Terrors of the Silt Sea - Process

Before I left for Illuxcon I shared with you the Oasis Beast that I did for the Dungeon Magazine article, Terrors of the Silt Sea. I promised that I would share with you some of the work that went into this piece once I was back and settled and that day has come! I was working on the Oasis Beast and another D&D piece at the same time and both required me to design a brand new monster and compose it in an illustration. To save time with feedback and approvals I went ahead and did some concept designs and some thumbnail compositions using my favorite concept...

Oasis Beast Concepts
© 2011 Wizards of the Coast
Option 'C' was really talking to me and I had my figures crossed.

Oasis Beast thumbnails
© 2011 Wizards of the Coast
The monster says RAWR!I was on the fence between 'B' and 'C' and so was production. The decision to go with 'C' was made and I moved forward.

I had an overall idea of what I wanted to do with the piece so before I did the thumbnails I went outside in my armor and had the wife take some photos of me reacting to a horrifying monster. I used my three favorite poses for the thumbnails and thankfully my favorite was in the option selected. I moved forward with the final drawing. As I have mentioned innumerable times before, the drawing phase is my favorite part of the whole process. I always wish I had a little more time to spend working up the drawing. Working out issues and fleshing out the design I completed the final drawing and submitted it...

Oasis Beast drawing
© 2011 Wizards of the Coast
The Oasis Beast has all the teeth in Athas. There are now no more teeth for the other monsters to have.

Once approved it is now time to paint! Again, I had previously put some thought into what I wanted to do with the color before beginning so I knew where I wanted to go with the piece. There is always an ebb and flow to a painting and things don't always end up where I thought they would when I begin, but that is usually for the best. Here is a process progression of the painting. One of these days I will be more vigilant to document the 'magic' that happens between image 2 and 3 when it goes from the under painting to a more finished painting. In the meantime...

Oasis Beast painting process progression (HUZZAH! ALLITERATION!)
© 2011 Wizards of the Coast

After a period of time greater then an hour and less then four weeks I finish the painting. I must really keep better notes on the time spent on a painting so I give people a definite number when they ask. In most of my work there is a cool down time I build into my personal deadline so that I can finish the painting and put it away for several days to a week so that I can get a fresh look at it before turning it in. I usually catch little things that need tweaking and sometimes I will catch that big glaring issue I missed earlier because I was too close and too familiar to the piece. Thankfully I seem to hit the nail on the head every step of the way with this piece and when I turned in the final it was approved right away...

Terrors of the Silt Sea: Oasis Beast
© 2011 Wizards of the Coast

Another monster to add to the monster zoo in my head. If you have any questions regarding the steps I take or the process in which I work, please feel free to ask!

That is all for today, 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