Bullfrog Reference

I found one of our very large bullfrogs floating in the pond last week very much dead. It was a real beautiful specimen and I hated to see it had passed, but I thought I better document it to make the best of its life and death. I have for you today a selection of the best photos from my impromptu photo shot with the frog. Since it was floating when it died and had been there a little bit the body had stiffened up and remained in the very life like stance you see in the photos. I hope you will find the images as helpful in your work as I know they will be in mine (especially those awesome feet)! ENJOY!

 
That is all for another exciting day 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

Far Realm Fiends - Process

Today I have for you another look at my process that went into creating a recent D&D piece. This time around we are looking at the Doom Hulk and Geometric Impossibility for the Far Realm Fiends article in Dungeon magazine #201.

I figured I better go ahead and share my remaining process posts before August rolls around when I will be able to share my updated process for working up the under painting. If you are familiar at all with my blog and my process posts this should all be pretty straight forward. You can always find more detailed explanation of my process on the blog HERE, HERE, and HERE. As always when working on an illustration with a new creature I have to design I will do several roughs of the creature and several thumbnails of my composition for the illustration...

  Doom Hulk - Roughs

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

Doom Hulk and Geometric Impossibility - Thumbnails

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

I was really leaning towards "A" on all accounts and when the feedback came back to me everyone at WoTC was in agreement with me. This is always a huge relief that I am on the same wavelength as my art director and the designers. They don't always go with the ones I hope they well, but all of the roughs and thumbnails are fine with me. NEVER submit anything you do not want to draw and paint, art karma will bite you and the one you didn't want picked will of course be the one picked.

Now that the rough and thumbnail are approved it is time to move forward on the final drawing and get everything fleshed out... 

 Doom Hulk and Geometric Impossibility - Drawing

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

The Doom Hulk was described as a massive nightmare brute. It takes on the form of your worse nightmare and proceeds to smash you to death. In its normal form it is said to be a massive humanoid form constructed of black ropey cords.Whatever it is, it is big, brutish, and wants to hit you in the face... a lot. I have a soft spot for this type of monster... as I have mentioned countless times before. The Geometric Impossibility was described as a hallway where the laws of physics have broken down and perspective and normal spacial understanding is gone. That kind of stuff is always fun, you can never be wrong! Now that the drawing was all done and approved it was time to get to painting...

Doom Hulk and Geometric Impossibility - Process

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

And in six easy steps you have a finished painting... or not... This one came together really fast. I knew what I wanted to do with it when I was working on the thumbnails so a lot of the decisions were taken care of early on. This piece was also about proving something to myself. At some later date I might share more details, but I flubbed on some important work earlier in my career and one of the pieces was similar to this one. It meant a lot to be able to jump into this piece and take care of it without any stress or problems. Always trying to make things right that once went wrong... I am quantum leaping through my own art career... or not...

Here is the final piece in all its glory and your players now have a new terror to look out for at higher levels...

Doom Hulk and Geometric Impossibility

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

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

IMC 2012 - Painting & People are awesome

A couple last items regarding IMC 2012 and that should just about cover everything. I have some images of the painting I was going to work on as well as some images of why people I know are so awesome.

I piece I was going to do this year was based on a Science Fiction short story supplied to us. I really enjoyed the story and was looking forward to working on this piece. It went through several iterations as I worked on the composition. It began as a really complex image and I slowly streamlined it down to the moment in the story I felt most strongly about and that I wanted to illustrate. Not sure how much I can talk about the actual story at this time and I would hate to spoil it for anyone that wanted to read it. I will say I spent a lot of time planning it out, shooting reference, and working on the drawing. My main goal at IMC this year was to learn how to use color, light, and value better. Little did I know in the hour and a half I actually was able to spend in the studio that Pete Mohrbacher was going to show me a new way to go about creating my under painting that was going to turn the way I paint on its ear. You will get to see the results of that hour and a half with Pete beginning in August. To be honest, I am not sure if I will ever return to my IMC piece and finish it up, but I am looking forward to having time to work on some personal work. Here are some images of the piece...

