The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Chewbacca - Imperial Assault - Process

This one is definitely a bit overdue. Today I have for you the process and steps that went into my Chewbacca painting that was created for the Winter Organized Play Kit of Imperial Assault. I first shared this piece with you last October and I painted in in March of 2015. Here is how the final painting turned out...

Chewbacca

Imperial Assault Winter Organized Play Kit

11 x 14 - Acrylic and pencil on board

Art Director - Deb Freytag

Original - SOLD

This was a really exciting piece for me. Not only was it the first time I got to paint Chewbacca, it was the most prominent character that I have been asked to paint, AND I was going to attempt the painting traditionally. I will never paint Luke, Han, or Leia, but I definitely can paint a Chewbacca. There was a little stress going into this piece since it was such a recognizable character and I was going to paint traditionally. In the end it all worked out, obviously. To start things off, I got to work on some thumbnails...

Chewbacca - Thumbnails

The piece called for a strong and powerful Chewbacca fighting some Stormtroopers. There needed to be some defeated troopers in the scene as well. As you can see thumbnail option 'C' was the winner, but there were things about all three that I liked. Looking back now, 'C' is by far the best, though I still like some of the action in 'A'. With a selected thumbnail I got to work on a finalized drawing...

Chewbacca - Drawing
Imperial Assault Winter Organized Play Kit

17 x 14 - Acrylic and pencil on board

Original for sale over on my web store!

There was a small tweak requested with the positioning of the bow caster after the drawing was submitted, but that was done digitally. Not even sure why it was requested or how much it actually changed the image, but I did it and it was approved. Now it was time to paint! In just eight simple steps I had myself a Chewbacca paint, not really...

Chewbacca - Process progression

While the background, stormtroopers, and bow caster were all straight forward and easy enough to paint, Chewbacca was a bit of a struggle. I am still more of a scale and skin kind guy and all that fur overwhelms me sometimes. Gotta make the masses of fur read as well as the strands and bits. Then there was the issue of getting Chewbacca's likeness right. In the end I very much like this piece and I think over all it definitely looks like Chewbacca. The second Chewbacca piece that I did for the LCG, in my opinion, looks a lot more like Chewbacca, but this one was a good first attempt. You will notice that that the shape of the head does change from the drawing and there is extra work put into the face to make sure it reads more like Chewbacca. I may have spent the same amount of time on Chewbacca's head and torso as I spent on the entire rest of the painting. Some artist would expect nothing less, but it was a little new to me at the time. As time moves on it has become more common. Here is an animated process of the painting coming together so you can better see the changes I have mentioned...

Chewbacca - Animated process

I looks like I took a image of my work space while I was working on this piece. The image was tucked in with the rest of my process images that I took while painting. This offers a glimpse of what my work space looked like back in March of 2015. Things have changed as much as they have stayed the same since then...

Work space while working on Chewbacca circa March 2015

Once again, here is the final painting as well as the final production card...

Chewbacca

Imperial Assault Winter Organized Play Kit

11 x 14 - Acrylic and pencil on board

Art Director - Deb Freytag

Original - SOLD

Chewbacca in handy dandy card form

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

Monday, December 12, 2016

Star Spawn - Arkham Horror Monsters

Back in August I shared with you my Star Spawn miniature that is part of the 2nd Edition release of Mansions of Madness. I also mentioned that the Star Spawn would also be included in the Arkham Horror Monsters line of prepainted miniatures. That time has come and I am happy to share with you some images of the production miniature of my Star Spawn design...

Star Spawn

Arkham Horror Monsters Miniature

Pretty cool if I do say so myself! I think that the miniature really turned out great and is extremely faithful to my design. Here again is my turnaround for the Star Spawn so that you can compare...

Star Spawn Turnaround

Each - 12 x 9 - Pencil on paper
© 2016 (2009) Fantasy Flight Games

This was the very last design that I did for this line of miniatures. I am thankful that they finally all made it into production, even if it took one seven years. Hopefully there will be another great line of miniatures for me to work on, if not, I guess I will just have to make my own...

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

Friday, December 9, 2016

Looking Back: Pick-Pick - Dreamblade

Today I am sharing all the ins and outs that went into making one of my first Dreamblade designs, Pick-Pick. I have never shared any of the art or design work that went into Pick-Pick, so this will be all new to everybody! Along with the Blight Rat and Genteel Husk, Pick-Pick was the third of my original assignment for Dreamblade. An assignment that went from three designs to seventeen designs extremely quickly. Before I was knee deep in Dreamblade assignments I first had to get through the initial three and those were some of the toughest designs I have ever tackled. Here is how the final approved design for the Pick-Pick turned out...

