Thursday, December 31, 2020

Unexpected Last Post of 2020

While I thought I had wrapped up all my posts for 2020 here on the blog, it looks like there was one more. I have mentioned more than once that 2020 was a challenging year for me artistically. While I saw the completion, funding, and publishing of my first illustrated novel in the Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia series, I spent much of the year unable to produce art. It wasn't until the last several months that I could get back to the table and get back to work. I know many of you out there were in the same boat, are still in the same boat, or can relate to this as it pertains to your lives. Needless to say, I think this all is made more manifest by my Instagram top nine for 2020. My posts were way down, my numbers on links and comments on the posts are way down, and the work that was most interacted with was almost exclusively client work, much of which was old reposts, and one piece of my linework colored by Jacob Walker. I am a little surprised that my new personal work is nowhere to be seen here, but there is nothing I can, or care, to do about it. This is in no way something to take personally, and it will affect me in no way moving forward. It is all merely an observation through one lens. Here are my top nine images according to what I posted on Instagram in 2020, and the numbers of interactions they each had. 

 
Top Nine images on Instagram for 2020, what will 2021 hold?

That is all for 2020. See you back here in 2021 in a week or so. Until then...

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

Monday, December 21, 2020

2020 Holiday Card - Seasons Eatings!

2020 has been a unique year, and when it came time for this year's holiday card, I didn't know if I had it in me to make one, let alone come up with an idea. Since it has been a tradition for so long, and it being 2020, it felt like a bad year to skip a card. I decided to do something that would be fun, near and dear to me, and likely well-received. This resulted in a festive alligator with its sack of goodies. Wishing you all the best as 2020 comes to an end, and I hope that 2021 will bring us change. I present you with Season Eatings!

Seasons Eatings! - 2020 Holiday Card
11x14 - Pencil and acrylic paint on paper
© 2020 Christopher Burdett

Lastly, here are the card exterior and interior so you can get a feel for what it looks like...

2020 Holiday Card exterior
© 2020 Christopher Burdett

 
2020 Holiday Card interior
© 2020 Christopher Burdett

That is all for another exciting year on the blog. See you back here in 2021! Until then...

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

Friday, December 18, 2020

Pipyap's Guide to All of the Nine Hells - Return of the Hellfire Engine

While this is likely not the first time something like this has happened with my art, it is the first I have noticed and tracked down. Through WotC, art from Dungeons & Dragons can be licensed for use by game designers creating third part D&D compatible products. This book, Pipyap's Guide to All of the Nine Hells, from 2019, popped up on my radar a few months ago, and I decided to hunt down a copy to see how my art was used. At first, I thought I had been credited by mistake, but I eventually located my Hellfire Engine hanging out on a page. It's a fun book, though I was surprised to see that it was printed on matte paper. I am sure that is because of the cost and for the look of the book. I mean, my book is printed on matte paper for esthetics. Here is a look at Pipyap's Guide to All of the Nine Hells and the Hellfire Engine.

 
Pipyap's Guide to All of the Nine Hells.

 
The Hellfire Engine in all its glory on matte paper, once again, the photo does not do the printing of the book justice.

I am surprised how much this piece had gotten around. I mentioned when I posted the process for this piece that I felt uncertain about my designs for it, but it ended up being well received by production. Funny how some of these things work out. Here again, is the final art that I created for the Hellfire Engine.

Hellfire Engine
Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
11 x 14 - Digital
Art Director - Kate Irwin
© 2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC

That's all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here on Monday for one more post of 2020. Until then...

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

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Portent - Magic: the Gathering - Process

The Portent! This piece has had an exciting ride and is a favorite piece of mine, and I am happy to share the process, steps, and some of the backstory that went into making this piece. First, here is some of the backstory about the Portent and its intended life as another card. I worked on this piece in late 2013, and from what I understood, it would be making its appearance in Commander 2014 as updated art for the Commander Sphere. The art order called for a magical glass sphere full of magical powers swirling around inside it. The orb could be set in some sort of holder, or it could be held in gloved hands. I went with the gloved hand route, and I wanted to do something interesting with the sphere's surface, or orb, with having different sections and maybe some wrappings or metalwork to make it visually unique. I did a lot of work, which I will share below, got the piece approved, and sent it off. 

When Commander 2014 came out, I looked through the art to see that the Commander Sphere's art was not mine and was either old art or someone else's new art. This was not the first time something like this had happened, and while I was used to it, it never takes away the sting of realizing that it had happened. I reached out to my art director to see if it was anything on my end of the piece that was the issue, and she, if I recall, was actually unaware of the change in art and assured me that it was not me or the art and that in the fullness of time the art would be used. She mentioned that they had just found an unused Mark Zug painting in the slush folder that had lingered there for ten years, but it was finally getting released. 

