Ninja Mountain Podcast #26 & #27

If you are not already familiar with it you should checkout the Ninja Mountain Podcast. Ninja Mountain is a group of artist mainly working in the field of fantasy illustration that put on a bang up podcast each week dealing with the ins & outs and ups & downs of working as a fantasy illustrator. Their conversations transcend the genre and are relevant to any artist or person that is self employed in a creative field. Did I mention the laughs? Fun times are to be had when listening to their podcast.

If this is not enough, you should go listen to the two most resent episodes to hear the soothing tones of my voice as I ask relevant and intriguing questions in episode #26 an talk about my Comic Con experience in episode #27. Apparently I am cool enough to consort with ninjas now, who knew? There is also much more interesting and awesome stuff in those episodes besides my voice!

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

Comic Con updates

As promised I have gone back and linked all the artist I met and talked about on my San Diego Comic Con posts to their appropriate websites. Make sure you go back and check out all their awesome work.

SDCC Preview Night / SDCC Day 1 / SDCC Day 2 / SDCC Day 3 / SDCC Day 4

It slipped through the cracks with everything going on, but I did meet one last Monster Manual 2 artist while in San Diego and got him to sign/sketch in my MM2. Jason Engle was nice enough to sketch a Fomorian on Sunday as the con was gearing down.

An all new level of crappy photo of awesome stuff.

This should mark the last of my 2009 San Diego Comic Con coverage. Next week I will bring you some previously unseen art! Until then...

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

San Diego Zoo

With Comic Con over there is only one course of action, head as fast as you can to the San Diego Zoo! This marks our second visit to the zoo and not much can be said beside how amazing an experience it is. The diversity of animals and quality of enclosures makes for a great opportunity for reference photos. If you ever have a chance to go I highly recommend it.

This wraps up my coverage of the 2009 San Diego Comic Con. Hope everyone has enjoyed it. There still might be one or two things I may have forgotten about that I will remember to mention later. I also plan to go back and link everyone I mentioned to their appropriate websites. I will let you all know when I that update takes place.

Lastly, I am going to be very busy on multiple deadlines for the next month or so. Not sure how this will affect my posting but I might not be posting my usual three posts a week. Once some of my deadlines are resolved though, I will be back up to speed.

With all that said, lets get to some photos I took at the zoo! Enjoy!

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

Comic Con 2009 - Day Four

Better late then never. The hotel we were staying at didn't have the best internet and I had been using the WiFi at the convention center. I wanted to have this up for you sooner, but it had to wait till now as I sit in the San Diego airport. With out further delay....

Comic Con 2009 - Day Four

We finally find ourselves at the very end. A day or two ago it felt like the Comic Con had been going on for a week and a half and now it is hard to believe it is already over. The wife and I are exhausted and moving kind of slow today. It is hard to tell from the crowd that this is suppose to be the slowest day. A lot of walking around and saying goodbye to folks. Didn't find everyone but that is what email is for. My cousin took the train down from LA this morning and we had the chance to hang out and walk the exhibit floor just taking it all in. Good times! Finally had a chance to stop by the book sellers and small press rows. I could go broke on the amazing books to be found at Comic Con. Five o'clock came much too quickly and the crowds spilled out of the convention center into the streets of San Diego as the streets were awash with unwashed masses. This marked the end of the San Diego Comic Con 2009. Hope you enjoyed my coverage of the con, I had a blast and had some wonderful times.

Here are today's crappy photos of cool and awesome stuff. ENJOY!

The crowds of unwashed nerd.

Hard to believe this is the last day. I remember when Sunday was a ghost town.

They have really done a weird redesign on the Batmobile.

It's Randall Christopher!

Mega 64 craziness.

More Mega 64 craziness.

Some sort of giant Stormtrooper.

Don't remember Stormtroopers being big and green.

Sideshow Collectibles awesomeness.

Grock this!

That's all folks!