Pick-Pick

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

Pick-Pick was a weird one to say the least. It also went through a bit of evolution as I worked on it, very much like the Blight Rat and Genteel Husk did. I dug into my archives and found the original art order description for the Pick-Pick. Even now as I read it I can't imagine coming up with my final design...

This is a small bizarre creature with no eyes. It has a lot of puckered marks in its skin (actually sensory organs). The creature is round with 3 knobby legs that protrude from it. Each leg ends in a giant spike.

All the parts are there, but how they are manifested is a bit of a leap. I thank my art director for pushing me as well as my wife for the input, second opinions, and feedback as I was working on this one. Here is how the full turnaround for this piece turned out...

Pick-Pick Turnaround

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper (multiple sheets)

Sadly there is not much in the way of actual drawings for this piece, due to the consent revisions, quick deadlines, and edits, much of the above images are digital. I was fixing things, flipping things, coping things, and cleaning things up on the computer to get the images the way they needed to be. At the time it was WAY more important to get the piece done and approved rather then having a physical piece of art. This of course has changed over the years, but this change came with increased experience, confidence, and desire to have a real world manifestation of my time and work.

I mentioned that this piece went through a lot to finally get approved. Here is a look at the many stages that the Pick-Pick went though as it zeroed in on the final design. I still don't see how I got from point A to B on this one, but glad I did. Here are versions 1 and 2...

Pick-Pick Versions 1 and 2

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

While these may look alike they are in fact... completely alike. The first pass was rejected and I was asked to add more detail, texture, and in general make it more interesting. After doing that it was again rejected. The complexity of the pose was all wrong since Pick-Pick had a common rarity, which means they needed to be easily molded and cast. There would have also been an issue of the piece even standing up straight with all of the mass positioned on one little pointed leg. I also think this design was just not doing it for any one. While it met the requirements of the art order... it was just kind of 'meh'. I was asked to start over, come at it fresh and think outside the box. Here is what followed...

Pick-Pick Versions 3 - 6

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

Not sure how many of these I did at a time, but I know version 5 and 6 were definitely turned in together. I think 3 and 4 were turned in separately. I think you can really see the evolution of where this was going in these four designs. Version 3 was considered to chicken bodied. Or was it turkey bodied? Version 4 shows the shift in thinking about Pick-Pick as less of an 100% organic creature and more as a weird thing that does not play by the rules. Suggestions from Dear Wife as well as bouncing ideas off of her eventually led to versions 5 and 6 and the eventual approved design for Pick-Pick. Version 5 was selected, but I was asked to move the third blade up to the top so that there would be no mold and casting issues. It was a long and strange road, but I finally made it to a finished and approved design.

The final production miniature turned out great. I feel the design with both simple and complex and the miniature captured it well. Here is a look at the production miniature...

Pick-Pick Miniature

Over the years I have taken the time to re-imagine some of my earlier work, especially with my Dreamblade concepts. This practice actually started in 2006, a mere year after I first began working on Dreamblade. In just that single year my skill sets and drawing chops had improved a great deal. When it came time to show off some of my Dreamblade work in a portfolio I already felt uncertain about sharing the drawings due to their quality. Instead of using the original art I opted to redraw them for my portfolio. I did my best to be true to the original design and art, but present it with my current drawing skills. This all might seem weird, but I felt it was necessary if I was to share some of my Dreamblade concept work. Keep in mind I did this for at most two pieces and it was for designs I felt confident in their concept, just not their execution. Here is the redraw that I did for Pick-Pick...

Pick-Pick Redraw

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

That's 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

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Chaac - Gods and Goddesses - Process

Today I have for you the process and steps that went into making my Chaac painting that I first shared with you in February. Chaac was part of the Gods and Goddesses anthology produced by Michael Publishing, LLC. In the original post I talk a bit about how I first came to learn about Chaac while touring the Yucatan in 2014, today I will be focusing on the process of the painting. Here is how the final Chaac painting turned out...

Chaac
11 x 14 - Acrylic and pencil on board
Original available over on my web store
© 2016 Christopher Burdett

Since this was more or less a personal piece that was going to be used for the anthology I had complete freedom to do what ever I wanted to do. This streamlined my process a little, but it still followed the same steps I always do. I started off everything, of course, with a thumbnail. Since I knew exactly what I wanted to do, the thumbnail was a digital sketch that I worked out a single compositions until it was how I wanted it, rather then the three or more options I would give to a client. Here is how the thumbnail turned out...

