Getting ready for Gen Con 2011 - Buttons!

In just a couple of days I will find myself in Indianapolis getting ready to have my first booth at a con. Am I nervous? Not one bit, you know why... because I have NEW BUTTONS!

OH, SNAP! ALL NEW 2011 button set for Gen Con! Gotta catch 'em all!

Okay, maybe I am a little nervous. I have been planing and preparing for a while now and have my checklists and game plan. The buttons were the last item that needed to be accounted for. Most of my lingering concerns about the con are around just getting there and getting it all set up. Being my first time manning a booth I am going to try to learn as much as I can and hope that at least one person takes pity on me and buys something... okay, maybe two people.

Once again I would like to thank Chris Presley for making all my buttons. He is a incredibly generous friend and humbles me with his efforts to keep me in buttons for the cons I attend. Many thanks Chris!

See you back here on Wednesday for a prep con post and then after that... GEN CON 2011 COVERAGE! Until then...

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

ImagineFX issue #72

As I left our local Borders book store in the throes of it's going out of business sale I happened to look back into the store front windows to see the magazine racks. There on the rack were several copies of ImagineFX and I thought I might go back in and have a look since I had not seen the current issue yet. Am I glad I did it!

ImagineFX #72
In stores now... and currently at 20% off at Borders.

As I flipped through the issue I saw many familiar names and faces of artist I know. When I got to page 30 I saw an even more familiar name... (at the bottom)

HUZZAH! Unexpected promotional surprise!

Always so much more awesome when it is a surprise. This also explains a comment left on the blog about seeing my blog in ImagineFX... I was all like, 'huh? what?'. That was me being out of the loop, now I am back in it. I would like to thank Beren Neale over at ImagineFX for the shout out, totally unexpected and very much appreciated!

Close up... but since you are reading this... you don't need to read this, because you already know...

In the future, if you see something about me in a magazine or website, and I have not mentioned it here on the blog, shoot me a note. I might not know about it, so I can tell my mom about it... because personally I have no interest in such things... :P

That is all for another week on the blog! NEXT WEEK: GEN CON 2011! I will be wrapping up last minute issues at the beginning of the week and traveling to Indianapolis next Wednesday. I will do my best to keep the blog updated with all the news and events of Gen Con as I see them from my table in the Artist Alley! Until then...

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

Undead Revisited: marks on paper

Earlier this month I shared with you the work I contributed to the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Undead Revisited gaming supplement. I mentioned I would be sharing some of the work that went into the assignment and that is what I have for you today. Since the main focus of the assignment was the opening illustration, I will be just talking about that one piece.

It always begins with a thumbnail or thumbnails. For this piece is was a matter of making sure I got all the required elements together into on cohesive image. I needed the alley, the dropped torch, the dead alchemist and the horrific shadow on the wall. Though the thumbnail is really rough it gives me a starting point and a way to show the kind of reference I will require.

It may be rough, but it am a necessary step of the process... and I usually do not make a habit of showing them to people.

Did somebody say reference? Get that camera out, we have reference to shoot! Lighting and angle was key to this piece and there is only one way to nail it and that is to set it up and make sure I can see how really looks. Take more photos then you need and don't be afraid to try different things, happy accidents are awesome and allow you to discover things you would have never imagined.

Another roll I was born to portray... a dead elf.

Now to work out all the elements and compose the scene. Still working digital I can move elements around and quickly add, delete and change everything till I have a finalized draft. Some things are still really loose and other are much tighter but all the key information is there so that I can move forward on a final drawing.

It is all coming together.

Looking at the reference and using my draft to work off of I create the final drawing. I am adding detail and addressing areas that my not have been correctly resolved in the draft. This is the most fun part of the whole process for me and I really can loos myself in the drawing.

Shadow Opener Drawing
© 2011 Paizo Publishing, LLC

There was one note to make the shadow monster more horrific and twisted as I moved from the drawing to the final painting, but that is easy to address. The rest is time and hard work in photoshop and on the other end of several days is the final painting. And if you look closely, you should still see my drawing peaking through in places... which I kind of really like!

Shadow Opener
© 2011 Paizo Publishing, LLC

That is all for another exciting day 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

Gladiator Monster to the rescue...

It is one of those days filled with too much and with not enough time to do it all. Luckily this monster wandered by to stand in for today's blog post. Thanks Mr. Gladiator Monster, that was really nice of you to help me out!

RAWR! I am a monster that fills space!

© 2011 Christopher Burdett

Hopefully by Wednesday things will be a little calmer... maybe. Until then...

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

Getting ready for Gen Con 2011 - What's in the box?!

Another strange big box showed up at the house... what could it be? Could it be a surprise for Gen Con? ...I say knowingly... Let's have a look at what surprises it might contain!

