Jailbreak Betties and the power of ArtOrder

ArtOrder
If you have been following my blog for the past 3 months you would know that Friday is when I post my submission for the newest ArtOrder Concept Tuesday assignment. Unfortunately, I will not be taking part in next week's event. It does pain me to miss a week after being active since the beginning and never missing a week. The fact of the matter is that I have been putting to good use the advice and suggestions laid out by Jon Schindehette over at ArtOrder and I find myself very busy with work. So at least I have a good excuse, right? Fear not! I have set aside some time and I have already begun work on my Concept Tuesday piece for the following week (I just couldn't let that one slip by, too much fun.)

Jailbreak Betties
I have posted several Roller Derby related items here on my blog: shoes, a helmet, and poster. I have been active with the local team for a while now but my activity with them has really ramped up since my wife join the Tallahassee Roller Girls "B" team, the Jailbreak Betties. Such as my unsuspecting designing of the Jailbreak Betties logo.


The team was brainstorming and coming up with ideas and my wife had one and asked if I would help her out and quickly mock something up. I am just glad I instinctively started with a 12 x 12 300 dpi file because before I knew it they had selected mine and were moving forward with it. Thankfully it held up beautifully to a live trace in Illustrator and I was able to pass off a vector version to the shirt people. The team got theirs last night at practice and low and behold so did I.

Jailbreak Betties shirt (limited edition rare variant!)

If you are wondering why I have "Mr. Sapien" on my back, it is because my wife's derby name is Babe Sapien, in homage to the Hellboy character Abe Sapien. I was given some ad space in the brochure for this upcoming game and whipped up a surprise bit of encouragement for the wife since this is her first bout.


Good luck Capital Punishment and Jailbreak Betties in tomorrow's games. This is JB's first bout and CP's first WFTDA game! Good luck ladies!

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

Shocktroop Devil

I featured my pieces last week that appeared in the new Monster Manual 2. Another monster that I had a hand in creating also graced the pages of the MM2, the Shocktroop Devil. I designed this Devil for the Against the Giants expansion of Dungeons and Dragons miniatures under the art direction of Stacy Longstreet. They were looking for a new type of Devil, a large fierce warrior, armored and terrible. I got right to work.

First pass, everything starts somewhere. There are things about this one I really like, the shield not one of them.

Second pass, revision notes in, changes made.

Third Pass, more notes and a fresh start. Much better shield. Again, things I like, things I don't.

A new direction completely. They wanted a specific feel I had not been hitting on. With this one, I landed very close to the target. At this point I was keeping the drawing very loose and very light and darkening it on the computer. I was sending versions to Stacy and editing them really quickly to narrow down the direction they wanted.

Getting closer still. The horns continue to get attention and he needs to appear to be fast, so he gets thinned down a bit.

Thinner still, smaller horns... I think we have it!

The finalized turnaround with and with out shield. An image of the finalized miniature can be found here.

Some more of my behind the scenes design work crept up in one other place in the MM2. If you look real close at the Genasi you will see armor deigns I created a while back. I am pretty sure I can not share any of that work off yet, but you can get a glimpse of it in the MM2.

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

Artorder Sketch - The Usual Suspects

If you missed it, last weeks sketches are up over at Artorder as well as this weeks assignment. Here is my sketch for this week...

Defender, Striker, Controller, Leader

A selection of the silhouette roughs that lead to the finals above.

This weeks assignment was to create silhouettes that embody the four Dungeons and Dragons character rolls: Defender, Striker, Controller, and Leader. Here is a better explanation of these rolls:

Defender - Defenders have the highest defenses in the game and good close-up offense. They are the party's front line combatants: wherever they are standing, that's where the action is. Defenders have abilities and powers that make it difficult for enemies to move past them or to ignore them in battle.

Striker - Strikers specialize in dealing high amounts of damage to a single target at a time. They have the most concentrated offense of any character in the game. Strikers rely on superior mobility, trickery or magic to move around tough foes and single out the enemy they want to attack.

Controller - Controllers deal with large numbers of enemies at the same time. They favor offense over defense, using powers that deal damage to multiple foes at once, as well as subtler powers that weaken, confuse, or delay their foes.

Leader - Leaders inspire, heal, and aid the other characters. Leaders have good defenses, but their strength lies in powers that protect their companions and target specific foes for the party to concentrate on.

Creating silhouettes is an early stage of the process of coming up with a new concept. It is a great way to try out lots of different ideas really fast and can help you think outside of the box.

Don't forget to visit ArtOrder every Tuesday to vote for your favorite artist by leaving their name in the comment field of the Concept Tuesday post! A vote for me is a vote for the future!

