, nervousness, and many conversations about submitting and what to submit on social media over the last couple of weeks. This year I have decided to not submit anything.

If today was your planned day to submit...

you might need to plan ahead a little better next time.

It is never an easy decision not to participate (or maybe it is), plenty have said that if you do not participate you are guaranteed to fail. To be honest, I think I will fail either way. Let me see if I can break down my thoughts on all this... but first, statements and opinions are my own, they do not reflect on anyone else nor should they be considered an endorsement or condemnation of anyone or anything. These are my own thoughts and takeaways on this matter, PERIOD.

It is not them, it is me - Spectrum is an yearly celebration of the best of the best in the fantastic arts. Obviously by now it should be clear that I am not the best of the best since I have not been included in all the years of submitting. That is fine. Not everyone can be the best. I have written at length about being happy that you are just 'okay'. Spectrum is a gorgeous book filled with incredible artists and their wonderful work. It has always been that and most likely it will always be that and there is nothing wrong with wanting to be a part of that.

It is not me, it is them - I have found looking objectively at your own work to be one of the hardest things to do as an artist. It has not come to be easily and it is something I battle with constantly. BUT, what I can say is that when I look at the work accepted into Spectrum and I look at my own work, I do see a difference and the difference is not necessarily a fault. It is the basis of the entire work for hire art field, a client is looking for a particular look, style, or type of work. Not matter how good you are, if you don't make the art that the client is looking for you don't get the work. Trying to look objectively, I don't make the work that Spectrum is looking for. YES... I know there is always a rotating group of judges, but if you look at the multiple year' worth of books, you can see a style and look that the books have.

I am just unlucky - Maybe I have submitted my work to the wrong section, maybe I submitted the wrong work, or maybe my submissions actually never made it Spectrum and they never saw them? Or maybe I am just look for excuses. I have had clients submit my work, which is incredibly flattering and lets me know I am at least doing something right. There are tons of submissions every year and if a piece just not jump off the table it might get over looked by the judges... or again, I am making excuses for not getting in.

Now is not the time - I make a lot of single figure monster images with little to no background. This, in most cases, is NOT what gets into Spectrum (this goes well with 'it is not me, it is them). But that will not always be the case. With my Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia project I will be going larger more involved pieces in the coming year. No idea if these will be any more well received than my current work, but I don't really need to worry about it until the book is publish, after which time I can consider submitting. Currently I don't have a lot of new work that I can or should share in the context of Spectrum. I am busy looking ahead and focusing on my own project and book - I don't have the time to worry about second guessing myself and worrying about getting into Spectrum.

Nothing to show for it - It might should petty, but at the end of the day after submitting I have nothing to show for it. I spend a lot of time and money submitting my art to only get rejection. With Infected by Art, if you submit a certain number of pieces you are guaranteed a copy of the book, if you are accepted or not. That is super great in my opinion! Yes, I have been fortunate enough to be accepted every time I have submitted to IBA so far, but the fact that I would get a book out of it no matter what means a lot to me. I feel like my time and money are appreciated more when something is given in return.

None of this is should be seen as sore grapes. I have nothing but the highest respect to those that make it into Spectrum every year. You all definitely have earned you place in the annual. As I said above, it is a gorgeous book filled with incredible artists and their wonderful work. It is what it is, but I can choose not to participate because I am fair sure of the outcome and need to focus my money, time, and attention elsewhere. 

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 for me and you with volume 22

It is Spectrum submission time again, at least for another few hours. I have written about spectrum several times over the years here on the blog and you can read more HERE. I have very little new to add about Spectrum this year save that I did in fact submit some pieces for consideration in Spectrum 22. Or should I say, I made my annual tax deductible tithe to Spectrum.

If you are going to submit to Spectrum 22 you better hurry, the deadline is today!

I am submitting some personal work and some client work this year and have very little expectation of getting in. That is the way of things, they are "the best of the best". Ultimately, I can't get in if I do not submit, so I might as well submit and not make it for real, and get a tax deduction. I tried the digital submission process this year for the first time and it was preferable to sending in prints.

On the flip side, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I did make it into Infected By Art 3! Which is super cool and I am thrilled to be a part of this new and growing publication. I submitted some of the very same work to both publications so hopefully some of the mass appeal of my accepted work to IBA3 will rub off on my submitted work to Spectrum 22. We will see in the coming months when my ego is crushed once again.

Let's all think positively!

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

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

Spectrum time again… or not…

It is that time again… that time of franticly gathering prints and mailing envelopes, of doubting everything you have done for the past year or longer, of wondering what the heck is even going on and what you are doing… You guessed it! The deadline for submitting to Spectrum is upon us. If you haven't heard of Spectrum, by all means check out my posts from 2011 and 2012 on this very subject. There is of course the Spectrum website.