That is a much bigger box then the last one that showed up.

Well, I guess some sheets of paper make a good and protective packing material.

HOLY COW! Look at the huge stacks of books in there!

creatura libri 2, who would have ever imagined such a thing?!

Just look at all those monsters! Page after page of monsters!

And this time around not just monsters created for myself, but monsters created for some of my clients such as Fantasy Flight Games, Paizo Publishing and Wizards of the Coast!

Now there are two great ways to get 32 pages drawings of my creatures, monsters and things with tentacles! That is over 60 pages of monster drawings in two handy collections!

creatura libri 2 contains drawings as of yet unseen by anyone as well as production drawings that I have never released yet! I am happy with how creatura libri turned out, I am even more so pleased with the quality of creatura libri 2. I will have copies of both creatura libri and creatura libri 2 as well as Pandas 1-36 available at Gen Con. As with the first book, creatura libri 2 has space in the front so that I can personalize it with an original drawing if you so choose. If you are not attending Gen Con or Illuxcon this year you will have to be a little patient, but eventually copies of creatura libri 2 will be available to everyone.

If you are attending Gen Con, you can be the envy of your friends and enemies by being one of the first to own your very own copy of creatura libri 2! See you there!

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see you on Monday! Until then...

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

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Dungeons of Golarion

I found an unexpected surprise in the mail on Monday afternoon, my copies of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Dungeons of Golarion! Fresh on the heals of Undead Revisited I was working on more undead Paizo Publishing, this time around horrific ghouls in an abandoned Dwarven mine! I also got another chance to put one of the Pathfinder Icons into a dangerous predicament...

Zolurket Mines Opener
© 2011 Paizo Publishing, LLC

Zolurket Mines Ghoul
© 2011 Paizo Publishing, LLC

Zolurket Mines Raven Bracer
© 2011 Paizo Publishing, LLC

You might remember the last time I had the Pathfinder iconic dwarf Hursk in one of my pieces he was doing battle with a Tojanida. It seems he just can't get a break with me... but he did survive the Tojanida. I am much happier with how Hursk turned out this time around! I also was able to paint a whole lot of ghouls and that is pretty great too! Then there is the case of the black fire... what does it look like? does it emit light? is it just freaky magic?

When I first read a art assignments and there is a mention of a group or even just more then one, for some reason my mind immediately jumps to a number between 20 and 50 for the number I should have. So when I read this assignment and it said that Hursk was surrounded by ghouls the first thing that pooped into my mind is that he is surrounded by 30 ghouls. Not really sure what that is about, but I need to stop freaking myself out unnecessarily in this fashion. ..."How am I going to paint 30 ghouls?!?!" Yeah, need to stop doing that... three is just fine.

As always, I would like to extend a huge thanks to Sarah Robinson for giving me the opportunity to work on this fun assignment!

That is all for today, see you back here on Friday for a look at a special item I will have available at Gen Con! Until then...

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

My life as a crappy artist - Beljoxa's Eye

You of course remember Beljoxa's Eye from episode 11, Showtime, from season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, right? Any good Buffy fan would, right? I barely recall the dang thing and I contributed a design for it. So that everyone is on the same page, this is Beljoxa's Eye...

Lots of eyes? CHECK! Tentacles? CHECK! We could actually have a good monster this time.

I was able to find some more time to take a fresh pass at another monster that I helped design while working on Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire series. This time around Beljoxa's Eye was the lucky winner. Here is my original design for Beljoxa's Eye from 2002...

I was working on other assignments at the time and when I finally got my design together for Beljoxa's Eye the production of the final creature had already begun. OOPS!
© 2002 Almost Human

Beljoxa's Eye was suppose to be this massive floating oracle that had knowledge beyond time and space... or something like that. I think it ended up being incoherent and undecipherable and ultimately comic relief. My art director at the time came up with some very cool ideas but production really wanted the ball of eyes on a stick look. If my memory serves me, the cage was one of the ideas my AD had that survived. As I mentioned above, I arrived a little late to this design party, but I did finish my lackluster attempt at a mass of eyes and some dangling bits. The final Beljoxa's Eye was more then sufficient for the show and I do not thing anything I had to offer would have improved it. All that aside, here is something... newer, as far as the design of Beljoxa's Eye...

Taking Beljoxa's Eye back!
© 2011 Christopher Burdett

Not much to add beyond the drawing... a ball of eyes and some tentacles, I can do that all day. Maybe I should have pushed myself more but I was just having too much fun drawing a big mass of eyes and some tentacles. Not sure it is really that much better of a design but I at least feel it is a better drawing. I imagine it sitting in the cage with it's tentacles hanging down and wrapping around the cage. Maybe some slime dripping slowly off it. On to the next art albatross that I carry around my neck...

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