My life as a crappy artist - Initiative Demon

You of course remember the Initiative Demon from episode 13, The Killer In Me, from season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, right? Any good Buffy fan would, right? I barely recall the dang thing and I was on the design team for it. So that everyone is on the same page, this is Initiative Demon...

With cranial malformation like that you know it has to be a monster... also since it's face is made of silicone and the rest of it's head is made of foam latex.

I was able to find some time to take a fresh pass at another monster that I helped design while working on Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire series. This time around the Initiative Demon was the lucky winner. Here are some of my better original designs for the Initiative Demon from 2002...

RAWR! We started off very far from where we ended up!
© 2002 Almost Human

In the end, like many Buffy monsters, a sensible sweater and a pair of comfortable slacks will cover up all that monster body. ...hurm, more of those grey panels behind the designs, did I really think they helped?
© 2002 Almost Human

The whole idea behind the Initiative Demon was that is was a monstrous speed bump for the heroes as they explored the ruins of the Initiative, the secret anti-demon military base under the streets of Sunnydale. We were originally given a lot of room to explore what this mutant monster could look like. We were told it could be a mutated solder, a crazy mutant demon that had been used for experimentation, a half demon / half soldier or all of the above. It was pretty fun to explore all these crazy options. I immediately went for the giant mutant insect man. Little did we know that we had much less room to explore to come up with something new and exciting... an decision had already been made that it was going to be a half man / half rat mutant... a LAB RAT (HAR HAR HAR...) and would only have it's head and hands visible. All our designs were shelved and the rat man design was handled by my art director. It did not matter what the thing looked like anyway, it was so darkly lit on set you could not see it. All that aside, here is something... newer, for the design of the Initiative Demon...

Taking the Initiative Demon back!
© 2011 Christopher Burdett

RAWR! I am a big mutant insect man! In truth I have always liked the first of the two original designs I posted above. It may be a little rough around the edges, but I think there are a couple cool things about the idea. I still love the big crazy mutant arm... how would the actor done anything with that? As an added bonus I am including an additional updated design. Since the final demon turned out so different from the original concepts I have done an updated version of the rat man...

Not sure I want to take this Initiative Demon back...
© 2011 Christopher Burdett

Yikes, he has the mumps! I hope you have been vaccinated. I think I will stick with the insect monster, are rats really that scary in this day and age? On to the next art albatross that I carry around my neck...

That is all for another exciting Wednesday, 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

Black Crusade

Starting off the week with more new work! Following the recent trend, it is new Warhammer 40K work for Fantasy Flight Games. This time around though it is from the new RPG title, Black Crusade! I was able to get my copy and release permission while at Gen Con which is pretty cool since the book has not officially available for sale. I produced three pieces for the book...

Corruptis
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Giant Spined Chaos Beast

© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Nurglings

© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

RAWR! Space monsters! More monsters from the dark grim future, what more could you ask for? These were of course really fun to work on. The one thing that strikes me about working on Warhammer 40K is the importance of being incredibly faithful to the miniatures the art is based on. Miniature reference has been provided to me for 99% of my Warhammer work and each time I was told to make the art look like the mini. For me, this brings up one issue... the color of the monster. I tend to include a lot of color and pattern in my monsters and often the 40K reference I am provided has the monster painted... RED or GREEN and that is it. It is a fine line of putting too much blue and yellow into that GREEN monster when it stops looking like the reference. I make the best of it and know that I am hired to preform a skilled task and it is my job to stick to the reference and make it look good,

That is all for another exciting Monday, 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

Fresh from the drawing table... Cockatrice!

I have for you another drawing that is fresh from the drawing table. This time around it is a Cockatrice! "C" has a lot to choose from, I always forget how many monsters begin with this letter. Like "B" I passed up on my first choice to do something a different when I intentionally went through the alphabet. Now is the time to rectify this! I present to you my version of a Cockatrice...

Cockatrice
© 2011 Christopher Burdett

A mixed up bird lizard with the capacity to turn you to stone... sounds like a pretty awesome monster to me. I was all over the place with this monster when I decided to do my version of it. I started on two other completely different designs that I abandoned. The first was very serpentine and swirly which just felt wrong as I began to build up the forms. The second was coming out very humanoid, which was interesting but completely wrong for this monster. Thankfully on the third attempt it all came together for me. As a side note, I drew most of this at the local drink and draw that a friend of mine got started. It was a lot of fun, can't say I didn't do any drinking, but I did my share of drawing!

