Trobriand's Machinations - 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 Scaladars for the Trobriand's Machinations article in Dungeon magazine #201.

As mentioned last week 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. 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. With this Scaladar piece I had to design two new creatures and put them both in a narrow vertical composition. Luckily for me one of them is flying which makes composing them a lot easier. Since space was always a concern I had the composition in mind during the design process for these two mechanical scorpions...

Scaladars - Designs

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

Scaladars - Thumbnails

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

When these were all said and done I was leaning toward thumbnail "A" which had Shadowclaw Scaladar "A" and Winged Scaladar "B" in it. When feedback came back to me they concurred with my thoughts on thumbnail "A" but wanted the more naturalistic cavern interior for the background that is in "B".  I could totally get behind that decision, with pencil in hand I moved onto the more fleshed out drawing...

Scaladars - Drawing

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

This piece depicts two new Scaladars, which are large scorpion like constructs created by a mad wizard (all the best stuff is created by mad wizards). One of the new Scaladar was a straight forward flying variety the second, the Shadowclaw, was infused with powers of the Shadowfell and had claws made of shadow like substance. Those shadow claws were my biggest concern with the entire piece. Dark cave + Scaladar made of black metal + claws made of shadows = my brain hurting to make sure it all reads and is clear. I sometimes feel I illustrate a lot of black creatures in black environments... while trying not to make either black. I got to work on the painting and hoped that it did not get out of control on me...

Scaladars - process

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

And in eight easy steps it is all done... not really... This one took a bit of work and as easy as the Doom Hulk was this one was tough. As I feared those shadow claws gave me fits, but in the end I got them to work out. I had a good track record of late with final paintings until I got to this piece, I actually had to tweak it a tad after turning it in as per some notes from my art director. They were quick for the most part and really pulled the piece together. You can see what I changed in the final tweak in the last step of the above image. A lot of rim lighting going on with multiple light sources... I wonder if I am doing too much of this lately... who knows, but it is sure fun!

Here is the final piece in all its glory and your players now have some new lower level mechanical terrors to deal with...

Scaladars

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

That is all for another exciting Wednesday 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

Beastly Rider

My studies continue and this time it is a monster riding a monster! You might remember my recent posts about the Beastly Caster, Beastly Fighter, Beastly Archer, Beastly Scribe, and Beastly Pirate. I am trying to make the most of my personal drawing time by incorporating more reference to hopefully improve my overall drawing skills. So today on the blog I have for you the sixth of my studies...

Beastly Rider

© 2012 Christopher Burdett

Not really sure how or why my archers keep ending up birds, but here is another avian archer, this time around it is a mounted warrior. I have been wanting to do some rider / beast drawings for awhile now and this beastly project seemed like a good opportunity to do so. For a first attempt I am satisfied with how it turned out, though I think I have some more work ahead of me until I am completely confident with the rider / beast combo. It is delicate balance with the proportions and size of the beast compared to the rider. There is a great deal of difficulty to get a horse and rider the right sizes in illustration work and once you begin to make up animals and riders it can just be adding to the difficulty. I have seen plenty of people riding horses in person and half of them didn't look correct and they were right in front of me, so I am all too familiar with the complexity of convincingly illustrating it. Hopefully this marks the first of my steps in getting my head around the rider and beast.

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

Fresh from the drawing table... Unicorn!

I have for you another drawing that is fresh from the drawing table. This time around it is a Unicorn! In the original Monster Manual the letter 'U' only has two monsters to choose from and I did the Umberhulk on the first pass. This leaves only one monster... the Unicorn. Like the Pixie I was not going to go into this with established mythological ideas using expected visual choices. I present to you my version of a Unicorn... 

Unicorn
© 2012 Christopher Burdett

It has one horn... which makes it a UNIcorn in my book. The wife was hoping I would have come up with something a bit more NOT like this drawing. I reminded her I just don't do pretty... not without a lot of hard work and complaining. What if the Unicorn was really this horrible creature that used its innate magic to make you think it was a majestic steed with a single horn? What if it actually feed on young maidens charmed by its appearance and the myths that have grown up around it? It is afterall in the MONSTER Manual, there has to be something up with it... Once you leave the tavern with your adventuring party you can not trust anything and might as well attack EVERYTHING you encounter. 

My first 100 original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual redesigns (A - Z): Aerial Servant, Ankheg, Ant (Giant), Ape (Carnivorous), Ape (Gorilla), Axe Beak, Axe Beak (version 2), Baboon, Badger, Barracuda, Basilisk, Baluchitherium, Bear (Black), Bear (Brown), Bear (Cave), Beaver (Giant), Beetle (Giant) - Bombardier, Beetle (Giant) - Boring, Beetle (Giant) - Fire, Beetle (Giant) - Rhinoceros, Beetle (Giant) - Stag, Beetle (Giant) - Water, Beholder, Black Pudding, Blink Dog, Boar (Giant), Boar (Warthog), Boar (Wild), Brain Mole, Brownie, Bugbear, Buffalo, Bulette, Carrion Crawler, Catoblepas, Cerebral Parasite, Chimera, Cockatrice, Coutal, Crab (Giant), Demon Type III (Glabrezu), Demon (Juiblex), Demon (Manes), Devil (Ice), Dragon (Red), Elemental (Earth), Ettin, Eye of the Deep, Flightless Bird, Frog (Giant), Fungi (Violet), Giant (Hill), Goblin, Golem (Flesh), Hobgoblin, Homunculus, Hydra, Imp, Intellect Devourer, Ixitxachitl, Jackal, Jacklewere, Jaguar, Ki-Rin, Kobold, Lich, Lizard (Giant), Lizardman, Manticore, Mind Flayer, Minotaur, Naga, Neo-Otygugh, Nixie, Ochre Jelly, Ogre, Owlbear, Peryton, Pixie, Purple Worm, Quasit, Ram (Giant), Roper, Rust Monster, Sahuagin, Salamander, Shambling Mound, Treant, Troglodyte, Troll, Umber Hulk, Unicorn, Vampire, Wasp (Giant), Wight, Wyvern, Xorn, Yeti, and Zombie.        

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see  you back here 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

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