Chaac - Thumbnail
© 2016 Christopher Burdett

You might notice the various boxes on the image above, these are the various crop marks and bleed areas for the final image. The final art needed to be 9 x 12 with a little bleed, but I like to work at 11 x 14, so I made sure while I was working on the thumbnail that I took into account for the needs for the anthology and the my own personal needs. Now that I have everything worked out in the thumbnail it was time to create the finalized drawing...

Chaac
14 x 17 - Pencil on paper
Original available over on my web store
© 2016 Christopher Burdett

This was a fun one to draw, but as with most things I work on these days, there was just not enough time to really linger on the drawing. I needed to get it done so I could move onto the painting. Here is the painting coming together in twelve easy steps...

Chaac - Process progression
© 2016 Christopher Burdett

Mayan Gods were described as having both animal and human characteristic. Keeping that in mind, I also wanted to pull influences from the sculptures made to represent him. I imagined a monstrous deity that was part man, part animal, and part earth or stone. I saw the sculptures in the Yucatan as more of a literal representation rather then an abstraction or iconic portrayal. Chaac is often described as having armor made of water or simply having blue armor, so I really wanted to include this element. I pulled the rest of the color and visual elements from what I witnessed in the Yucatan.

Here is an animated progression of the painting to better show the painting coming together...

Chaac - Animated progression
© 2016 Christopher Burdett

Once again, here is the final painting for Chaac...

Chaac
11 x 14 - Acrylic and pencil on board
Original available over on my web store
© 2016 Christopher Burdett

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

Monday, December 5, 2016

Hunter in the Night: Star Wars LCG - Meditation and Mastery

I have another new Star Wars piece for you today! This time around, it is the Hunter in the Night Objective Card from the recently released expansion, Meditation and Mastery. Here is my piece titled, Hunter in the Night.

Hunter in the Night

Star Wars LCG - Meditation and Mastery

11 x 14 - Acrylic and pencil on board

Art Director - Taylor Ingvarsson

Original available on my store!

For those of you that play the game, you will know that Objective Cards have art that is thin and long that runs the length of the card. As you can see above, my art does not fit those dimensions. When I got this assignment, I worked with the art director to create a piece that fulfilled the production's need and allowed me to create a piece that was more in line with the size and shape of work that I like to make. This did mean I was creating more images then they needed, but it was allowing me to create the image I wanted. This all may seem weird, but I needed to do this. Here is the final drawing for Hunter in the Night...

Hunter in the Night

Star Wars LCG - Meditation and Mastery

17 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Taylor Ingvarsson

Original available over on my web store

Here is the final production card for Hunter in the Night, and you can see how much the image I created was cropped down for production's needs. I delivered to them the cropped and original versions of the image to do with as they needed. While they were getting two images for the price of one, it gave me the flexibility to make something I was much more excited about working on.

Hunter in the Night in handy dandy card form

I will have more info and details about this piece in the coming weeks/months when I finally get around to sharing the process. Until then, here are a couple images of Hunter in the Night being used as article art over on the Fantasy Flight Games website. As you can see, this piece was officially spoiled over a month ago; it has taken this long for it to finally reach the front of the blog queue!

Hunter in the Night, used on the Fantasy Flight Games website

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

Friday, December 2, 2016

Looking Back: Unproduced "The Gambler" - Dreamblade

Today on the blog I am looking back at another Dreamblade miniature design that I have never shared before. This particular design never made it into production and was never a miniature, but the design was approved (somehow). Here is the design for the "The Gambler" which was slated to be a part of the first expansion (Baxar's War) to Dreamblade released back in 2006...

Unproduced "The Gambler"

12 x 9 - Pencil on paper

Unlike the Genteel Husk and the "Janus Scout" by the time this piece was approved I was not unhappy with the work that I had done. While there were some rocky spots while designing it, in the end I thought it was a descent enough design. Not one of my best at the time, but descent enough. I of course could do better now and there are plenty of things I would have liked to have done differently, but that is to be expected with anything you look back on. Here is a look at how the full turnaround turned out...

Unproduced "The Gambler" Turnaround

12 x 9 - Pencil on paper (multiple sheets)

While I was not unhappy with the final design, the work I did leading up to it did leave some to be desired. So that I am not beating a dead horse, you can review my post on the Genteel Husk and the "Janus Scout" to get all the details. This was kind of a weird mini. The art called for a guy with a gun and a hand full of dice who needed to have 20 sided dice for eyes and clothes featuring a motif based on the playing card suites. My first design was really flat and stiff...

"The Gambler" Version 1

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

Working with the art director I was able to take what I have done with the first version and rework the pose, some of the details, and breath a little more life into it. I had some things right in the first one, I just needed to be smarter about it. I think that is the lessen to be learned by all these old Dreamblade designs I am sharing - you learn and you get better over time. My second attempt at the deign was met with a lot more approval...