My first 100 original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual redesigns (A - Z): Aerial Servant, Ankheg, Ant (Giant), Ape (Carnivorous), Ape (Gorilla), Axe Beak, Axe Beak (version 2), Baboon, Badger, Barracuda, Basilisk, Baluchitherium, Bear (Black), Bear (Brown), Bear (Cave), Beaver (Giant), Beetle (Giant) - Bombardier, Beetle (Giant) - Boring, Beetle (Giant) - Fire, Beetle (Giant) - Rhinoceros, Beetle (Giant) - Stag, Beetle (Giant) - Water, Beholder, Black Pudding, Blink Dog, Boar (Giant), Boar (Warthog), Boar (Wild), Brain Mole, Brownie, Bugbear, Buffalo, Bulette, Carrion Crawler, Catoblepas, Cerebral Parasite, Chimera, Cockatrice, Coutal, Crab (Giant), Demon Type III (Glabrezu), Demon (Juiblex), Demon (Manes), Devil (Ice), Dragon (Red), Elemental (Earth), Ettin, Eye of the Deep, Flightless Bird, Frog (Giant), Fungi (Violet), Giant (Hill), Goblin, Golem (Flesh), Hobgoblin, Homunculus, Hydra, Imp, Intellect Devourer, Ixitxachitl, Jackal, Jacklewere, Jaguar, Ki-Rin, Kobold, Lich, Lizard (Giant), Lizardman, Manticore, Mind Flayer, Minotaur, Naga, Neo-Otygugh, Nixie, Ochre Jelly, Ogre, Owlbear, Peryton, Pixie, Purple Worm, Quasit, Ram (Giant), Roper, Rust Monster, Sahuagin, Salamander, Shambling Mound, Treant, Troglodyte, Troll, Umber Hulk, Unicorn, Vampire, Wasp (Giant), Wight, Wyvern, Xorn, Yeti, and Zombie.        

That is all for another exciting day on the blog, see you back here next time! Until then...

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

Deadly Salamander - Warhammer Invaison

I have for you today a new piece I kind of forgot about. Early last year I worked on the Morrslieb Cycle of Warhammer Invasion cards and discovered recently that the card was out and I can now share it with you. I produced one card, the Deadly Salamander, and it appears in the The Eclipse of Hope pack...

Deadly Salamander
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

I always put my all into every piece I work on and try my hardest to do my best. There is a natural evolution of my feelings for a piece while I am working on it from love to like to love to hate to love, etc. Unfortunately, for this piece I never got back around to liking it again. I can't be happy with everything I do, nor do I have to like every piece I create. This does not mean I did not try my hardest to make a piece that I would be happy with. I could go into detail on the things I don't like about this piece, but that really is not very productive now, I am aware of it's faults and have since addressed them in my work.

As a side note I just realized that I have now done more then one Warhammer piece where a smaller monster is pointing a direction for a larger monster.... weird.

That is all for today, I think I will have something of the black and white variety for you 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

Drogon - Process

I tend to not pander to delusional people I encounter on the internet... frankly, if i did I would have very little time to do anything else. You may have noticed my blog post this morning about my Drogon piece getting a Daily Deviant. In the midst of all the kind words folks over on DA have been giving, someone actually is insisting that I am not the creator of this painting, or drawing as they call it, and that I copied it and that I am a liar! Well, this post goes out to you, homy7793, I hope you find my process shots for the piece informative and interesting!

Drogon Process Part 1
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Drogon Process Part 2
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

The steps follow the same progression I have shown in several of my other process posts: Haggling, Warriors of the Poison Dusk, Sea Demon Shrine part 1 and Sea Demon Shrine part 2. Only thing that is different is that I scanned my drawing in at an early stage to get approval from my art director since approval from the author was very important.

Not sure who or what I am coping and not sure why I am a liar, but I had a moment to post these images and I figure you all might enjoy seeing these steps. I wonder if James Gurney and Todd Lockwood have to deal with this kind of thing?

Okay, 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

All dragons love themselves a Daily Deviation!

I got up this morning to find a rather large number of messages on my DeviantArt account and that can only mean one thing, Daily Deviation! The lucky winner of my third Daily Deviation turned out to be my crowd favorite, Drogon! You can check out Drogon's DA page HERE. A big THANK YOU goes out to DA user kasumichan2003 for featuring the piece as a DA!

Drogon
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

If you want to see more about this piece, you can check out my blog posts HERE and HERE. Again, a big thanks to all involved that gave this piece a DD and to all the folks that are now following me and have left comments over on Deviant Art! ...oh, and a big thanks to Zoe Robinson for giving me the assignment in the first place!

