Pensacon 2022 Recap - There and Back Again

At Pensacon 2020, we launched the Kickstarter for The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia. It was funded quickly, and there was much celebration. Then the world fell apart. The book was still funded in 2020 and missed the release date by a week or two, even with the chaos. Now, two years later, I returned to Pensacon with the books, prints, original art, and much more. I didn't know what to expect. Deep down, I braced myself for a diminished con experience as I introduced people to the Grand Bazaar and reestablished myself as a creator. The days of Yoda prints and dragon playmats are gone, and the time of the Grand Bazaar is now.

I have never been so wrong about so much. Not only was this the best Pensacon that I have ever had, but it was also one of the most successful conventions that I have ever had. And save for two D&D drawings and a few Magic the Gathering artist proofs, it was ALL the Grand Bazaar. I didn't imagine selling any deluxe editions of the book and sold all eight that I brought. I assumed I would sell no prints and sold out of the copies for one of them. I knew that I would never sell any of the original art from the book, and I sold a couple of pieces. The book was a success. The coloring book was a success. The stats guide was a success. I do not know what this means for me at future cons, but I am invigorated, excited, and ready to begin sharing the Grand Bazaar with everyone.

I debuted the book at IX this past October, but IX is a different type of event. The Grand Bazaar was well received, but the focus was the art. Pensacon was the first time to bring the book and world before a comic con attendance. I was not prepared. People were eager to learn about my world. People were buying books without looking at them. I am still trying to get my head around it all. It was indeed an amazing and humbling experience. I want to say more, but I still haven't found the words. My heartfelt thanks go out to everyone that came to my booth, my con friends and family - both old and new, and the staff, volunteers, and everyone associated with Penacon for making this such a fantastic weekend and experience.

Due to how busy I was, I didn't have the chance to talk too many photos, but here are some images that I did take.

 

When the badge is in hand, I know Pensacon has started.

 

The Grand Bazaar has arrived at Pensacon. Each time we set up the GB, we learn a little more and tweak it to make it better. I came home with a list of things I plan to address before the next event so that it will be even better. 

 

The calm before the storm.

 

I was a part of three fantastic panels. One was a drawing competition where we drew live alone and as teams again other artists. We would only be allowed two to three minutes to draw. The first image was my drawing, and the other two are the team's results. Those in the audience got to keep the drawings.  

 

I have never seen Pensacon so packed, and they indeed broke all attendance records for the convention.

 

Got to meet another space monster and added a figure to my collection.

Lastly, a massive thanks to Lemmie Crews, who is a fantastic human and a joy to know, for this fabulous fetish that he made. It is now in the studio doing its thing!

That is all for another exciting Wednesday 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

BLOG-a-versary - Lucky Thirteen

Thirteen years ago, on February 17th, 2009, I started this blog to chronicle my journey as a monster artist. Today's post makes my 1986th post on the blog, and we are just shy of 2000 posts. Somehow, after all these years, I still find myself needing to post here. Social media has so many other avenues to scream into the void, but yet I still try to post here as often as possible. While it sometimes happens these days, I beleive that the days of posting three times away are gone. I am not creating the volume of work that is needed for that. Well, that is not fully accurate. I am making art, but that art is for me, for my books, and takes a bit longer to make then what I make for clients. I will spend a month making a single piece that will mean a single blog post. I would need something for another eleven posts to fill out a month the way I used to. 

Currently on the drawing table, I hope to have it completed once I return from Pensacon. 

After that, it is on to the next one.

 

I have plans for posts about aspects of my work and things I want to talk more about, but those take a lot of time and energy to create. Time better suited for making art, leaving less time for blog posts. I have been doing 100 and 50 streatches of posting collections of art on social media to fill in the voids between completing new art for the book. I think what I am trying to say is that the blog continues to live on, I can no longer give it the time and attention I once did. For good and bad. It remains an achieve of thirteen years of learning and adventure in the world of a professional artist. But moving forward, I feel like there will be a little less happening here from week to week. I will still be posting deep dives into the process of making my work. I will still talk long and hard about my books and the world of the Grand Bazaar. I will still share with you when my D&D work in turned into miniatures. Hopefully, in the fullness of time I will have more time in my schedule to spend a little more energy coming up with things to share here.