I knew I needed to be patient. It will either get used or it wouldn't, and there was very little I could do about it. I out the piece out of my mind and moved on since I was more than busy enough and had plenty of work ahead of me and plenty that was coming out. Jump ahead to late 2018. I sat down at my computer one morning and was starting everything and getting ready for the day. I glanced at my Twitter app as different software opened, and my blood went cold when I saw my art for the Commander Sphere in a tweet I was tagged in. My first thought was somehow my computer, and my art had been compromised, and someone was posting my unreleased art. That was how far out of my mind this piece was five years later. It took a moment for me to realize that this was an official announcement that the art was finally released and had been now used on the reprint of the Portent card. But for a few moments, I was a bit panic-stricken that I had a lot of clean up to do.

The personal connection here is that the Portent card's original appearance was in the Ice Age expansion, which happens to be the final set I bought and played when I used to play Magic the Gathering. Liz Danforth was the artist on the original Portent, and it has gone unchanged until my art was used on this new printing. If I am going to have the baton passed to me with a card, it is an honor to have it, Liz Danforth. I am confident that if this art had been used on the Commander Sphere in 2014, it would have gone unnoticed, but in 2018 as the new art of the Portent, it was a very successful piece for me. Before I get into the process, here is the final art for the Portent.

 
Portent
Magic the Gathering - Commander 2018
12 x 8.7- Digital 
Art Director - Dawn Murin 
 
As mentioned above, I needed to depict a pair of gloved hands holding a magical orb for this assignment. It turned out that the only gloves we had on hand (no pun intended) were some that fit my wife. I am nearly always the model for my work, but since the gloves wouldn't fit me, Dear Wife got to be the star of this piece, at least her hands. We took a massive amount of photos of her holding a glass orb in many different lighting and environmental situations. I set up a light bulb on an extension cord to backlight the orb or have different directional lighting. She held the orb in dozens of ways, and I took pictures of it all. I had an idea of what I wanted this piece to be, and we worked out the physical reality of it as well as many more options. Here are a couple reference images that should look familiar when compared to the final painting.

 
Just two images of the massive amount of orb, lighting, and hand reference I shot before going into this piece.

Now that I had more than enough references to work from, I got to work on my thumbnails for this piece. I had three main concepts I wanted to send to production. With those concepts, I had a plain and a more involved version. If I remember correctly, they had several favorites, but we eventually settled on option 'D' for the final. They did not have any notes regarding changes or edits. I am still a big fan of the 'face' version, and since it was not used, I may use it in something for my stories. Here are the thumbnails that I submitted for this piece.

Portent - Thumbnails
© 2018 Wizards of the Coast

With an approved thumbnail in hand, it was time to work on the drawings. First up is the pencil drawing to finalize the image and add details. I needed to make sure the metalwork on the orb's surface was correct and working so that I didn't have any awkward edits with the painting later. Better to make sure it was right now. I submitted this drawing, and it was approved. Here is the final drawing for this assignment.

 
Portent - Drawing
Magic the Gathering - Commander 2018
12 x 9 -Pencil on paper 
Original - SOLD
 
© 2018 Wizards of the Coast
 
Now that the drawing was approved, I worked up a tonal study of this piece. This is to help me get the value down for the painting that lays ahead. In recent years I have not had the time to do this step, and I regretted it. I am glad that I once again have the time to make sure my value is established early on. Here is the tonal study for the Portent.

 
Portent - Tonal Study 
Magic the Gathering - Commander 2018
12 x 9 -Pencil on paper 
Original - SOLD
 
© 2018 Wizards of the Coast
 
Before I began painting, I did one more reference shoot. Since I was about to painting swirling magic, I wanted to try some experiments to see what I could capture to give myself some more organic real-world magic effects. To that end, I let off some fireworks and gathered other images of fireworks that I had previously photographed. I also did a photoshoot with iridescent plastic. I wrinkled the plastic, balled it up, and shaped it in different ways with different lighting to see what effects I could get. I found it all very informative, and it immensely helped in directing my efforts with my painting. While there are plenty of ways to make sparks, having imagery of real sparks acting randomly is a much better reference than anything I have ever come across. Here are a few of the many reference images I gathered for this painting.

A sample of the magic effect reference that I shot to better inform my marks of what is happening in and around the orb.