See you back here on Wednesday for something new! Until then...

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

Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter (part 2)

Wrapping up a week of new work I have for you the second half of the demons that I produced for the Fantasy Flight Games release of Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter, RPG supplement. If you missed it, part 1 can be seen on Wednesday's post. For some reason I feel compelled to mention yet again, thanks to seeing these at Gen Con I can now share them with you...

Plaguebearer
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Daemonette
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

The Plaguebearer turned out to be my favorite of the four since it was very much more to my sensibilities. You know, all rotted, bloated, torn open and dripping... because that means much more interesting forms and textures! These all came together fairly easily and quickly except the Daemonette. I was not happy with the first drawing I submitted for it and after shooting more reference submitted the drawing for the version you see above. Games Workshop requested some changes to the final of the Daemonette as well, but those were minor tweaks to the face. I pose for most of the monsters I create but sometimes I am just not right for a monster. My wife got to be the reference for the Daemonette and she did a stellar job of it!

That is all for another exciting week on the blog! See you back here on Monday for some MORE new work! Until then...

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

Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter (part 1)

Continuing a week of new work I have for you today the first installment of demon monsters that I produced for the Fantasy Flight Games release of Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter, RPG supplement. It feels like I worked on these a million years ago, but I think it has been less then one year. Again, thanks to seeing these at Gen Con I can now share them with you...

Bloodletter
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Pink Horror
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Not only does it feel like I did these a million years ago it also feels like I was working on dozens and dozens of these all at the same time. Not sure where that is coming from, I did do a lot of 40K monsters back to back, but not anything near that many. Anyway... these were really fun to work and to pose for. More silly pictures out there of me acting like a demon monster. Images of the miniatures were provided to me and I had different amounts of room to make them my own depending on the demon type. The Bloodletter needed to be pretty spot on while I was able to cobble together my own Pink Horror. As a whole they needed to be extremely faithful to the miniature reference which can have it's pros and cons. Fun to draw and paint monsters all the same!

See you back here on Friday for part 2 and more demon monsters! Until then...

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

Deathwatch: Mark of the Xenos

Starting off a week of new work I have two pieces that I produced for the Fantasy Flight Games release of Deathwatch: Mark of the Xenos, RPG supplement. While at Gen Con I had the opportunity to see a ton of newly released products that I worked on. This of course means I can now share them here on the blog!

Diablodon
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Great Knarloc
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

I contributed one color and one black and white piece to Mark of Xenos and they were pretty fun to work on! They were both pretty much dinosaurs and you know those are always fun to work on. The Diablodon was described as living near volcanic areas and I had this image of a glowing hot lava tube in my reference folder I had been itching to use. It was a piece of cake from there! The Great Knarloc on the other hand went through several iterations before the final pose was locked down. I may share some of those drawings with you in a future post. It is always a little intimating to work on something like Deathwatch and Warhammer 40K that has such a huge back story, vast IP and incredibly devoted fans who can spot if it is wrong instantly. It is also really rewarding to be able to add my voice to such a large and huge property for all the same reasons.

See you back here on Wednesday when I begin to release my inner demons upon the blog with more brand new Warhammer 40K work! Until then...

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

Fresh from the drawing table... Beholder!

Busy week on the blog, that was very unexpected! Wrapping things up this week I have for you another drawing that is fresh from the drawing table. This time around it is a Beholder! "B" has a ton of choices and it was hard to pick the first time around. I intentionally skipped the Beholder on the first pass, but now on the second time through I could not resist. I present to you my version of a Beholder ...

Beholder
© 2011 Christopher Burdett

Not many monsters can be as awesome as the beholder. It has a big crazy eye, giant mouth, tentacle stalks with eyes all over it, it can fly AND has crazy magical powers. Hard to reinvent the sometimes, but one of the main focuses of this exercise is to just have fun and I sure had a lot of fun working on this drawing. Some drawings are a bit of a chore and take their time coming together and some just fly from the pencil... this was the latter. I tried to make it even more wrong, distorted and asymmetrical and of course added some tentacles... cause as I have stated plenty of times before, tentacles make things better.

