Sixteen years ago, in 2010, I was creating many images for the weekly ArtOrder challenges hosted by Jon Schindehette. Some of the work was okay, some was great, and some of the pieces have stood the test of time (Mutation Nation!). One of the pieces that really stood out for me was my contribution to the Lovecraft challenge. The Deep One is one of those monsters that always stood out to me and has been interrupted in many ways. So I took a swing at the blasphemous fish-frogs, and this was what I came up with.
A Deep One, they were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design - living and horrible.
This piece was either given or traded with a mentor and friend of mine many moons ago. While at IX this past October, the drawing for the Deep One came back to me. It was a matter of space, and he owns other pieces of my work, and this one wasn't out on display. There was some hesitation about returning it to me, but I was thrilled to have it back. I haven't kept a lot of my work, until recently, and there are so many pieces that mean a great deal to me that are off somewhere in the world, and I will never see them again. So, when one of those pieces returns to me, I welcome it with open arms. It has been out in my studio since October so that I may look at it every day. Now that I am posting about it, it has gone into the flat file with other parts of my work. It will come out and play in time, but for now, it is great to have it back.
The Deep One at home in my studio
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
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
brings us back to my second pass through the book with the Hobgoblin. Enjoy!
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
brings us back to my second pass through the book with the Giant: Hill. Enjoy!
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 brings us back to my second pass through the book with the Demon: Juiblex. Enjoy!
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 brings us back to the beginning with my second pass through the book with the Beholder. Enjoy!
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
brings us to the Zombie. Enjoy!
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
brings us to the Xorn. Enjoy!
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
brings us to the Vampire. Enjoy!
Right about now, sixteen years ago, I was reintroducing myself to my clients and making a fresh start of things with my art. Well, I should say that all the work to improve my skillsets and to become more serious about what I was making and doing began to manifest. We have finally reached the final Monday of sharing my contributions to the ArtOrder Mutation Nation art challenge that Jon Schindehette ran... sixteen years ago. The final one I will be sharing is the unfinished Alligraffe.
The focus of the challenge was to take two animals, combine them, and make a new crazy mutant. I ended up designing four monsters, and three became finished paintings. These three paintings saw a major improvement in my painting skills, my use of reference, and baby steps into creating an environment for the monsters. This is also when I officially announced I am only working on monsters moving forward. These were well received and were 100% responcible for me once more working on projects with WotC. The time and energy I put into these more than paid off, and would mark the beginning of a new chapter in my art career. I had always meant to finish this one, but never did. Granted, there is nothing stopping me from doing it now, but things have progressed so much in the last sixteen years, and my focus is elsewhere.
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
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
brings us to the Umber Hulk. Enjoy!
Right about now, sixteen years ago, I
was reintroducing myself to my clients and making a fresh start of
things with my art. Well, I should say that all the work to improve my
skillsets and to become more serious about what I was making and doing
began to manifest. Over the next several Mondays, I plan to share my
contributions to the ArtOrder Mutation Nation art challenge that Jon
Schindehette ran... sixteen years ago. The next one I will be sharing
is the Anglerphant.
The
focus of the challenge was to take two animals, combine them, and make a
new crazy mutant. I ended up designing four monsters, and three became
finished paintings. These three paintings saw a major improvement in my
painting skills, my use of reference, and baby steps into creating an
environment for the monsters. This is also when I officially announced I
am only working on monsters moving forward. These were well received
and were 100% responcible for me once more working on projects with
WotC. The time and energy I put into these more than paid off, and would
mark the beginning of a new chapter in my art career.
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
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
brings us to the Troll. Enjoy!
Right about now, sixteen years ago, I was reintroducing myself to my clients and making a fresh start of things with my art. Well, I should say that all the work to improve my skillsets and to become more serious about what I was making and doing began to manifest. Over the next several Mondays, I plan to share my contributions to the ArtOrder Mutation Nation art challenge that Jon Schindehette ran... sixteen years ago. The next one I will be sharing is the Rhinostrich.
The focus of the challenge was to take two animals, combine them, and make a new crazy mutant. I ended up designing four monsters, and three became finished paintings. These three paintings saw a major improvement in my painting skills, my use of reference, and baby steps into creating an environment for the monsters. This is also when I officially announced I am only working on monsters moving forward. These were well received and were 100% responcible for me once more working on projects with WotC. The time and energy I put into these more than paid off, and would mark the beginning of a new chapter in my art career.
