Revisiting the Monsters - Kobold

In 2010, sixteen years ago now, I began a personal project to redesign most, if not all, of the monsters in the original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. That original MM had a profound effect on me and led me to eventually work on the game. While I was already working on the game when I began this project, it did prove useful as I have redesigned many D&D monsters in my career on the game. In the end, I completed over 100 drawings for the project and even had a gallery show featuring the work. 

I thought it would be nice to look back at some of my favorites. Today brings us to the Kobold. Enjoy!

Kobold redesign (2010)
© 2010/2026 Christopher Burdett 

That's another exciting Wednesday 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

Revisting Smaug the Golden

Not to sound like a broken wheel, because I will be saying this for a while longer, but I am REALLY BUSY writing the next book, so the blog continues to mostly be posts looking back at older work. Today I am looking back at one of, if not the, favorite of Smaug paintings done for the Hobbit card game (original process post!). In total, I painted five Smaug-centric pieces, and this was the first one in the series and the last to be released. The art was eventually cropped to a square, but you do what you can. This piece is not without its flaws, I know them all too well, but I still really like this one, even with it being painted in 2012.

Smaug the Golden

The Hobbit: On the Doorstep 

10 x 8 - Digital

Art Director - Zoe Robinson 

© 2013 Fantasy Flight Games 

I used to spend SO much time laboring over these pieces I was being paid nearly nothing for. I guess it was good because I still have this cool dragon to show off. But all that time and effort spent on someone else's world. I will always say that doing that work taught me so much about how to create my work and my world. 

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

Revisiting the Being of Ib

In 2009, I was hired to design a series of miniatures for Fantasy Flight Games. They were gearing up to make plastic minis of all of their Arkham Horror/Call of Cthulhu monsters, and I was at the right place at the right time to get the bulk of them. It was a fun project with a lot of freedom for a grotesquely small amount of pay. And then nothing. It wouldn't be until 2011/12 for the monsters to finally be released as unpainted figures in board game sets and as fully painted premium minis. By and large, they all turned out great, and I still look back at them favorably. As it has been 17 years since I made the art and 15 years since they were eventually released, I thought it would be nice to revisit some of them. Starting things out in alphabetical order, we have the Being of Ib. Here is my design and the final miniature.

Being of Ib

Arkham Horror Monsters / Mansions of Madness 

© 2009 Fantasy Flight Games

The Being of Ib miniature.  

And, as an added bonus, something I have never shared before, here are the thumbnails that I created for this piece. Over the past 17 years, I had forgotten how loose and sketchy these were. 

Being of Ib - Thumbnails

Arkham Horror Monsters / Mansions of Madness 

© 2009 Fantasy Flight Games

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

Phaerimm - Dungeons & Dragons - Process

Today, I am happy to share the process and steps for my contribution to the Dungeons & Dragons supplement, Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun. As mentioned previously, while I created three pieces for this project, sections of the book were removed during production, which left only one of my illustrations included. While I was aware of the Phaerimm, I had never done anything with this particular monster before, so it was fun to get to working on something new. Here is a look at my final illustration for the Phaerimm.

Phaerimm

Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Emi Tamji

© 2025 Wizards of the Coast LLC

You might notice that this monster has a background. This was one of the new requirements for the monster vignettes, as they have backgrounds now. No more isolated figures now. The Phaerimm is a strange plant monster horror thing. I am good with that, so no complaints. I got to work on some thumbnails for this one. 

Phaerimm - Thumbnails

Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun

Digital

© 2025 Wizards of the Coast LLC

The thumbnails were well received, and the second one was chosen. With a selected thumbnail, I got to work on the drawing for this one. When the linework was finished, and before I completed the rendering, I scanned the image to use the line art in the painting process.

Phaerimm - Drawing

Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Original - Contact me if interested 

Art Director - Emi Tamji

© 2025 Wizards of the Coast LLC

The drawing was approved without notes, and it was time to work on the painting. As mentioned above, these now have backgrounds. This also means that the creature and the background need to be on different layers so effects and vignetting can be done by production. For me, this means painting the background first and painting out the monster to some degree so that there is plenty to work with and no layering issues. I then go back in and work on the monster on its own layer set. This part I am very familiar with. There are other things I can say about this one, but that should wait till later when other pieces are eventually released. 

Phaerimm - Process

© 2023 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Here again is how the final painting turned out, as well as a look at the piece in the book. You can see in that image how having the background as a separate layer works with the layout. On the page, the monster now breaks the borders of the image.

 

Phaerimm

Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun

© 2025 Wizards of the Coast LLC

The Phaerimm on the page for all your Phaerimm needs.

That's 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

Revisiting the Monsters - Imp

In 2010, sixteen years ago now, I began a personal project to redesign most, if not all, of the monsters in the original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. That original MM had a profound effect on me and led me to eventually work on the game. While I was already working on the game when I began this project, it did prove useful as I have redesigned many D&D monsters in my career on the game. In the end, I completed over 100 drawings for the project and even had a gallery show featuring the work. 

I thought it would be nice to look back at some of my favorites. Today brings us to the Imp. Enjoy!

Imp redesign (2010)
© 2010/2026 Christopher Burdett 

That's 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

Penscon MtG Artist Proofs Now Available!

Things were crazy leading up to Pensacon last week. Days before the convention, I sold some of the Magic the Gathering artist proofs that had color art on their backs that I was planning to take to the convention. Now, with a lot less inventory to show, I had to squeeze in some time to make some replacements. As I have been asked to draw a lot of Pokémon lately, I thought it would be fun to create some more Pokémon-themed artist proofs. While some cards did sell at the show, I have the remaining cards now available on my store!

Bulbasaur on the back of an Egg Token

Available 

Marker, ink, acrylic 

Psyduck on the back of an Egg Token

Available 

Marker, ink, acrylic 

Chansey and Happiny on the back of an Egg Token

Available 

Marker, ink, acrylic 

Festering Mummy on the back of a Festering Mummy

SOLD 

Marker, ink, acrylic 

That is all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here 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

Pensacon 2026 Recap

Over this past weekend, we enjoyed ourselves at Pensacon 2026. Pensacon is the start of our convention season and is one of our most fun events. They take amazing care of us at Pensacon, and it is an absolute blast sharing the Grand Bazaar with so many people. We were in our usual spot along the artist ring above the vendor floor. I do not have enough good things to say about Pensacon, and a massive thanks to Mike Ensley, Julio Diaz, Lemmie Crews, and the entire Pensacon team for making a truly special event. And a shout out to the art family that we are surrounded by at the show. I have been incredibly busy with writing and working, which left much of the preparation for the show was done very last minute. I was writing until the last moment and then some while at the show. But in the end, I needed a little break from things, and Pensacon was the perfect choice. Here are some images and thoughts from the show.

The Grand Bazaar at Pensacon 2026!

I did a lot of drawing at this show and had a blast doing it.

The beach was doing its best to be uninviting.

This was the second cover that I have done for this collector, and this, by far, was my favorite thing that I drew this year at the show. Working on the colored paper with its surface was very reminiscent of my normal paper, and this felt very natural.

And some more monsters!

I did a bad job this year with taking photos. I say that, but in reality, I was in the moment talking to people about the Grand Bazaar, art, games, and more. So instead of taking photos, I was enjoying myself at the show. That said, here is a look at the vendor floor. Saturday definitely had the crush of people that got a little intense. 

And even more monsters.

On the day we left the beaches cleared up... and the temps dropped.

Oh well, not this time. 

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