My first 100 original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual redesigns (A - Z): Aerial Servant, Ankheg, Ant (Giant), Ape (Carnivorous), Ape (Gorilla), Axe Beak, Axe Beak (version 2), Baboon, Badger, Barracuda, Basilisk, Baluchitherium, Bear (Black), Bear (Brown), Bear (Cave), Beaver (Giant), Beetle (Giant) - Bombardier, Beetle (Giant) - Boring, Beetle (Giant) - Fire, Beetle (Giant) - Rhinoceros, Beetle (Giant) - Stag, Beetle (Giant) - Water, Beholder, Black Pudding, Blink Dog, Boar (Giant), Boar (Warthog), Boar (Wild), Brain Mole, Brownie, Bugbear, Buffalo, Bulette, Carrion Crawler, Catoblepas, Cerebral Parasite, Chimera, Cockatrice, Coutal, Crab (Giant), Demon Type III (Glabrezu), Demon (Juiblex), Demon (Manes), Devil (Ice), Dragon (Red), Elemental (Earth), Ettin, Eye of the Deep, Flightless Bird, Frog (Giant), Fungi (Violet), Giant (Hill), Goblin, Golem (Flesh), Hobgoblin, Homunculus, Hydra, Imp, Intellect Devourer, Ixitxachitl, Jackal, Jacklewere, Jaguar, Ki-Rin, Kobold, Lich, Lizard (Giant), Lizardman, Manticore, Mind Flayer, Minotaur, Naga, Neo-Otygugh, Nixie, Ochre Jelly, Ogre, Owlbear, Peryton, Pixie, Purple Worm, Quasit, Ram (Giant), Roper, Rust Monster, Sahuagin, Salamander, Shambling Mound, Treant, Troglodyte, Troll, Umber Hulk, Unicorn, Vampire, Wasp (Giant), Wight, Wyvern, Xorn, Yeti, and Zombie.      

That is all for the blog this week on the blog... not that I could get more on it if I tried! I will see you back here on Monday when we are back to the normal schedule. Until then...

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

Hymns and Wretched Offerings to the Golden Ones

The great and powerful Jim Pavelec has announced a book project he has been working on for some time, "Hymns and Wretched Offerings to the Golden Ones". I got to see the proof copy at Gen Con and it is a mighty book filled with art! Here is a short list of the artist that contributed to the book: Allen Williams, Allison Theus, ME!, Davi Blight, Jim Pavelec, Kim Feigenbaum, Mike Corriero, Mike May, Shreya Shetty, William B. Hand, Sam Araya, Paul Komoda, and Bob Eggleton. Since Jim is funding it all himself he has set up a Kickstarter page to off set the printing cost, you can find a link to that page HERE.

The cover of "Hymns and Wretched Offerings to the Golden Ones"

The project is nearing it's pledge goal so please head over the the Kickstarter page and push it over the top and make sure they project gets funded! There is a video on the page as well as information about the book and benefits for pledging at the different levels.

It looks like I will be blogging everyday this week! So much going on! See you back here tomorrow to close out the week! Until then...

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

Creature Incarnations: They Creep - Drawings

I have for you today some of the work that went into my recent pieces from the Dungeon Magazine article, They Creep. Not only did I need to create a pleasing composition of nasty insect monsters for the illustration, but I had to also design the insect monsters. Since I was given some general guidelines and a few pieces of reference I had a general idea of the look for each monster. In the early thumbnails I was working on arranging their masses. The design of the monsters in these thumbnails has a lot to be desired...

Scarabs thumbnails - 'B' was the winner, though the monsters still need a lot of work. You can see some of my early horrible musings in the borders. You have to get the bad ideas out so that you can make the good designs.

© 2011 Wizards of the Coast

Bugs thumbnails - Again, 'B' was the winner and I still have a bit to do on the design end of these monsters. More design horror in the borders.

© 2011 Wizards of the Coast

After a bit of feedback from my art director (thanks Jon!), a bit of thinking and a lot of looking at and gathering insect reference I moved forward on a new loose digital sketches. I was trying to get the over all design of the monsters formed while keeping myself from getting to fixated on the details - there will be plenty of time for that later.

Scarabs draft - coming together now. Did a lot of research and planning to get the two larger monsters to this point. Again, I can not express upon you how important looking at reference is. I did not copy from nature to design these, but I saw how nature works and tried to use that as a starting point to make something new.

© 2011 Wizards of the Coast

Bugs draft - These monsters came together a lot easier. With the scarab they had to feel similar since they were all the same type of insect, with these bugs they could be very different.

© 2011 Wizards of the Coast

I nailed them all with the drafts and was given the go ahead to create the final drawing. Now to sit back and enjoy my favorite part of the whole project... the drawing on paper with a pencil. I can now start to worry about details now that the over all form has been determined.

