Drogon Tattoo

In 2010 I painted the three dragons from A Game of Thrones for the card game for the first time. This, of course, included Drogon, and in 2011, the cards were released featuring my paintings. They were a fan favorite immediately, with Drogon becoming the top favorite. Sometime after that, I was approached by Mat McCarthy regarding usage rights for a tattoo. As this was work for hire, that is all out of my hands; I gave him my blessing. For years I have been reluctant to design tattoos or have people use my art in such a manner. It had everything to do with not feeling comfortable with art I do not think it is my best to be permanently put on someone's body. As my skillsets improved over the years, my no-tattoo stance has softened. I am still not designing them, but my existing art is available - but you need to contact me first, and I would like images of the final results. To start things off, here is the final art for the first Drogon painting that I created.

Drogon
10 x 8.3 - Digital

Art Director - Zoe Robinson
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

If I dug through enough messages and emails, I could figure out when Mat approached me, but that is irrelevant to the story. Mat wanted Drogon on his body, and I was finally at a point I could give him my blessing. This was years ago, but as of 2016, Mat had a significant amount of the tattoo finally created. Mat shared the images again, which is how I finally saw them. He shared that the piece is still not completed. I think it looks fantastic all the same, and he agreed that I could share the images of his tattoo. Without further yammering on my part, here are the images of the Drogon tattoo.

Images courtesy Mat McCarthy

Many thanks to Mat for the use of the images and for liking this piece enough to get it over a good bit of his body. It is an honor and very humbling.

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

Felocamp Tattoo Design and Application

Let's get this out the way first and foremost... Unless you are my wife I do NOT design tattoos for people out of deeply felt personal reasons.

Back in 2013, Dear Wife was able to finally get me to design her a tattoo. It took another four years for this to happen again. She wanted a companion piece to the original with a aquatic feline motif. It needed to mirror the size, shape, and movement of the original, so while some of the problem solving was taken care of, there was still plenty of issues to work out.  Here is how the final design turned out...

Felocamp Tattoo Design

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

© 2017 Christopher Burdett

While the original design pulled from imagery we saw in Italy and England this piece pulled partially from our trips to Italy (again) as well as the Yucatan. While this piece was easier to work out compared to the original, it still had its share of revisions. Here is a look at some of the various steps in the design...

Felocamp Tattoo Concepts

Digital

© 2017 Christopher Burdett

Here is a comparison of the Felocamp and Phoenix designs so that you can see how they mirror each other and work as a pair...

Felocamp and Phoenix Tattoo Designs

(each) 9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

© 2017 / 2013 Christopher Burdett

Dear Wife turned to Alain at Euphoria Tattoos here in Tallahassee again for the final tattoo. Alain does amazing work and he has been nothing but eager to work with my designs. We can not say enough good things about Alain and Euphoria Tattoos. Here is a look at the final tattoo as well as a comparison for of both tattoos side by side...

Final Felocamp Tattoo

Final Felocamp and Phoenix Tattoos

Lastly, here are some process images of Alain at work making the design a reality. I am amazed with how quickly it came together. We are both very happy with the finished product! Thanks, Alain!

Process images of Alain at Euphoria Tattoos creating the tattoo.

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

Phoenix Tattoo Design and Application

Let's get this out the way first and foremost... Unless you are my wife and it is a milestone birthday, I do NOT design tattoos for people out of deeply felt personal reasons.

Okay, now with that said let's get down to the subject at hand, the tattoo I designed for my wife for her birthday. As a particularly noteworthy milestone birthday approached for my wife she asked, implored, and insisted that I design a tattoo she has been wanting for some time. She knows about and understands my feelings about designing tattoos but she being my wife and her birthday I agreed. She wanted a phoenix for her leg and she wanted a phoenix that was not the typical Asian inspired and influenced creature.

During out trip to Italy and England we looked for elements that would work well for a phoenix so that I could weave our trip into the design. I will get to some of those reference in a moment, but first let's have a look at the design from concept to final drawing...

Phoenix tattoo - initial concept without reference, revised post trip reworking with reference, Revision 3, cleaned up red line final.

© 2013 Christopher Burdett

Final phoenix tattoo drawing

© 2013 Christopher Burdett

My wife was involved in every step of the process to make sure she got what she wanted and needed out of this design. The overall body arrangement was her request to work best for the placement on her leg. Now let's talk reference. Here are some of the images that played heavily in the design of the phoenix...

Assyrian eagle guardian - British Museum - London, England

Wood carvings - San Pietro Martire church - Murano, Italy

Now that the wife had signed off and was thrilled with the design it was only a matter of it getting permanently applied to her body. For that we went to Alain at Euphoria Tattoos her in Tallahassee. We were both extremely happy with the job Alain did, here are some images of the tattoo in process...

The stencil in applied and the tattoo is about to begin.

Alain is hard at work.

I was impressed with how quickly the tattoo took shape.

Almost done!

All done! Alain did an amazing job and was extremely faithful to the original design. Thanks Alain!

Not to beat a dead horse but many people has requested that I design tattoos for them and I am just not comfortable doing so. This may change at some point, but for now, I am not available for such ventures.

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, I will 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

Permanently is a long time...

I received an email a while back asking for the permission to use a suit of armor I designed for Dungeons and Dragons in a tattoo. Since I made that armor as a work for hire agreement I no longer owned control over the armor, so I had no authority to allow or disallow usage. I did ask that if the suit of armor did get used for a tattoo I really would like to see a photo of the finished work. Much to my surprise a photo turned up in my inbox late last week...

Coming at you on a sheet of human paper!

Here is the armor that was used in the tattoo. It is the Tiefling female scale armor I designed for 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Not only is it one of my favorite sets of of Tiefling armor, but it is also one of my favorites from all the armor I designed for D&D.

Female Tiefling Armor
© 2007 Wizards of the Coast

It is rather a shock and very humbling to think someone wants something I created permanently on their body. I hope they are enjoying the tattoo, it is a real honor indeed. I have always said I will not design a tattoo for anybody that asked, and there have been many, but maybe I need to rethink this decision when it comes to work I have already created. Something to think about!

That is all for today, 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