The submission deadline for Spectrum 20 is this upcoming Friday and I am not going to submit this year. It has taken me a while to make this decision, but I feel it is the right one for me this year. There are a ton of reasons why I am doing this… or rather NOT doing this, and it may or may not be even remotely interesting to anyone. I do know this time of year a lot of artist are stressing about submitting to Spectrum. Then there is the continued stress, the waiting, the crushing blow of rejection, and just maybe the celebration of acceptance that that will come in a couple months when those chosen are posted. This year I just gotta throw my hands up to it all and take a pass until Spectrum 21.

Spectrum 20 submission poster by Iain McCaig

My decision about Spectrum this year hinges mainly on two things. The first thing being I have done a ton of work in 2012 but none of the stuff I really want to eventually submit to Spectrum is out yet. Some of this unreleased work may not even be out until after Spectrum 20 is published and that might cause some issues. Granted, I could go ahead and submit the stuff that should be out before publication but it just didn't feel right for me to do so (though plenty of folks do and that is totally okay). I just don't want to take any chances cause you never know what will happen to a piece before it is officially published. The second thing is I just don't want to deal with the rejection. This might be a larger piece of this decision. To be honest I just don't want to go through not seeing my name on the list of accepted artist right now. 2012 was a crazy roller coaster of huge highs and deep lows, art wise, and I need a break. If I don't submit I can't get rejected… too pessimistic? Rather I feel I am being realistic. Spectrum is for the best of the best… or at least what the judges deem to be the best of the best. The work I have in front of me just does not compare to the work I have waiting in the wings so I will pass this year and ready myself for 2014 and Spectrum 21.

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

Spectrum... Once more with FEELING!

It's that time again! What time you ask? It's that time to get the ego squarely knocked back down to its' proper place. Which can only mean one thing, the Spectrum deadline is fast approaching. If you haven' heard of Spectrum, by all means check out my post last year on this very subject! There is of course the Spectrum website!

The submission deadline for Spectrum 19 is this upcoming Friday and according to my tracking code my entries were delivered this past Friday. Hopefully they arrived in one piece and were not folded in half. I did all I could to ensure that they would at least remain dry. This is the second year that I have submitted work and like last year I am not kidding myself about my chances of getting into the publication. Mind you, I feel a ton more confident in what I submitted this year compared to last. It is after all a publication of the 'BEST OF THE BEST'. Oh look, a pretty picture...

Spectrum 19 submission poster by Rebecca Guay

There is an amazing line up for the judges this year and I do not envy the difficult job ahead of them in trying to select the line up for Spectrum 19. I hate popularity contests and I hate having to compare myself to others and having them compared to myself. But I think that is just the underlining nature of the beast when it comes to art and things that involved the esoteric judging mechanics of a person's opinions snd feelings. You can't win if you don't try and you can't have winners without losers. ...not really sure losers is anywhere near the proper or accurate term.

Anyway, that all said, I picked the 5 pieces I felt that were my strongest, printed them out at their best quality and sent them out into the world for judging. I cross my fingers. Expect the worst. And maybe, just maybe, hold onto a little hope that this year will be the year I did my very best.

(1994) "It would be amazing to be in a book like Spectrum..." - status: incomplete

That is all for another Monday, see you back here on Wednesday for something NEW! Until then...

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

Spectrum... an attempt to up my seriouness

There was one final action I took in 2010 to get More Serious that I have not yet mentioned... I submitted to Spectrum for the first time. Those not familiar with Spectrum should head over to their website. Basically, they are the go to annual review publication that features "the best in contemporary fantastic art". Or simply put, the BEST of the BEST!

I generally don't like to talk about things that are not finalized or that will result in a blow to my ego when I am not selected. All that aside, I felt it is important to mention that I have stepped up and have thrown my name into the Spectrum hat. Another reason I am mentioning it now, is that today happens to be the deadline for submissions for Spectrum 18 and it reminded me I hadn't talked about it yet.

Spectrum 18 submission poster by Bill Carman

I am not kidding myself with the chances of making it into Spectrum 18 but I needed to start trying. Every year they get the best of the best from artist all over the world... and I am an artist... from this world... so I sent them my best. Like I said, I am trying to get more serious about my work and that means taking my work seriously and submitting to the most important annual publications for fantastic art. My peers and friends have begun submitting and are getting published so I figured I need to step up as well. I won't say how many or which pieces I submitted, I have to have my secrets. So here I sit with my fingers crossed waiting for word that probably won't come... but there will always be next year!

Spectrum (and more) cover gallery from the Spectrum website.

On a side note... back in 1994 I worked at a comics and games store and one week we got in this thick book filled with page after page of amazing artwork. It was a new annual called Spectrum. Since it was the first one and no one knew if there were going to be any more I bought it and was mesmerized. I clearly remember thinking to myself that I will never be as good or as creative as anyone in that book, never in a million years. So it is not lost on me that 17 years later I have submitted my own work to Spectrum. I most likely will not make it in, but I have finally submitted my work... and there is that off chance I will get one piece in!

Good luck to all who have submitted! May our talents be recognized and out flaws ignored!

That is all for another exciting week on the blog! See you 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