Tomorrow is our trip to the zoo to see the pandas and elephants. I will have some picture to share from there as well. Until then...

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

Comic Con 2009 - Day Three

First things first. These are the things I have learned from the artists I have interacted with here at Comic Con:

1) As long as the tone is correct the color does not matter.

2) It is okay to let details fall away to help direct the eye and tell the story of the painting.

3) AS LONG AS THE TONE IS CORRECT THE COLOR DOES NOT MATTER. ... I feel it bears repeating.

4) Know your lighting, spend some time and really think about it, and take reference if you need to. Lighting is key.

5) If the image is warmly lit, primary shadows should be cool with secondary shadows warm. If the image is cooly lit, primary shadows should be warm with secondary shadows cool.

6) Even spacing is boring.

Saturday is the big day and you could really tell. There was more of everything. More lines, more chaos, more people, more costumes and more awesome. My luck has held up and I continue to have some great interactions with some amazing artists. Finally ran into Kristina Carroll, if you are not familiar with her work it is beautiful to behold. Had an amazing portfolio review and critique from Greg Manchess. Greg is an incredible artist and so very insightful with many helpful comments and advice. Briefly saw Nicole Cardiff at Greg's table but I was heading from point A to B and could not stay as long as I wanted. Stopped by the booth of a friend of mine from college, Randall Christopher. Randall makes comics, tells stories and is an animator. Really fun stuff and he had a new comic as a free hand out! Good stuff! I also had the chance to stop by several booths of companies that created the types of products I was interested in working on. There was also a lot of drifting through the crowds. Still not sure what compels people to stop dead in their tracks while walking in a densely packed group of people.

The Wizards of the Coast artist / art director event was tonight. Amazing times! So much talent in one small room. The one photo I took could never do justice to the awesomeness of the event. Most of the artists I have talked to and met all weekend were there and it allowed the perfect opportunity to swap stories and get to know everyone a lot better. Many new artists and folks looking to break into the business attending as well and was great for everyone. I have been looking forward to having the chance to attend one of these since hearing Jon Schindehette talk about the event he hosted at the New York Comic Con. The get together moved onto another venue and continued much later into the night then the wife and I could manage since we are still on East Coast time. Good times though. One of the highlights of the evening was to finally meet John Stanko. Talented and gracious, John was a real pleasure to meet.

Here are today's crappy photos of cool and awesome stuff. ENJOY!

Get three rings over a milk jar and win a Furry!

Saturday craziness. I fear for a zombie outbreak today. There would be no hope.

Everyone has to take one photo of a Comic Con banner.

I feel compelled to RESIST LEGION.

Some sort of deep sea fish in armor.

Sketches by Jim Nelson and Steve Ellis.

The might sketch of Todd Lockwood!

Randall Christopher's free comic. Good stuff!

Jon Heder in the flesh.

Just for you Rodney, Captain Jack. Happy now?

A crappy photo of the awesome Wizards of the Coast Event!

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

Comic Con 2009 - Day Two

Another day of awesome interactions with amazing artists! Met Steve Ellis and got him to sketch in my Monster Manual 2. This was followed quickly with a really great meeting with Tom Baxa. He offered some helpful advice about my work and about being a professional freelance artist. A highlight of the morning was getting a very thorough critique and portfolio review from Todd Lockwood. I can not say enough good things about Todd Lockwood, it was a real pleasure and privilege to meet Todd. They do not call it the "Todd Lockwood Scale of Awesomeness" for nothing. If that was not enough, after showing Todd the sketches Steve Ellis and Jim Nelson did in my Monster Manual 2 he did a huge dragon sketch in the inside cover. WOOT! Needless to say I have really been enjoying my interactions with the other artist the best so far at the con.

The wife and I are really big fans for the Mighty Boosh so we took advantage of the panel event with the 5 stars of the Boosh. It was a bang up panel and they were hilarious. There were some rumors thrown around of a possible Boosh movie. Real enjoyable time and it was great to get off my feet for a little bit. Have I mentioned my blisters yet? Yeah, blisters... not so bad though in the scheme of things.

