Rods of Murder - The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia

I am thrilled to share another new piece from The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia! This illustration is for Book Two: The Completed Circle. This is one of the numerous pieces of spot art throughout the book. This supporting image is for the Dashing Vagabond section of the book. Depicted here are two styles of wands of killing or rods of murder. Using a unique combination of materials, one can launch various objects with great force at an opponent or target. The Dashing Vagabond is quite fond of using them... or is he? Because the mathematics behind the reactive agents was not discovered until many hundreds of years after the story of The Completed Circle takes place. I present the Rods of Murder.

Rods of Murder
The Grand Bazaar of Ethra Dalia - The Completed Circle
12 x 9 - Pencil, ink, and acrylic paint on paper
Contact me regarding availability
© 2024 Christopher Burdett

Rods of Murder - Drawing 

12 x 9 - Pencil on paper
© 2024 Christopher Burdett

 

This is one of the many pieces I completed so far this year. It has been a blur of pencil and paint. Nice to finally be sharing them. Here is a look at the sketch for the Rods of Murder to show where it began.

Rods of Murder - Sketch 

 Digital 

 © 2024 Christopher Burdett 

As a bonus, I have some images of the rendering process of this piece so that you can get a better idea of it taking shape. Additional fun fact: While this is the same paper I have used for my work on the Grand Bazaar, this sheet and several others recently used was from a larger piece of Rives BFK that I have had since college, so over twenty years old. I am not sure if it is the age of the paper or if the paper is made differently now, but water does not go down on this paper the same way as all the others of the same type I use. So there was a lot more drying time and a lot of impatient waiting to see if the washes went down correctly and if the pencil was blending the way I desired. In the end, there was no deviation from the image I was able to achieve, just some uncertain moments of waiting for things to dry.

Rods of Murder - Process

© 2024 Christopher Burdett

That is 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