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

Monster Manual 2

Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual 2 from Wizards of the Coast has hit the shelves! Run right out and pick yourself up a copy and feast your eyes on all the amazing monster art. Here are my four pieces from the MM2:

Ambush Vine
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Ankheg
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Gray Render
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Will - o - Wisp
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC

A special thanks to Art Director Mari Kolkowsky who included me on this project and to Jon Schindehette, Senior Art Director for D&D for passing my name along to Mari.

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

Artorder Sketch - Way back machine - VOTING NOW LIVE

Head over to ArtOrder and cast your vote for your favorite artist in this weeks Concept Tuesday event. If you missed my post last Friday this week's theme was to design a 'Primal Gnome'.

I would greatly appreciate it if you would stop by and cast your vote for me by leaving my name in a comment. A vote for me is a vote for the future!

RAWR!

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

ANKHEG Needs your Vote, Again, AGAIN!

This time it is Ankheg vs. Remorhaz. It may seem like an uphill battle, but if we stick together, I think we can do it! So, I need your VOTE for the ANKHEG!

If you are wondering what this is all about, check out my first POST or even second POST regarding the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual 2 Creature Competition.

* UPDATE * All good things must come to an end... sadly the Ankheg lost in the semifinals. Thanks to everyone that voted.

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

Knockspell Magazine #2

Knockspell Magazine #2 by Mythmere Games was released last week and I have 3 pieces in this issue. Head over to lulu.com to order your very own copy of Knockspell #2!


Jeff Preston was the art director on this and it was really great to have the chance to work with him. I met Jeff through ArtOrder, he had commented on some of the post and I started following his blogs. He mentioned that he was working on this project and I dropped him an email, the rest is history. I really look forward to having the chance to work with Jeff again, I can't speak highly enough!

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

Dungeons and Dragons: Monster Manual 2 Preview

We are days, MERE DAYS, away from the release (May 19th) of Dungeons and Dragons: Monster Manual 2 from Wizards of the Coast. Jon Schindehette, Senior Art Director for D&D, has posted a preview of art from MM2 on his blog ArtOrder.

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with Art Director Mari Kolkowsky on the MM2. You can see a preview of the Ankheg over on ArtOrder. That little guy (not really little, it is the size of a horse) has been making the rounds over on the Wizards of the Coast website, actually all the way to the semi-final round of the Creature Competition!

This project also allowed me to share the pages of a book with some amazing artists. Some of which I have looked up to for some time now.

Check back on Wednesday May 20th, I will be posting the pieces I created for the MM2!

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

Artorder Sketch - Way back machine

If you missed it, last weeks sketches are up over at Artorder as well as this weeks assignment. Here is my sketch for this week...


This week the assignment was to take the Dungeons and Dragons Gnome and devolve it into it's older more primal ancient big brother. Here we see the Gnome when it was still conjoined with the badger in a horrific primordial abomination. A silhouette of the 'modern' Gnome is shown for size comparison.

Don't forget to visit ArtOrder every Tuesday to vote for your favorite artist by leaving their name in the comment field of the Concept Tuesday post! A vote for me is a vote for the future!

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

Dreamblade - 14th time is the charm

I have been thinking a lot about revisions lately as well as creatures with single eyes. This has all manifested in another blast from the Dreamblade past. Today I bring forth the Caged Grawlth and his many eye options. I worked with Art Director Stacy Longstreet on this set of Dreamblade. The notes from Stacy on the first version of the Grawlth was that his eye felt sad or sympathetic and needed to be more fierce or scary. I whipped up a bunch of eye options and sent them back in.

First version of the Caged Grawlth followed by 6 variations.

None of these seem to hit the mark. Either they were still not scary or not readable as an eye. I got back to the drawing board and came up with 7 new variations.

7 more variations, but we have a winner with lucky number 13!

With an approved front I moved forward with the rest of the views.

Final Caged Grawlth turn around with production miniature.

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

Roller Derby poster in process: Part 3

Welcome to Part 3 of the process of painting and completing a poster design for the Tallahassee Roller Girls. If you missed the other installments you can catch up here with Part 1 and Part 2. We left off in Part 2 with the finished approved painting.


As with all types of production there will be changes that are unforeseeable, both good and bad and there were both during the months I worked on this poster. To speed things along I will hit the high points, the Tallahassee Roller Girls because a national WFTDA team, formed a "B" team - the Jailbreak Betties, and lost their scheduled venue for this bout. All of these now affected production of the poster, with the venue change grinding the production to a halt.

Thankfully, in the fullness of time a new venue was found and all the details were nailed down and I could finally begin production. I am included all of this because these things are part of the process, part of what you need to expect and learn to deal with when working on a project.

After receiving all the information for the poster as well as a content template and typefaces that were used on previous posters I made a first pass layout of the poster.

First pass.

After getting everything that had to be on the poster arranged I ran it by Hope Stewart, who has been my go between on this project. Her note including increasing the size of the team names and venue (since it has changed), lighten the text, remove the "B" team logo, and visually separating the content along the bottom better. I got to work on pass 2.