After all of that work, two rounds of reference, thumbnails, drawings, tonal studies, and approvals, it was now finally time to paint. To be honest, this was the easiest part of the whole process. I had done so much work and had so much to pull from that the painting practically painted itself. I simply needed to spend the time in the chair and get the work done. Which I did. Here is a look at the painting for Portent taking shape.

Portent - Process
© 2018 Wizards of the Coast

After all that work, it is hard to not feel a certain degree of sadness and frustration when a painting goes unused. But, at the end of the day, that is the reality of the industry. Thankfully, the art eventually saw the light of day, and I can share all of this with you here. I still have art that has never been released, some from all the way back in 2008, though I am not sure how eager I would be to share that worth you now. Some things are best left lost in time and space. Here again, is the final art that eventually became the Portent and its corresponding card.

 
Portent
Magic the Gathering - Commander 2018© 2018 Wizards of the Coast

 
Portent in handy dandy card form

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

Monday, December 14, 2020

Early Influences - Richard Corben

The news of Richard Corben's passing was announced last week. Each year brings the end of more and more voices and talents that paved the way for us and were an inspiration for so many. I do not know a time that I was not aware of Corben's work. I may not have known his name, and I was definitely too young to read the stories he wrote and illustrated, but I knew his mark-making anywhere. It was likely a copy of Heavy Metal flipped through at a gas station on a family trip or an accidentally grabbed horror comic at the comic book store, but Corben's hand caught my eye and never let go.

I can definitely say three things that make me love Corben's work. First, I love how he renders forms and volumes. His images have so much mass and shape to them, I feel they are three dimensional. Second, I love his textures. For me, there is a Corben texture. I can't, but my finger on it, but the textures and surfaces he creates are indeed his own. Third, I love his monsters. Like the rest of his work, Corben's monsters are uniquely his. Be they hulking masses, an abomination or horror, or festering undead, I love all of his creations.

I will be honest, I have not ready as much of Richard Corben's work as I would like or that I should have. I know his covers and featured works much more. In a way, he is still giving me new work because I am continually discovering works I am wholly unknown to me. Take the cover of Marvel's Epic #2. I have known of Epic since the early 1980s, but I had never held a copy in my hands. I was too young for it at the time and never made an effort to hunt it down later. That is until a month ago when I was able to purchase the first eleven issues. And the cover of issue two? That would be a self-portrait of Corben doing battle against a pack of large lizard monsters. The painting is forty years old and is brand new to me. As if it was painted this year. 

Richard Corben worked on some mainstream comics when I was very much into comics, and those are the works that resonate loudest with me. He illustrated two limited series for Marvel, one for Hulk and one for Luke Cage, and I can not speak highly enough of them. As mentioned before, his mark-making to create the Corben forms and textures are on point in these books, and even if they were so well written, I would still encourage people to own them for the art alone. Corben's work on Hellboy is also top-notch, and his visual storytelling can't be beaten. That said, there is one comic work that I love more than all others. No, not Den, for I was too young to read it, and I have yet to go back and discover it. I am talking of the DC Solo issue that featured Corben's art and stories. DC produced a short series of comics that allowed the giants of the time to tell and illustrate their stories. I have bought Corben's issue multiple times over the years to ensure I always have a copy. The issue is a collection of short, self-contained stories, and they all leaving you wanting more. In this collection is one of my favorite stories, being both Corben's and all comics in general. It is about a cyclops. It is short. It is to the point. And I love it.

Sadly, we lost a giant this month. He is gone but certainly not forgotten, and I eagerly look forward to discovering more of his work. If you have some favorites that I should read, add them in the comments! I would like to hear what should be on my reading list.

That's all for another exciting Monday on the blog. 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

Friday, December 11, 2020

Art Vs. Artist 2020

I see that folks are posting their 2020 Art vs. Artist images and thought that I would add mine to the pile. I have found it a challenging year to make art, but as the year comes to an end, I have made a few pieces. That said, here is my 2020 Art vs. Artist.

 
Art vs. Artist 2020

That's all for another week on the blog. See you back here next week. Until then...

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

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Nylea's Forerunner - Magic: the Gathering - Process

At the beginning of 2020, which is the same year I am writing this, though it feels as if a decade has passed, I had three cards released in the Magic the Gathering set, Theros Beyond Death. One of these three cards was Nylea's Forerunner. Today, I have for you the process and steps that went into creating the Nylea's Forerunner painting. I think it is fair to say that most artists have their favorites and their not so favorite pieces that they create. Not every painting can live up to expectations, what you planned for it to be, or stand up to other pieces in a series. Nylea's Forerunner was my third completed painting for this block of MtG, and it followed the Shimmerwing Chimera and the Stinging Lionfish, so at the end of the day, the Forerunner held a distant third place in my heart. Not that this piece is terrible, I think it has two much prettier siblings it was competing with. I still gave it all the time and attention that I gave the other two paintings, if not more, and made sure I produced something that production with happy with and met their expectations. Here is the final painting for the Nylea's Forerunner.

