The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT: rotj

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Monday, July 21, 2014

Gamorrean Guard

Today on the blog I have for you ANOTHER new traditionally painted Star wars piece! It is like I am making a habit of this or something ...as if I am practicing ...studying ...experimenting to learn, as it were. This time around it is a Gamorrean Guard and is the largest of these Star Wars studies so far. It is also my favorite so far. I present you with my Gamorrean Guard...

"Gamorrean Guard"

8 x 8 - Acrylic, pencil, and gouache on board
Original available for sale over on my Web Store!

I have a new frustration ...the images, scans, and digital captures I am getting of my pieces just do not truly represent what is going on in the painting. Oh well... I could have worse problems. ...it is not like digital files loose something when they are printed out.

For this piece I started with a detail from a Star Wars drawing I did for myself last year. The Barada that started off this series of studies is also from the same drawing. I really liked how each of this monsters turned out and wanted to revisit them. Here is that drawing...

"Jabba's Gang"

11 x 14 - Pencil on toned paper
Original available for sale over on my Web Store!

I will say that there is something eerily similar to how these traditional pieces are now coming together compared to how my digital work comes together. Not sure if this is just a sign that I have a very ingrained work flow and habits that transcend media, or if in fact that after years of convincing myself to the contrary that I am actually painting when I work digitally. ...or both ...neither? Some elements take longer in digital while others take longer in traditional. In both there is the same feeling that I am swirling around and around on a piece and it slowly tightens up and at some point the piece just appears in front of me. Here is the Gamorrean Guard taking shape in 16 steps...

If all these separate images are not your thing, I have for you another of those handy dandy animated progressions for you so that you can just stare at different areas and see how they develop... at least that is what I like to do...

Gamorrean Guard - Process progression

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

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Thanks, Google+ Auto Awesome... I think...

Yesterday I shared with you my little acrylic portrait of Barada. Our new digital overlord Google+ has been keeping an eye on me (and everyone else) apparently. After yesterday's post was published I got a notification that Google+ made an animated gif for me (I wonder when it will starting making my art for me?). Here is the animated gif progression of the process of painting Barada...

Slightly modified "'Google+ Auto Awesome' Barada"

5 x 7

acrylic on board

The "Auto Awesome" felt that some of my steps were not awesome enough and left them out. I took the file that Google+ provided me and added them to it to get the image you see above. This all means that I now have one MORE thing that I can obsess over and add to the blog. Expect to see more animated progressions here on the blog now... You can thank our digital overlord Google+.

That is all for a special Tuesday post on the blog, see you back here tomorrow! Until then...

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

Monday, March 10, 2014

Barada

Back in December I shared with you a drawing based off of some of the alien monsters seen in Jabba's palace from the Return of the Jedi. Today I have for you a small acrylic painting based of the Barada in the drawing. Here is how the finished piece turned out...

"Barada"

5 x 7 - Acrylic, pencil, and gouache on board
Original available for sale on my Web Store!

I have been really wanting to do more traditional paintings, and to that end I need to practice and work on my traditional skill set. As previously mentioned, I have also been focusing on making images that pay tribute to the things that influenced me. Hopefully this is the first of a series of small studies that will based off my Star Wars work. ...and I hope this will be well received at conventions this year.

I am happy with how it turned out and I am looking forward to the next one. As an added bonus, here is a bunch of images of this piece taking shape. I tried to document a lot of the steps so you can see how I fumbled and stumbled through this piece...

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

Monday, December 16, 2013

Thoughts on art, Star Wars, and memories

This all kinda flowed out on Facebook a little while ago as I went to write a quick status update... I now feel it might be better suited for the blog so I am coping it here...

Between my blog post earlier today and the fact I have Return of the Jedi playing right now while I am prepping MORE personal pieces based on Star Wars ...it all got me thinking...

When the prequels came out I heard a lot of people basically screaming, "George Lucas killed my childhood." ...or something to that effect. I heard similar with the Transformers movies and the most recent Indiana Jones. To be frank... I call BULLSHIT. I remember the surprise and excitement of realizing Boushh was actually Leia in disguise; the shock of Vader's confession to Luke after their battle at Bespin; the joy of seeing the myriad of aliens and astounding space battles; of Yoda, the Rancor, the Wampa, the Tauntauns, and Bossk... I remember is all and it is still exciting. It is still as exciting as when I was 3, 6, and 9 years old. One of my earliest memories is seeing A New Hope in the theaters.

There is NOTHING and I mean NOTHING anyone can do to take those memories go away or to change the way I feel about ALL of the Star Wars movies. Lucas or Disney can add 1000 pink unicorn Ewoks to the battle of Endor and it will not effect my memories and my feeling of Star Wars. If your memories and feelings can be so easily swayed... I question if they were ever as deeply felt as you claim them to be. Besides, the movies and the franchise (up until recently) are Lucas' and he had the right and the capability to do what ever he wanted with them. We have no more right to dictate what he does with them as does anyone else have the right to dictate what we do with our own creations.

It has been well over a year since I stopped collecting Star Wars action figures. During this past year I have been able to approach Star Wars in a new way and it has slowly been changing how I look at my own art and the things I want to make. Not sure where this is all going, but I think I know where I want to play for a while with my art...

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

Jabba's Gang

I shared with you a bunch of sneak peaks of this piece. If you follow me on Instagram or my Facebook Fan Page you got to see some video clips as well. Now that is is all done I am happy to share with you the final illustration. I present you with, Jabba's Gang...

"Jabba's Gang"

11 x 14 - Pencil on toned paper
Original available for sale over on my Web Store!

Star Wars and its many alien species mean a lot to me as I have mentioned here on the blog many times. I have really been wanting to do some personal exploration with the characters and creatures that are near and dear to me. This is hopefully the first of many explorations. The creatures of Jabba's Palace REALLY resonate with me and the Klaatu, Barada, Nikto, and a Gamorrean Guard where an easy choice to be first on the drawing board.

These might not be the last time you see these menacing fellows. To facilitate this possibility I made sure to get a scan of the drawing when the line work was all done and before I started on the rendering...

"Jabba's Gang" - line work stage

11 x 14 - Pencil on toned paper

I made sure to take LOTS of images of the drawing as I worked on it. Trying to get into a better habit of doing this. Hope it shines a little light on how I approach a drawing and do about rendering an image. If you are wondering, I do start with a light print of my rough digital sketch on the paper. I work out the composition and different elements on the computer and make sure all my alien ducks are in a row before proceeding onto the final draw and render. Here is the drawing coming together...