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
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 brings us to the Rust Monster (and likely my favorite of the entire project). Enjoy!
Right about now, sixteen years ago, I was reintroducing myself to my clients and making a fresh start of things with my art. Well, I should say that all the work to improve my skillsets and to become more serious about what I was making and doing began to manifest. Over the next several Mondays, I plan to share my contributions to the ArtOrder Mutation Nation art challenge that Jon Schindehette ran... sixteen years ago. The first one I will be sharing is the Scuttling Grizzly.
The focus of the challenge was to take two animals, combine them, and make a new crazy mutant. I ended up designing four monsters, and three became finished paintings. These three paintings saw a major improvement in my painting skills, my use of reference, and baby steps into creating an environment for the monsters. This is also when I officially announced I am only working on monsters moving forward. These were well received and were 100% responcible for me once more working on projects with WotC. The time and energy I put into these more than paid off, and would mark the beginning of a new chapter in my art career.
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
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 brings us to the Owlbear. Enjoy!
I didn't expect to be revisiting this one, but as I finally, after nine years, got to play through the entire program, I thought it would be fun to take another look at this project and all the monsters I made for it.
First and foremost, this was created for my day career back in 2017. I originally shared this here on the blog in 2019, and it then vanished as if it never existed. For the project, I named it, created the logo, designed and created all the monsters, designed and created the Hub World in both normal and damaged states, mini game tutorial animations, and more. It was an extremely fun project to be a part of, and it is good to revisit and share it all again. The project was to create a testing interface for reading, word comprehension, and understanding. As you move through it, you will be tested, and if successful, you get a clue to the monster responsible for the damage and then play a fun little timed mini game. At the very end, you have to pick your monster from a lineup. After successfully finishing everything, you can make your own monster using all of the parts and colors.
And as I have finally been able to play through it all, it is a lot of fun and a great mix of testing and fun. Here is the vast majority of what I created for the project.
The Monster P.I. poster that I created using my assets.
Here are the monsters I created in their original forms. I also named all the monsters and created a backstory for each one. Respectively, they are: Zirrple, Dundur, Tromps, Wobbly, and Snerp.
All of their parts and colors are entirely interchangeable, making for many interesting, silly, and fun monsters.
Here are larger images of each monster. Cycling movements were added to give them a little more life. Everything was made to be interchangeable, which created some fun and challenging obstacles.
Dundur, Snerp, Tromps, Wobbly, and Zirrple.
Clues would include tentacle legs, four arms, a spotted body, big ears, or the color.
The Hub World was another large undertaking for the project. I needed to make the city look interesting and fun. I color-coded each location to the monster that, in its original form, is likely to be attracted to. Meaning that Zirrple likes the library. This was done mostly for myself and the little stories I wrote about each one. In the actual game, the monster will be a unique combination each time it is used. But this allows the location to be visually unique. After you visit a location, take the tests, collect the clue, and play the mini game, the location is repaired, and you can select another location to investigate.
The Hub world.
The damaged Hub World.
The last major contribution to the project was animated tutorials for each of the mini games. They needed to be quick, simple, and explain what you need to do in the game to succeed. Each location had a themed game you could play. The game was timed, and you are rewarded one to three stars based on your performance.
Game tutorial animations.
Here is a video that the center has used to advertise the game and our ability to create such projects. We are always on the lookout for projects like this, as they are super fun and allow us to really push ourselves and be creative.
Monster P.I.!
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
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 brings us to the Lizardfolk. Enjoy!
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 brings us to the Kobold. Enjoy!
Not to sound like a broken wheel, because I will be saying this for a while longer, but I am REALLY BUSY writing the next book, so the blog continues to mostly be posts looking back at older work. Today I am looking back at one of, if not the, favorite of Smaug paintings done for the Hobbit card game (original process post!). In total, I painted five Smaug-centric pieces, and this was the first one in the series and the last to be released. The art was eventually cropped to a square, but you do what you can. This piece is not without its flaws, I know them all too well, but I still really like this one, even with it being painted in 2012.
I used to spend SO much time laboring over these pieces I was being paid nearly nothing for. I guess it was good because I still have this cool dragon to show off. But all that time and effort spent on someone else's world. I will always say that doing that work taught me so much about how to create my work and my world.
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