"The Gambler" Version 2

12 x 9 - Pencil on paper

Unfortunately, like several of my designs that I did for Dreamblade, I had an approved design except for one element and then I would end up doing a bunch of variations and alternate versions to get that one aspect nailed down. For "The Gambler" it was the head/face. Just could not seem to get it right. It was as if I was not very good at drawing humans at the time and I was not using reference. Here are some of the alternate versions of the head that I did as I got closer and closer to the goal of an approved design...

"The Gambler" Version 3 - 8

12 x 9 - Pencil on paper with digital alterations

When I finally enlarged the head and made it more of a crazy monstery human guy thing we were in business. I made one last edit to get the approved design at the top of the post. This mini would not have won awards, but I think it is interesting enough and would have been neat if it had received a decent paint job. Who knows why it was never used, but I am sure there were good reason. Another gaming mystery for the ages...

That's 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

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Forest Awareness - Star Wars - Process

This was suppose to go up yesterday, but I had a day job photo shoot I was on all day and getting this post queued up slipped through the cracks.

In May I first shared with you my Forest Awareness painting for the Star Wars LCG. Today I have for you the process and steps that went into making this painting. This is another older Star Wars piece that was finally released and now I finally am getting around to sharing the process. To start things off, here is how the final painting of Forest Awareness turned out...

Forest Awareness

Star Wars LCG - Press the Attack

14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board

Art Director - Zoe Robinson

Original for sale over on my web store!

This piece was a straggler that was done shortly after my Ephant Mon and Wicket paintings that I have previously shared. Star Wars cards come out in six pack blocks which are built around a theme, one set per month (give or take) for six months. An entire card block worth of art is commissioned all at once, so art can take a long time to come out.You never know if your card will be in the first pack or the last pack. Then there are times when the details, names, titles, etc change in production and then you never know what is going on. It's fun that way! Like I said, this is another card I did a while back that is just recently getting an official release.

This was an interesting one. The art order was really wide open and simply called for an Ewok doing something smart or knowledgeable in the forest. There were suggestions of the Ewok leading Rebels through the forest, hunting, tracking, etc. I talked a bit with Zoe about the direction to go with this one and we finally both agreed on an Ewok following track. Also, since the art order was open and allowed for it, I suggested that I make the Ewok a named and recognizable Ewok and I got approval to make it Teebo. With all that taken care of it was time to get to work!

Starting things of we have some thumbnails... because that is ALWAYS how I start these things off. I shot some weird selfies of myself crouching in my studio doing my best Ewok impression and then got to work. Here are how the thumbnails turned out...

Forest Awareness - Thumbnails

Looking at the thumbnails you know that option 'A' was the winning one. I still really like option 'B' and wonder how it would have turned out if we had gone in that direction. I liked the idea that Teebo is sniffing the air and getting his barrings on the animal that he is tracking. Oh well, what could have been. No matter, we have a finiahed painting of 'A' to look at. With a thumbnail approved, it was time to get drawing...

Forest Awareness

Star Wars LCG - Press the Attack

17 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Zoe Robinson

Original for sale over on my web store!

They get no more straight forward than this. Translated the thumbnail into a finished drawing and it was approved. Added lots of details, worked out some stuff and at this point it was just a matter of getting started on the painting. Which I did. Here is the Forest Awareness coming together in 16 easy steps...

Forest Awareness - Process progression

This one had a little bit of an uncertain start. If you notice I was definitely going in one direction with this piece at the beginning - blue sky, a cool color scheme... and it was just not working. Hard to tell here, but it was really not working for me. It also felt odd, off, and maybe a little to similar to my Wicket piece. I wanted to do something different and something cool. I pushed the sky yellow and warmed a lot of things up and the moment I did this the painting began to come together. After this choice to go yellow the only other hurdle was to get the foot prints to work the way I wanted them to. The foot prints seemed to take way longer then they should of. Oh well... thems the breaks. Here is an animated progression of the painting to better show it coming together...

Forest Awareness - Animated process

As an added bonus, I happened to have taken a photo of my work space when I was finishing up this painting. Not sure if it will unlock any secrets, but if should give you an idea of how I work... or at least how a worked a couple years ago.

Forest Awareness - Work space

Here again is the final painting of Forest Awareness and the final production card that it was used on...

Forest Awareness

Star Wars LCG - Press the Attack

14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board

Art Director - Zoe Robinson

Original for sale over on my web store!

Forest Awareness in handy dandy card form

That is all for another exciting Thursday 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