 
Nylea's Forerunner
Magic the Gathering - Theros Beyond Death
14 x 10.2 - Digital 
Art Director - Dawn Murin 
© 2020 Wizards of the Coast
 
There is a plethora of reference for the Theros realm, and I have worked on the very first Theros set, so it was a world I was comfortable and excited to return to. The Forerunner was a modified monster that was based on a previously illustrated monster. While I was working with some existing elements, I was given a fair bit of direction on how they wanted it to change and plenty of room to make it my own. Since this was very much not a humanoid monster, I, sadly, didn't use myself as a reference. I did pull from my knowledge of animal anatomy and my numerous quadruped reference aids. With world and monster reference in hand, I produced four thumbnails.

 
Nylea's Forerunner - Thumbnails
© 2020 Wizards of the Coast LLC
 
Option 'A' was selected without revisions or comments. While it is excellent to have nailed it on the first pass, it is sometimes a little frustrating that I spent all that time on the other thumbnails. This is a passing thought since it is my job to work out ideas and concepts and explore the many possibilities for any given illustration. I need to provide production options and different compositions for the particular assignment so that they can choose what works best for their needs. In this case, the first thumbnail accomplished this and met the needs of production. I still have all of these other thumbnails and compositions to later explore my own work, though the monster would need to change. Now that the thumbnail was selected, it was time to create the final drawing.

 
Nylea's Forerunner
Magic the Gathering - Theros Beyond Death
14 x 11 - Pencil of paper
© 2020 Wizards of the Coast
 
The drawing was approved with the only note that I need to remove the pattering on the monster. This was not a natural animal of the world of Theros that would have crazy patterning. This was an enchanted monster that would have the starfield effect and more natural skin textures. While the drawing was now approved to begin my painting, I was not completely happy with it. Sometimes things that are technically correct have a way of looking off. That back foot bothered me something fierce, and I knew that if I painted it the way it was, I would either regret it or I would be asked to change it after it was reviewed. When I removed the markings, I adjusted the foot to be more like the expected foot in a pose of this nature rather than the foot that is actually coming forward with splayed toes. Here are the process steps that went into painting Nylea's Forerunner. Take note of how the drawing changed in the first couple of steps and later how that foot continued to adjust to finally reach a point I was happy. Also, you can see how I built up the enchanted starfield effect.

Nylea's Forerunner - Process
© 2020 Wizards of the Coast LLC
 
If I remember correctly, Nylea's Forerunner was approved without needing any edits to the painting. My wife, who is my in-house art director, worked a bit after I had completed the piece to push and pull things so that it all worked as well as it can. Making sure that the shadows have the starfield effect while simultaneously trying to define forms and volumes can get a little tricky. While this is not the favorite of my Theros Beyond Death paintings, I still think it is a successful piece, and I learned a lot from it. Here again, is the final painting as well as the art on the card. 

 
Nylea's Forerunner
Magic the Gathering - Theros Beyond Death 
© 2020 Wizards of the Coast

 
Nylea's Forerunner in handy card form!

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

Monday, December 7, 2020

D&D Monster Cards - Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes - Return of the Hydroloth, Sacred Statue, and Choker

Within the past two years, give or take, a D&D Monster Card deck was released for Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. Included in this deck are three of the monsters that I painted for Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. Where are the rest, you ask? That is a story or another day. As I have mentioned countless times, being in a book is fantastic, but there is just something extra special about having my work as a miniature or a card. While my first introduced to D&D through books, I once played countless hours of card and miniature games. Maybe that is where this comes from? With the release of Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes Monster Deck, my Hydroloth, Sacred Statue (Eidolon), and Choker ger their own cards. Here is a look at the deck box and the cards.

 
Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes Monster Deck
 
 
Hydroloth
 
 
Sacred Statue (Eidolon)
 
Choker

Of these there monsters, all but the Hydroloth has been made into a miniature. In my book, that is not too shabby, and it is always fun to see my monsters make the rounds. Here again, is the final art that I created of these three monsters.