Pass 2 - getting closer.

I was feeling a lot better about the poster as a whole after finishing pass 2. The suggestions had all lead me in better design directions and I felt we were getting close. I passed it back to Hope for a fresh look. She agreed that we were getting close, I just needed to fix a couple of things. I had the names of the venue as well as the Burn City Rollers wrong and the content at the bottom was still not working.

ALWAYS triple check your spelling as well as names and dates. Have at least 2 other people look at everything you are doing that involves text and get it signed off by someone up the chain of command before something is printed. Mistakes will always happen, but unless you can prove that you did everything in your power to make sure it was done right, it will be your fault. I speak from experience.

With these new notes, I give the poster another pass.

Pass 3, third times the charm.

Both Hope and I liked this third pass and it was reviewed and approved by heads of the team. Completion and approval of the 11 x 17 poster was just step one, I now had to create all the various smaller sizes and arrangements of the poster that will be used in the promotion of the bout. These included:

8.5 x 11 color

8.5 x 11 Black and White

8 x 10 '4 up' Black and White

5.5 x 8.5 black and white brochure cover

Creating the smaller sizes was a straight forward task which included minimal changes to the content. Because all the work was done on the front end of this project these last bits all fell into place and made for easy completion.

This concluded my end of production, I handed of the files to the printer and we are currently awaiting the finals back in all their various sizes. I hopefully will be working on some more posters next derby season, it was a real blast to work with the team to create this one. I hope you have found this 3 part process helpful.

If you are in Tallahassee on May 30th, you should attend the bout! This will be the first WFTDA bout for Capital Punishment as well as the premiere bout for the Jailbreak Betties.

Final poster.

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

ANKHEG Needs your Vote, AGAIN!

This time it is Ankheg vs. Rust Monster and this one is not going to be easy, everyone loves the Rust Monster. So I need your VOTE for the ANKHEG!

If you are wondering what this is all about, check out my first POST regarding the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual 2 Creature Competition.

* UPDATE * Ankheg wins with an extremely thin 51.7% of the votes! Thanks everyone!

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

Artorder Sketch - Unfamiliar Familiar

If you missed it, last weeks sketches are up over at Artorder as well as this weeks assignment. You should really head over and see the amazing selection of Boll Deevil concepts if you already haven't. Here is my sketch for this week...


The assignment was to come up with an Unfamiliar Familiar. I had lots of things to write about this guy... but in the end I have scrapped it all. The drawing needs to stand on its' own. I did have a lot of fun drawing him and it was a really nice break from a long week or art stress.

I will say this, I came up with this little guy while in the waiting room as my wife got two root canals. Oh, and the Ichor Slug likes to ride on your shoulder.

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

More of my other work

I couldn't make up my mind with what to post today. I had first thought to post some more designs and variations from my work on Dreamblade, but that work is now several years old. I have new gaming related work, but most of that can't be shown, and what I can show will be out of context, so that didn't feel right. Then it hit me, it is right in front of me, literally!

How about some selections from that OTHER stuff I work on. You might remember I posted some of this work back in March. I am currently illustrating and animating an online instructional course that addresses the issues and concerns of child safety in child care homes and facilities. You might think this is a far cry from things that come from... Dungeons... or live near... Dragons, but you might be surprised.

To find the key you must pass through the Room of Shadows, the Chamber of Sounds, and the Hall of Terror (or is that the Hall of 'Breaking it Down'?)

Be careful in the use of fire related spells, especially in doors.

The Fire Banshees successfully surprised the party and gain combat advantage.

On your journey you will see many sites, the Chain Linked Forest, the Sign of Sunny Child, the Hoop of Basketballing, and a town.

When placing smoke detectors, one must be placed on every floor of a house, one near sleeping areas, one in the dungeon, and one near the trap door in the top tower of the dark wizard's castle.

In all seriousness, I create hundreds of images for this client and I take the work I do for them extremely seriously. But if we can't laugh at ourselves...

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

Boll Deevil Sketch

Marco Caradonna asked if I wouldn't mind posting the sketch I did for my Boll Deevil concept. I thought that sounded like a good idea, so here it is:

You might notice there are a couple of things different about this sketch and the final. As I moved into the final I just wasn't feeling the top arms. I felt they were not commanding enough or allowed for the type of fine motor control a large devil bug would need to rule over his cotton harvesting minions. I changed them to be more arm and hand like and in the end was much happier with how they turned out.

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

Artorder Sketch - Boll Deevil

Posting a little later then normal today, had to put some finishing touches on today's piece and I am moving a little slow. If you missed it, last weeks sketches are up over at Artorder as well as this weeks assignment. Here is my "sketch" for this week...

Woe to those whose offerings are not enough for the BOLL DEEVIL....

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