The Kitten That Ate My Blog

Last Tuesday I walked into the same park I walk every day. Last Tuesday was different. Last Tuesday there was a very small kitten all alone and crying in the tall grass. Momma cat was nowhere to be found and there were no other kittens. I found the nest that the kitten was a couple of feet away from and it too was empty. After a hiss or two the kitten was snuggled up against my leg as I knelled in the grass looking for other kittens. It did not resist me picking it up and at that moment I knew I most likely had a kitten. Walked home with a kitten tucked in my shirt and made a quick drive to our vet. The kitten was pronounced healthy and was about three to four weeks old. Kitten spent the rest of the day at the vet while I got things situated. He does not want a bottle and is learning to eat cat food with kitten formula mixed in AND, most importantly, he uses the litter box like a champ. He is coming with me to the office for feeding and care part of the week. He has also devoured my ability to get any work done at home. I was able to make some notes for revisions to some of my writing last week, but I was not able to get anything actually written until yesterday. The kitten has become more mobile and is exploring more and sleeping a lot. So I have finally been able to carve out time to work.

This is little Mietze (rhymes with pizza) and he is being the cutest little distraction possible...

 Jonsey is not happy about the arrival of Mietze, hopefully in time it will change.

That's 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

Chronicle of the Righteous Process - Demons and Kitties

On Monday I shared with you the first part of the process and steps that went into making my good monsters for the Pathfinder supplement, Chronicle of the Righteous. Today I have for you the remaining two pieces from the book. One is a demon having a bad day and the other is a little black kitty. So that we are all on the same page, here are how the final pieces that appeared in the book turned out...

Angel Spell and Agathion Familiar

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

For the Angel Spell, production wanted me to show vines representing all four season wrapping around the demon as every last hit point was squeezed out of it. At this stage in my career I can read an art order and get a feel for which pieces are going to take longer then the others... and when I things like "many vines representing the four seasons" I will be putting more time into this piece compared to others. Not that there is anything wrong in this... it is just how things are and getting a feel for it allows yo to budget your time so much better. As always, I got to work on some thumbnails... some very sloppy thumbnails actually, but I made the demon red for clarity of view for my art director...

Angel Spell - Thumbnails

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

All I knew going into this was that I needed to have a spiky winter vine wrapping across the demons mouth... NOMS! Options "B" was picked and I moved onto the drawing...

Angel Spell - Drawing

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

To be honest I should have spent just a little more time on this drawing. The demon's right hand and muzzle are a little off and I had to correct this in the painting. If I was not working digitally this might not have happened or would have been a lot harder. Another reason to take your time and do things right the first time! It is our craft and our job to do this right and if it takes a little longer to make sure things like the hands and face are perfect... then so be it. If the hands and faces are off in a piece then the whole piece is going to be off. Viewers always look to the face and hands.

Once I had the approved drawing the painting came together in eight easy steps (not really, because I had to stop half way through it and fix the face and hand)...

Angel Spell - Process

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

For the Agathion Familiar all I had to do is channel the inner spirit of our little bad black kitties. The only thing I had to do was give them violet eyes, white markings, and dial down the evil by about 110%...

Agathion Familiar - Thumbnails

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

Option "C" was picked for its attitude and I got to work on the final drawing...

Agathion Familiar - Drawing

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

Compared to the Angel Spell this piece was a piece of cake. While the Angel Spell may have required more time to complete this piece came together very quickly, so it all evens out in the end. Here are the eight easy steps (and many hours of work) that it took to back a very sassy kitty cat familiar...

Agathion Familiar - Process

© 2013 Paizo Publishing

That about wraps it all up. Demons wrapped in vines take awhile to paint and you need to make sure you draw it right the first time and cat monsters do much quicker if you have convenient reference in your house.

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