 
Hydroloth 
Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes 
11 x 14 - Digital
Art Director - Kate Irwin 
© 2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC
 
 
Eidolon
Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
11 x 14 - Digital
Art Director - Kate Irwin 
© 2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC
 
 
Choker
Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
11 x 14 - Digital
Art Director - Kate Irwin 
© 2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC

That's all for another exciting Monday on the blog. 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

Friday, December 4, 2020

Early Influences - Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire

 
Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire 
(or Cossacks of Saporog Are Drafting a Manifesto) - Ilya Repin

I have no memory of when or where I first encountered Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, but I feel as if it has haunted me my entire life. This is one of those works of art that reminds me that no matter how much work I create, how much time I spend honing my skill sets, no matter how far I push myself, there will always be this painting. A painting that feels lightyears out of my reach. This is not a bad thing, okay, maybe at an earlier time in my life, but now, it offers strange security. No matter how content I may feel, I can push further, I can do better, and it is entirely possible to reach a higher goal with my work. 

Why this particular painting? If simply looking at it does not answer your question, then focus on the unique and glorious personalities that each individual has. I can stare at these men for hours and continue to see something new. In this frozen moment, I feel as if I can know everything there is to know about each man. To me, that is the hand of a powerful storyteller and artist. The scene is beautifully composed with figures overlapping, bunching, looking into and out of the frame. I LOVE the foremost man reclining on the barrel looking into the frame with you. He looks on with you. He is your companion in viewing this scene. If you know my work, you know that I like detail, accessories, and stuff. I love STUFF in my work, and with Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, each man has his gear, his weapons, his personal belongings, and the painting is full of them. Even with all of the stuff, and figures, and background, and tents, and smoke, and everything (I feel at least) you can still flow through the image, seeing the faces, and finally focus on the scribe writing the letter. 

I will be honest; I did not know the story behind this painting for a very long time. That said, I don't feel that I was missing much. There is so much storytelling happening within this painting that the historical context can be an afterthought. When I look at these battle-hardened warriors, they are crafting a letter with great delight that will undoubtedly be received by the recipient, and this recipient will be none too happy about it. You are welcome to read more about this painting and where its place in history. It is indeed an eye-opener and shows how well Repin visually conveyed the narrative.

Uncompleted version two of the painting that was meant to be more historically accurate.

Until I was doing some research in preparation for writing this post, I was utterly oblivious that Repin began a second, more historically accurate, version of this painting while working on the original. It remains unfinished, but it shines a light on his process and what these men possibly actually looked like. That said, the original remains the only version to me. There are some improvements with the expressions of some of the figures, but I feel that many of the stars of the original have been lost. For me, most notably, the reclining man on the barrel in the foreground. The composition is a bit stronger in the second version, and the scribe definitely is more of a focal point. While unfinished, it is not fair to compare the two. If anything, they can be seen as two different photographs taken of the same event.

I want to touch again on the faces of the men. For me, they will always be the stars of this painting. They are expressive, they are exaggerated, they are monstrous, and I love them. We are, and likely will always be, small pack primates that focus on faces and hands. That is in our DNA and in our chemical soup in our brains. So we naturally look to faces to communicate, and the faces that Repin painted in this one each speak volumes. I hope that each monster I create can have a tenth of the character and personality that these men exude. That is the challenge of working with nonhumans, but that is the path I chose. It takes nothing away from my enjoyment of looking at this painting and creating a backstory for each man. Maybe that is why this piece is so compelling to me, what it holds my attention after all these years, it leaves me wanting more. I want to know these men, to read of their adventures, to learn if they fall in battle or win the day. An image that leaves you wanting more (in the right way) is something I have strived for throughout my career, and it likely originates with the Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire.

 
Religious Procession in Kursk Province  - Ilya Repin

While discussing Repin, I would be remiss in not also mentioning Religious Procession in Kursk Province. It is another sprawling painting with so many figures, personalities, and storytelling. I came to know this one much later that Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, but it is a powerful image.

That's all for another exciting week on the blog. 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

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Some MORE Selected Recent Artist Proof Drawings

Today I have for you a selection of recent artist proofs that I added drawings to their backs. With the recent Magic the Gathering print sale I ran, I had a number of artist proofs to fulfill for orders. If you are interested in getting any of these for yourself, just follow the links to my store. Enough promotion, here are some drawings! 

 
The Portent continues to be a popular Artist Proof. So popular that I am beginning to run low on my remaining copies. It has been fun to find ways to make a glowing glass orb of power a fun subject to draw. Here we have a Beholder checking out their Portent.

 
This tentacled horror got their own Portent too!

 
The angry lizard that comes with Shifting Shadows... RAWR!

 
The Narnam Cobra continues to be popular as well. Scribbling away on robot cobras...

 
WAIT! Don't leave, I just got started drawing you!

And one more Portent, this time it is just hanging out and safe for now.

That's 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