A change of plans...

I just wanted to update everyone that I am cancelling my travel plans for the rest of the year and this includes my attendance at Illuxcon 6 in a couple of weeks. While it pains me to miss what would have been my fifth Illuxcon, I need to be closer to home for the time being. I hope everyone has a blast at Illuxcon! I am confident that it is going to be the biggest and best ever.

These things happen and there is nothing to worry about on my end. Everything it okay, I just need to stay close to home for the time being. I know Illuxcon is my one chance a year to see many of my friends, so I am making every effort to return again next year! Have loads of fun without me and create loads of outlandish rumors about why I am not there...

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, I will see you back here on Monday! Until then...

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

Conan for Yog-Blogsoth

This posted while I was away at Gen Con so I am just now getting to it... and I have been super excited to share this! The extremely talented monster maker and curator of the Yog-Blogsoth, Michael Bukowski, asked me to create a guest artist piece for his blog and I was more then happy to help him out. Michael wanted me to give him my interpretation of Conan, so I channeled my inner Cimmerian and came up with this...

Conan, slayer of tentacled monsters

© 2013 Christopher Burdett

You can read excerpts associated with Conan and this piece over of the Yog-Blogsoth. It was a real honor for Micheal to contact me about this piece and I hope to have to opportunity to do something like this again in the future. If you are unfamiliar with Micheal's work and the work he is doing on this blog you are really missing out and need to drop everything and head over to the Yog-Blogsoth right now.

You may be thinking that Conan is not a monster... why in the heck am I making a Conan?! Well, it is always good to try something new and to challenge yourself. Also, there are times you don't say 'no; and you jump at the chance to take part in a very cool project. ...not to mention, if you look at it in a certain way, Conan is kinda of like a monster... well, to me he can be. RAWR!

Here are some of the earlier steps in the creation of this Conan piece...

Conan drawing

© 2013 Christopher Burdett

Conan inks

© 2013 Christopher Burdett

That is all for another exciting Wednesday 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 2013 - Day 4

All good things must come to an end and that includes Gen Con...

Gen Con Day 4! The last frantic fleeting moments of Sunday in Indianapolis. A lot of last minute purchases and wheeling and dealing are to be had on the last day. There is that weird moment when the closing hour arrives on the last day and the final announcements come over the intercom and the event hall roars with cheers and applause from the retailers and those working the con. We all survived another Gen Con and all that remains is packing up and going home.

For me, the most important events and happenings at Gen Con do not take place in the event hall... and sometimes don't even happen in Indianapolis. The seeds may be sown at Gen Con, but the real treasures that I get out of Gen Con happen in the personal interactions off the show floor and through out the following year. It is important to make sales and to have a great looking booth but for me I keep my eye on the long game. Selling a print to a random attendee dwarfs in comparison to strengthening friendships with fellow artist and art directors that I may only see once or twice a year. The people I go to see at Gen Con are more then just peers, clients, and friends... we are all doing this crazing art thing and all share common interests, experiences and up and downs in our lives. My wife talks about having "derby family" with those involved with her roller derby team, well, I have "art family" and it is so great to reconnect and have some fun with them. I guess that is really what Gen Con is for me...

Here are some images from the last day of Gen Con...

The booth is going through some changes on the last day... which is always nice.

The Three Dragons are going off to a new home and I wish them well!

So this is a thing apparently! Who knew? I certainly didn't... until now... RAWR!

The one and only Sam Flegal is taking home a certain Wookiee. A Wookiee I have not even had a chance to share here on the blog... I will remedy that soon. AND I totally stole this image of Sam's blog.

It all comes crashing down. I never think to take some photos of the con during tear down... until NOW.

Another view of a vastly different looking Gen Con.

Here we are at the end... Another successful Gen Con!

That is all for another exciting Gen Con wrap up, see you back here tomorrow for a return to normal blog activities! 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 2013 - Day 3

Day 3 of Gen Con 2013! The big long day of Gen Con. There are so many more people, more events, and just more of everything going on Saturday... or at least that is how it feels to me sitting at my booth in artist alley. There is definitely a bigger crush of people moving through out the exhibit hall. The day flew by as I was kept busy sketching, talking to people, and people watching. A lot of families faces and many more new ones. The day started off with being able to get into the Fantasy Flight Games booth (finally) to have a look at some things I worked on that I have not seen in person yet (more on this below) and concluded with being one of the judges of the L5R costume contest. Not a bad day at all!