Scarab drawing

© 2011 Wizards of the Coast

Bugs drawing

© 2011 Wizards of the Coast

For the opening illustration it was a slightly different situation. I did this one a good while after doing the first two monster pieces, so the designs were all locked in. I had to come up with a cool image of a human fighter that is in WAY over head and most likely soon to need a cleric. I got my thoughts together and jumped into some reference photos to work out my thoughts and to see what happy accidents developed. After looking at all the photos I moved onto some thumbnails to work out the compositions...

They Creep Opener thumbnails - I tried to come up with some very different angles and feels for each one.

© 2011 Wizards of the Coast

I think I still feel really strongly about 'B', but 'D' was the winner and with only a few notes to take into account I given the go ahead for the final drawing. This is one of those pieces that I am always wondering if I am putting too much into. When does it reach the breaking point with monsters... can you even have too many monsters?

They Creep Opener drawing
© 2011 Wizards of the Coast

You can see how all these pieced turned out, HERE. I have mentioned this in the past and I will mention it again, the more work you do in the planning and preparation stage of your illustrations the greater chance you will succeed with your painting. You get out of your work what you put into it.

That is all for another exciting day 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

Gen Con 2011 - Wrap up

I have returned home from Gen Con more or less intact. I am ridiculously tired still which is to be expected after running on a sleep deficit since last Wednesday. There are still boxes I had shipped out from the convention center to wait for so hopefully they will arrive intact in the not too distant future.

Looking over everything that has happened over the last six days I can not be more pleased with how my first Gen Con turned out. I had a great location in the artist alley and got to meet a ton of cool people. I was really impressed with how well received the Anglerphant was. I was not expecting it at all but people really gravitated to it and responded well to it. It's popularity actually crossed all age and gender line which was huge shocker... apparently I came up with a horrific monster that responds well to teenage girls... who knew? With all my planning, with all my stressing over the details, with all the questions and investigating I did to fully prepare myself for Gen Con, nothing was more informative then actually being there and actually being a part of it. It was not until half way through Saturday that I finally felt like I had my table set up correctly. It was a real learning experience to finally see that predicable unpredictability of a convention first hand.

I want to thank everyone that came by my booth at Gen Con, it was super fun and would not have been the same experience with you all. It was also so much fun to hang out with all my artist friends and peers. I am finding myself having these opportunities more and more these days and I could not be happier about it. Enough of my chatter, I have just a couple more images to share to close out my coverage of Gen Con 2011...

Vinod Rams has added his art to my Monster Manual 2! Too bad so many of the remaining artist I need to sign my book are outside the US. I don't think I mentioned it before, but I was asked to sign a copy of a con attendees MM2. It was the first time I got to do something like that, which was super cool and an honor.

I hope this little guy finds his way home. He was in the middle of the sidewalk outside the convention center Sunday night. Little squids should not be discarded so easily.

Back to the normal blog posting schedule as of tomorrow. Until then...

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

Gen Con 2011 - Day 4

With all things there is an ending and Day 4 marked the end of Gen Con 2011. It was a shorten day on the showroom floor, but there was all the tear down and packing to be done after the con officially ended at 4pm. Not sure how I would have managed the con without my wife being there to help me. To tell you the truth she was a real con trooper and helped out many of the other artist who had no one else to relieve them at their booths. Many asked me how the con was for me and I stick with the answer that it was a learning experience. Did not know what to expect, but I was surprised at every turn. I went into it expecting to fall on my face and as far as I can tell I did not… so that is a really good thing! At this point I think I very well may be doing this all again next year! Now on with the images…

More tentacled beasties on the game mats! RAWR!

One of the many sketchbooks that I put original drawings into…

and here is another! RAWR!

Now silver on black for a play mat. Looking back at my photos of the day I was a drawing fool. A lot of interest in my drawings and my monsters.

For some reason this image turned out horribly blurry… but the booth continues to change and evolve… for the better. Less is more.

POOF! The con is over and the booth is torn down and packed up. Thankfully there is a UPS center on site that helps with shipping home from the con.

Another shot of the now empty booth. You can see some of the clutter and activity of the rest of the showroom in the background.

And so concludes my coverage of Gen Con 2011! I hope you enjoyed the images and coverage of having a booth for the first time at a convention. I learned a lot by the experience and I think I am all the wiser for it!

See you back here on Wednesday. Not sure what I am going to post yet… but in the near future I have a TON of work that I can finally share with you that I produced for Fantasy Flight Games! Until then...

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