Today I have for you the mighty and powerful Ogrol Ragelord. Ogrol started his life as the "Three Headed Troll" and was described as not being well put together - his proportion were all out of whack as if made out of different parts. He was a Passion creature so he needed to be big, fierce, and made to deal damage. This is what the original turnaround for the Ogrol Ragelord looked like...
Ogrol Ragelord
© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC
© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC
Looking back I realize Ogrol was a kind of turning point on two levels. The first was in the design phase, I had the idea for the REALLY big arm and I went with it, it felt right and I thought it really gave the creature its character. My AD at the time liked it but wondered if it was too much, too big. I stood by my design and it went forward as is. Ogrol was from the second set of Dreamblade, and while I spent the first set just trying to get my feet under me and get up to speed with it all, the second set I think showed that I was starting to let myself shine through more as a designer. It just may look like a big arm, but it was the big arm I felt was needed and I stood by that choice. The second turning point came when I got the miniature in hand, speaking of which, here is the mini for Ogrol...
Ogrol Ragelord miniature
© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC
I was really happy with how the design turned out so I was obviously eagerly awaiting the release of them final miniature. When that time came I was a little taken aback. Notice that the lower body / leg positioning is different from the design AND is MUCH better and more dynamic then what I had laid out. Some of why this was done was to make sure it would fit on the base correctly, the rest is because it looks much better and less stiff then the pose I came up with. After my initial bout with self doubt and hurt ego had passed I really thought about it and realized that with just a little more planning and by just moving things a little bit you can make poses and designs much more dynamic and interesting. Granted that by the time I got to see the finished miniature there was not a lot more Dreamblade to be designed, but I took this lesson and tried to make the most of it.
As I am wont to do I took some time and took a fresh pass on Ogrol. Looking back at the seven year old drawing - and a drawing I was very proud of at the time - I saw SO much potential for the design. I also wanted to give it a really dynamic new pose, though the pose I chose would most likely be too much for the miniature to allow... but maybe not, you never know. I talk a lot about drawings being fun and my enjoyment of just drawing for the love of drawing, well, this new version was FUN to work on. Big and bulky crazy monsters are one of my all time favorites and Ogrol is that and then some. All that aside, here is the 2012 version of the Ogrol Ragelord...
Ogrol Ragelord Redux
© 2012 Christopher Burdett
© 2012 Christopher Burdett
Key changes: Larger main head, looks the silly pants and shoes, shrunk the size of all the goofy bones and tried to make them look better, added skulls to show just how huge he actually is, added and better defined textures through out. Like I said before, not sure if this would have been able to be made as a mini, but I sure as heck more happy with the over all drawing. And if you were wondering, I did use reference, maybe if you are good I will someday share my photo of me as Ogrol.
That is all for another exciting week on the blog, I think you should expect some new work on the blog next week, as well as some new work that is not really that new! Until then...
For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com
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