This year's Gen Con was filled with so many new and interesting things and happenings. Just when I thought I knew what to expect from Gen Con and thought I knew what was going to happen... POW! New and exciting change of plans! ...that lead to enjoying Bike Week and light up hula hoops. Not really sure what these things have to do with the best four days in gaming, but they were shared with friends and a good time was had. I think wandering around the first night and seeing all that was going on and everything I had been missing opened my eyes to what else Gen Con has to offer.

Day 3 of Gen Con was a good day indeed. Here are lots of images from the day's events...

My Trandoshans are finally in print! (more on this SOON!)

More of my Star Wars secrets revealed from Edge of the Empire! (more on this SOON!)

The BEST OF SHOW Aaron B Miller's booth.

The extremely talented and all around great guy Scott Murphy's booth.

Drew Baker stops by to have a chat with Ralph Horsley.

Kiaju attack! RAWR!

Dragon angel sketch card for a collector of angel sketch cards.

It was a weekend of beholder sketches on play mats. Here is but one of many... RAWR!

Monster battle play mat! My contribution to the fray is the top tight flying mouth monster. Had to take up monster arms with Sam Fegal and his fire giant.

Some of the participants in the L5R costume contest. Great job everybody. You all can't win a prize but you are all winners in my book!

I for one welcome the coming of our new balloon Elder God of madness... Ia! Ia! (balloon) Cthulhu Fhtagn!

An omen! Unknown to me at the time this bison was showing what the future held for me after Gen Con was over... Con crud... YAYS!

You can find reference and inspiration everywhere. Love what the light and patterns are doing when these hula hoops are in motion. Almost like... MAGIC!

That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow for a look at the final day of Gen Con 2013! 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 2013 - Day 2

Well... the con crud finally caught up to me and knocked me out. I felt the first signs of it Tuesday morning while traveling home from Gen Con and I gave it the good fight... but it finally took me off my feet. Which is why this post is going up uncharacteristically late in the day. Hopefully I will fight through it quickly, since I have a lot to take care of right now! I guess there was too much fun had at Gen Con this year... or patient zero stopped by my booth...

Day 2 of Gen Con 2013! I find the Friday of Gen Con a weird one, it is not the frantic first day, it is not the super huge main day of Saturday, and it is not the frantic last day... it is just there in the middle. There felt like a lot people had shown up and there was a lot more activity. For the artists, there is the award show Friday evening and as in past years there is the Fantasy Flight dinner where the attending FFG art directors and artist all go out to eat and talk... which is super fun. Before all that post con fun there were musical interludes, steam punk things of all types, and lots of cards to sign.

I don't have as many pictures to share from my adventures on Day 2 of Gen Con but that does not mean there were not plenty of adventures...

This steam punk C-3PO was really weird...

A nice selection of my cards to sign. When asking for signatures...

...bringing extras to give to the artist, especially when they are card the artist does not have yet makes you a SUPER AWESOME person! THANKS!

A little musical interlude for the afternoon.

A look around the convention from my booth, Brom was over at that area to the left with the white cloth queue.

Aaron Miller took home best of show for Gen Con 2013!

Congrats... try not to eat your award...

FFG dinner! Seems to get bigger every year. Fun times!

We lifted up the king of all Gen Con artists and paraded him through the streets of Indianapolis as if he was a God on earth... or not... we may have just been posing for silly pictures...

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see you back here on Monday for more coverage from Gen Con 2013! 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 2013 - Day 1

Gen Con begins! The first day of Gen Con (a Thursday... and serendipitously, exactly one week ago) can be so unpredictable. Usually those there are on a mission to get an exclusive, play a specific game or item, or meet a specific person. There is not a lot of browsing... or so it seems to me. A lot of familiar faces came by the booth the first day which was nice... though it sometimes takes me a moment to put the face into context.