And then there was Patrick McEvoy and the Amazing Technicolor Digital Painting Seminar. MuYoung Kim and I made sure we where in the front row to Patrick's packed event. From my angle it looked like there was not a empty seat in the whole hall. Patrick showed off the piece that he just completed for Dragon magazine. I really great looking piece and lots of helpful tips and info about digital painting. Definitely going to be trying out some of the things I learned during the seminar. If that was not enough, we also got to see a piece Patrick created for Marvel's style guide. A completely different approach and style and even more helpful tips and info. Great times and a great close to the second day at the San Diego Comic Con.

Here are some more crappy photos of really cool stuff at the con. Enjoy!

The crowd around Star Wars central.

Scary to think there will be even more people tomorrow.

Crappy photo of pure awesome.

A very strange looking Cylon.

Might Boosh panel! Yes, we got in!

Naboo!

Patrick McEvoy in the flesh doing an AWESOME demo!

Ninjas can be hard to find in their natural environment, hopefully this helps.

Crappy photo of a NINJA!

Internet has been real spotty so each day maybe delayed from here on out, but I will get it all posted.

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

Comic Con 2009 - Day One

Where to start? Lots and lots of walking around through massive amounts of people all while carrying my heavy heavy bag. Caught up with a bunch of artists today, really fun times! Jim Nelson, Todd Lockwood, Patrick McEvoy and MuYoung Kim to name a few. Everyone so far has been super awesome and even cooler then I was imagining they would be in person. Got Todd Lockwood and Jim Nelson to sign my Monster Manual 2, still need to get Steve Ellis to do the same. Broke in the Ninja Mountain digital audio recorder with Patrick McEvoy. Hopefully the background noise won't be too over powering. I have been promised that what we recorded will be edited done to 20 seconds of gold. So that will pretty much leave just me telling everyone what my websites are.

Here are some pics, forgive the poor cell phone quality. Will try harder tomorrow!

BEHOLD! The hallowed all of geekdom!

Those are weird looking Stormtroopers.

Jim Nelson hard at work!

A rare picture of an actual ninja!

Cyborg...

Robot. Know the difference.

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

Comic Con 2009 - Preview Night

The wife and I are in San Diego and beginning our 2009 Comic Con experience. So far so good. I am already getting that weird "I know you" feeling with half the people I run into, very odd. The big news already is that the Usagi Yojimbo art I submitted for the Souvenir Book made it in! You may remember when I posted it here. Not only did my piece make it in, but it shares a spread with a piece by Stan Sakai himself! How cool is that? Really looking forward to stopping by Stan's booth and say 'hi', been a huge fan of his for years now. Here is a bad photo of the Souvenir Book spread:

Woot!

I will do my best to take lots of pictures (that may or may not be of interest to anyone else) and post them as often as possible. The convention center has great free WiFi while our hotel has pay by the hour crappy WiFi. So I will see how it goes. Don't forget my frequent and annoying twitter updates!

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

Promotional hand out for Comic Con

I am getting the last of my preparations in order for this years San Diego Comic Con. Some are last minute things, and others are things that have been pushed to the last minute. As I get all my ducks in a row I wanted to share with you a fun little promotional item I will have with me to hand out to people at Comic Con. BUTTONS!

Collect all 5!

Don't let me crappy photo distract you from how awesome these are in person.

My friend Chris Presley was kind enough to make these for me and if that was not enough he made me 100 of them. If you run into at Comic Con make sure you ask me for a button. All I ask in return is for you to tell people were you got it and to go to my website.

For the next week and a half I will be very busy with Comic Con so I am not sure what my posting schedule will be like. I will do my best to post news and images but this will be my first attempt, so no promises. If you don't already, you can follow my escapades on Twitter, I will be doing updates from my cell phone as often as it is relevant.

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