 This is the original drawing, it was hard to not make the piece all about the spilling guts...

After notes and feedback from the critique I made quick digital revision. I had already planned to extend the image to remove the tangent with the foot, but I had several people point out to me that it was needed.

1.5 hours or there about of working on the under painting and learning how to better construct the under painting. It was a bit of a fight at first and I was resistant to change, but I have since seen the light... and value... and color... I am not putting that time to good use.

Like a beaten dead horse I have mentioned that I was sick and pretty much was bed ridden for all of IMC. As much as that sucked and was a horrible experience my fellow IMC attendees went out of their way to make sure I knew I was missed and that kinda made things a lot better. I received a couple of care packages during the week and I would like to share some of it with you. There are a LOT of people I need to thank and I am just can't remember all the names I need to, I blame the fever. If you are missed, I am VERY sorry and please understand I greatly appreciate everything and your kindness did not go unnoticed. The first care package was a selection of books (brought to IMC by Lauren Panepinto and Orbit Books) gathered up by Julia L. Singh as well as drawings and notes from friends...

 By Drew Baker - THANKS DREW!

 By Michelle Papadopoulos - THANKS MICHELLE!

 By Steve Argyle - THANKS STEVE!

By Kari Christensen - THANKS KARI!

The second super awesome thing to be delivered to me was James Gurney's Color and Light book and it was just packed with drawings, notes, well wishes, and awesome. I was overwhelmed with how great this great this is and awesome it was that so many folks added to it. MANY MANY MANY thanks to everyone involved in this. It is super amazing and will be a cherished item for me...

 I will let Marc Scheff have the last word... Thanks Marc :P

That is all for a packed week on the blog and for my posts regarding IMC 2012. I will be returning to my usual publishing schedule 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

Illustration Master Class 2012 - Day 8 The Voyage Home

All packed up and not so ready to drive for two days. It is hard to imagine an entire week has passed by. I know last year it felt like time was stretched out into this crazy infinitely long week while this week seems to have slipped through my fingers while I wasn't looking. No need to continue to dwell on on the reason why, it has come and gone. Instead I would like to remember the amazing times I had last year and that those experiences were shared by so many people this year.

As far as the drive home, I made really good time and the states flew by and New York mostly behaved itself. I ended up driving from Massachusetts to South Carolina on the first day and got all the hard driving out of the way. The second day was really short and I was home by early afternoon. Of course once home I collapsed and was back in bed for several days, but I was finally home. I have some images from the first day of driving...

Laundry Shoggoth has a huge pile of madness it would like to share with you.

The giant bronze statue is just where I left it last year. I really like that green patina.

Crazy stuff to see and take photos of as I cleared New York. The orcs of Mordor and building a new bridge into Osgiliath.

Traffic didn't come to a complete stop till about a mile from the ramp to get onto the George Washington bridge. It got moving and crawled along at a pace that didn't make me go too crazy. As we crawled along I was able to get some neat photos. Before I knew it New York and eventually New Jersey were behind me.

Stopped for lunch in Maryland and was rewarded with a most excellent penny smasher machine option. The other options in this machine were pretty mundane but this one really caught me eye. So cool! To bad there was not a John Waters one as well...

I found myself at South of the Border for the first time at night and the entire place look on a more more interesting look and feel. The giant sign that I somehow overlooked all these time was all aglow and looking festive.

 Maybe it is a little more cool and a little less tacky and offensive... or maybe not...

 Pedro is going to haunt me dreams...

Farewell Pedro, may we not cross paths again any time soon... you creepy creepy giant mass of fiberglass. 

And so completes my adventure to the 2012 Illustration Master Class, not the adventure I was expecting but an adventure all the same. I will be back tomorrow with the final post regarding IMC 2012. I will have for you a look at the piece I was going to work on and where I was able to take it to in the short time I had to work. I also will have some images to show just how amazingly awesome everyone at IMC really is.