Thank you one and all for all the support and incouragement and for sticking around all these years to following me on my journy. I hope I have been able to make in an enjoyable one for you and that I have offered up something halfway informative. Looking forward to another years here. I am sure there will be some interesting things to share a long the way.

That's all of anthere exciting Wednesday on the blog. See you back here next week after Pensacon. Until then...

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

Pensacon 2022 Panel Schedule

Pensacon 2022 begins this coming Friday, and in addition to returning as a guest artist, I will be part of three panels. The panels, not surprisingly, focus on art and making monsters and take place on Friday and Saturday. If you are attending, I hope to see you there!

 

I will see you at Pensacon from February 18-20, 2022!

The panels begin almost as soon as the convention starts. If you want to forgo the crush of people trying to get in when the convention beings at 1PM on Friday, I might suggest the Cover Art & Illustrations panel at 2PM. I am looking forward to the FX for Movies Q&A at 7PM on Friday, as I have plenty of questions for my panel buddy. Finally, at 12:15PM on Saturday, I will be part of the Artist Showdown, where we will be drawing live from prompts from the audience. Here are all the details and more in image form.

 

Three art panels for all your art panel needs. 

 

All the panel details for all the panel detail needs.

That's all for another exciting Tuesday 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

50 Days of Star Wars

Starting today and running for 50 consecutive days, I will be sharing pieces of Star Wars art that I produced since 2011, when I first began working on the Star Wars tabletop games. While I am kicking things off here on the blog, my daily posts will be on various social media platforms. To see the daily D&D be sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or my Facebook Page. If this seems familiar to you, that is because it is. In September of 2021, I shared 100 days of Dungeons & Dragons art. It was so much fun that I thought it would be fun to do the same with my Star Wars work. I never worked on or produced as much work for SW as I did for D&D, so I only have 50 days of art to share.

To start things off, I am going to the very beginning with the first piece of Star Wars art that I was ever commissioned to create, the Wookiee Navigator card art for the core set of the Star Wars Card Game in 2011. This card went through some edits to end up where it eventually did and was promptly forgotten about. Only later, when the card was reused as the Gunner card in the X-Wing miniature game, did the art catch on and find a fan base. Huh, look at that! A black Wookiee, I feel like there is a black Wookiee of notoriety that has been in the spotlight lately. I guess I was ahead of the curve 11 years ago. No matter, here is the art I created for the Wookiee Navigator card. 

Wookiee Navigator
  Star Wars LCG Core Set
9.6 x 6.9 - Digital

© 2011 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games

As with all my work, there are one or more drawings to go along with the finished painting. For this particular Wookiee, there is the line art and a tonal study. It is always interesting to see where my tonal work started and how much it has advanced over the years.

Wookiee Navigator - Drawing
  Star Wars LCG Core Set

11 x 9 - Pencil on paper

Original - SOLD

© 2011 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games

 

Wookiee Navigator - Tonal study
  Star Wars LCG Core Set

12 x 9 - Pencil on paper

Original - SOLD

© 2011 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games

 See you on social media over the next 50 days as I share paintings, drawings, and more!

That's all for another exciting Thursday 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

Infected By Art Volume 10 Selected Work

I am happy to announce that I have been selected for inclusion in Infected By Art Volume 10. I love IBA, and it is a real honor to be included with so many other great artist and their work. You can see a complete list of the art included in IBA 10 over on their website. As I said, lots of great work! As far as my work, Cryptic Knight, from the upcoming The Grand Bazaar of Ethra Dalia - The Completed Circle, was selected.

Cryptic Knight

The Grand Bazaar of Ethra Dalia - The Completed Circle
13 x 17 - Pencil, ink, and acrylic paint on paper
Original - SOLD
© 2021 Christopher Burdett

You can never know what will or will not make it into a juried event, and it is always interesting to see what does make it through the selection process. If you are curious, here is everything that I submitted for consideration in IBA 10. Congrats to everyone that made it in, and a huge thanks to the jury and to Bill Cox for all his work in making IBA a reality. I can't wait to see the completed book first hand!

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