Gen Con is great for people watching and having a chair in a fixed location allows for a steady stream of interesting folks to engage with, talk to, and watch. This is one of my wife's favorite con activities. The day progressed in the usual fashion of frantic spikes in activity and creepy quiet moments. The evening turned out to be much more interesting then the usual Gen Con evening of hanging out in a bar. We began wandering about the evening and night event that the con had to offer and quickly released that we have been missing a lot of events and activities at the con. Then there was Wil Wheaton playing a giant game of Star Trek Settlers of Catan... There were also AMAZING cupcakes and converted even the more stoic and cynical of us into giddy piles of confectionary joy.

All in all, it was a pretty good start to Gen Con 2013! Here are some pictures from the first day...

The booth is now completely up and functional... with hidden spring loaded wife for surprise sales pitch action!

Play mats for all your play mat needs... RAWR!

I am told that next time Steve will oder the BIG banners...

The man, the myth, the Bradly... with super classy tip cardboard.

Noodles & Co was doing Gen Con RIGHT. These came with your take out.

Sketching in sketchbook 4! RAWR!

The most massive of miniatures... the Skorne Mammoth that I designed.

Everywhere I looked... P'an Ku...

Even MORE sketching in sketchbook 4... RAWRx2!

A look around Gen Con from my vantage point.

For me, THIS is the stuff of nightmares...

Not sure what is going on here, but I am PRETTY SURE it is illeagal in Indiana.

Hey kids, it's TV's Wil Wheaton!

That is all for another exciting Thursday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow for more Gen Con 2013 coverage! 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 2013 - Day 0

There are back again... Gen Con 2013. Due to limited (no) access to reliable wifi I am now posting my adventures from Gen Con 2013. I had planned to post while at the con... but the best laid plans... SO, I am posting it all now over the next several days.

Over all it was a really great con and hopefully the photos I took express that. It felt like there were always days and days ahead of me for the con and before I knew it... it was all over and I am home again. Met loads of people at the con, some new, some old and had some great interactions. Already looking ahead to Gen Con 2014!

Before I get ahead of myself, let's have a look at Gen Con 2013! As previously mentioned we drove as far as Nashville on the first day. We then made a caravan with the Flegals the rest of way to Indianapolis. Set up went smoothly and I am really happy with how the booth came together this year. Each year I learn to do things better and better, and I think it is starting to show... to me at least. Everyone was rather tired from travel and set up so there was now a lot of adventures the evening of Day 0, but there was plenty of time ahead of us for that!

Here is a look at Day 0...

TOTALLY saw a real dinosaur on the side of the interstate on the way to Indianapolis!

(Sorry for the bad photo, it all happen so quickly... like big foot.)

Upon second inspection on the way home it turned out to not be a REAL dinosaur... /sad

Crossed a real cool bridge as we left Kentucky and entered Indiana.

The booth! Almost completely together. There will be some additions and modifications before the start of the con the following day.

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow for more Gen Con 2013 coverage! 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 2013… the journey begins!

On our way to Gen Con!

Driving has made things a lot different so far this year. We are able to bring so much more… and boy have we… but I then have had to drive through Atlanta. Flying through Atlanta is always an easier experience compared to driving through it. Miss your exit in 70 mph traffic? Why not stop suddenly and turn slowly… what is the worst that can happen?!

Driving allowed us to the pleasant treat to stay with Sam Flegal and family. Much sushi was had! Our visit has definitely made the trip up north to Indianapolis way more enjoyable. We have a bit more driving ahead of us and then set up our journey to Gen Con is almost done. …but more on this soon.

Here are some images from the days travels…

I miss the time when the quality of the restaurant or hotel was based on the size of the rocket out front.

The perfect keepsake to remember my trip to Gen Con 2013?

Meanwhile in Atlanta…

I will always carry a torch for Hotlanta.

Some of Sam Flegal's skull pets.

More skull pets… they all say, "RAWR!"

P'an Ku appeared at dinner and commanded me to eat ALL the sushi…

That is all for another exciting Wednesday, see you at Gen Con! Until then...

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