That is all for today, 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

Illustration Master Class 2012 - Day 7

The end of another IMC had arrived just in time for me to leave my dorm room and start moving around again. It took a lot of effort that morning, but I was finally able to get myself moving again and to shake off some of the sickness haze. It took almost everything I had to get back to the studio to pack up my equipment and afterwards I needed a little rest, but thankfully as the day continued I finally began to feel better. I was able to have a look around the studios to see all the amazing art that had been created over the week. Then there was the closing lecture in the auditorium which unfortunately for me only drove home just how much I had missed by being bed ridden all week. After closing announcements everyone got their work spaces packed up and displayed their art for the open gallery in the afternoon. A lot of that time is spent swapping sketchbooks, looking at all the work, and socializing. Here are some images of the events of the day...

I finally felt like opening the shades and windows and finally got some much needed fresh air and sunshine. The weather was really nice that last day and helped with my mood.

I timed my return to the digital studio to ensure I had it to myself so I could pack things up at my own pace. It went quickly, but you would think I had to move the entire room with the way I felt after moving a single computer and monitor. It went quickly and smoothly and the one thing I had to accomplish for the day was behind me.

 Here is Brom's work area with the demo piece he worked on.

Pete Mohrbacher is well on his way to having a awesome painting.

Aaron Miller was struck down by something halfway through the week and did not get as much done as he would have liked. He had some different symptoms then me, but I still felt like I had some hand in him being sick.

 Cynthia Sheppard finished he most excellent Tarzan painting.

 Noah Bradly also completed his Tarzan painting.

A view of the ground floor painting studio. I never actually got a chance (or felt well enough) to look around this studio until today.

We are all gathered again for closing announcements, recap video, and acknowledgements of the guidance and help provided by the faculty.

 Standing ovations to the stellar faculty.

Gifts were presented to faculty... super awesome hand made monster bags. Really cool and the photo does not even remotely does them justice.

Another look around the ground floor studio during the open gallery. Some of the faculty were doing a signing and had books and prints available. Looks of sketchbooks were getting passed around and much fun was being had.

As things came to a close and the galleries were emptied one by one everyone broke into small groups for dinner and socializing. I had just enough energy in me for a really nice dinner with Pete and Aaron and then some celebratory ice cream. There was much more socializing and revelry to be had that evening but I had two days of driving ahead of me and needed to be at the top of my game for that. I retired early and tried my best to get some rest in perpetration of heading home.

See you back here tomorrow for some images of the drive home and on Friday I will have some images of the piece I had plan to work on at IMC as well as some other surprises. Until then...

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

Illustration Master Class 2012 - Days 4, 5, and 6

Continuing my coverage of my experiences at the 2012 IMC we arrive at Day 4. Let me say again that last year at IMC I had an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING time and the misfortune that befell me this year was in no way a result of anything relating to IMC. I just got sick at the worse possible time which resulted in me missing pretty much all of IMC this year. Sometimes being dealt a bad hand is unavoidable and you just have to make the best of it. I am trying to stay possible about it all and hope that no one ever has to go through what I did at another IMC.

By Day 4 I knew I was not going to quickly get over whatever I was afflicted with and that there was no use in pushing myself and making things worse. I needed to be well enough to drive back to Florida in several days and that became my new goal. This meant that Days 4, 5, and 6 were spent almost completely in bed. I had food delivered and tried to keep my contact with other people to a minimum in case I was Patient Zero, no one else needed to be this sick. I did manage to take some pictures from my days in bed so that I could remember all those good times...

 Day 4 - In bed. Those were some good times...

 Day 4 - Staying hydrated is very important!

 Day 4 - I was missing a James Gurnay lecture when I took this photo.

 Day 5 - Fun with filters and different camera apps.

 Day 5 - Still more filters as the day crawls by.

 Day 5 - My favorite floor drain in the bathroom.

 Day 6 - Still rocking the fever. This images looks the way I felt.

 Day 6 - I was determined to stay hydrated no matter what. I filled up the plastic recycle bin on the floor I was staying on.

My three days of festering seemed to pay off and my fever finally broke on Day 7, but that will have to wait till tomorrow as IMC 2012 comes to a close.

See you back here for the final day of IMC 2012. Until then...

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