Friday, September 25, 2009

Axes and Damsels - Dreamblade

It is Friday so I must be talking about miniatures, right? Speaking of miniatures, it has been exactly two years (give or take a week or two) since I worked on my last miniatures project and I have been hoping for another one ever since. Though I hate to tip my hat in regards to work, I started up on a miniatures project this week and I am thrilled! It is only a couple of pieces but they should be fun and different. They are for one of my newer clients so I am really looking forward to the project. Don't hold your breath on more details anytime soon, if my experience proves true it will be awhile before the finished products surface.

Today I have two more of the illusive unreleased Dreamblade pieces from set 7. The "Executioner" and "Damsel in Distress". I don't know how much I can say about what made these special, since while I do I have permission to show these pieces not sure I can technically talk about some of the unreleased game dynamics. Lets just say their aspects was not Fear, Madness, Passion, Valor, Anvilborn, or Multi. I did one other piece that is special like these two that you will see in the coming weeks. Maybe you will be able to look at all three and piece together some ideas. Enough riddles, lets get to the designs...

Unreleased Executioner - © 2006 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Unreleased Damsel in Distress - © 2006 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Both
of these were to be commons. While I am extremely happy with how the Damsel turned out I always felt like I missed an opportunity to do something 'more' with the Executioner. My first version (which was rejected) had him wearing a half hood so you could see him yelling. I always liked that visual but apparently the design team didn't. Looking back now, I think I should have made him a lot more massive and bulky and even more detail and gear. I should have given him more blades, a whet stone of some sorts, other terrible objects of pain and torture... maybe a string of ears. Not sure if these would have been fitting to the theme or the character, but would have made it more interesting and expressive. The first pass on the Damsel had less detail which was resolved with this version. Since I do so little pretty and female I was really attached to this piece and was really looking forward to it's release and to have it in my portfolio. It took a little longer then expected but at least I get the later finally.

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

4 comments:

  1. Chocolate covered awesome! The original idea you had for the Executioner sounds very cool as well as what it ended up as. My only guess for the "new mechanic" would be a new aspect.

    I've been checking out your other work and I am very envious of your artistic talent. :)

    Thanks again for sharing!

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  2. You are welcome. Glad to hear you have been enjoying the work. Dreamblade was an amazing game to work on and it is nice to be able to share all the work I did on it with fans of the game.

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  3. I have been enjoying your posts immensely. I also went to your website and couldn't believe all of the great minis you did for DB including my all time fav, Boneblade Serpent!

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  4. Thanks! Dreamblade was one of those dream projects to work on. When everything comes together into a big ball of awesome. I think in the end I designed around 74 pieces and 49 were produced. So I had lots of opportunities to do some really cool pieces.

    The Boneblade Serpent is also one of my favorites. It was the first piece I did on my own and submitted to my art director as a spec piece. It was accepted and I did the complete turnaround. About a year later when the game was launched online the Serpent was one of the first pieces previewed on the DB website and was the first promo figure handed out. It was a trilling day to get that box from ebay with 2 promo serpents in it. The sculpt and paint job are really good and it is still a stand out piece for me.

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