A Second Look at Older Work - Back to the Very Beginning With the Blight Rat

On Monday, I shared with you that I have been working with Wizards of the Coast for twenty years as of this past Sunday. Today, I wanted to look back at the very first work that I did for them. As mentioned, I was first hired to design miniatures for WotC's new game, Dreamblade. It was the perfect job for me and one I still greatly miss. While I was initially hired to design three pieces for the game, by the time the game was cancelled, I had designed over seventy-five miniatures, with the majority seeing production. 

Of the three original pieces, one of them was approved before the rest. It was a little touch-and-go, at least for me, in those early days. I was fresh back from LA, and I had never worked in games, for WotC, or on miniatures. I had a lot of skills, and I knew what they needed and wanted, but to get all of the moving pieces to line up and for me to make an approved design took a bit of time, a ton of work, and even more stress. But when the first one was finally approved, the rest fell into place and were also approved, leading to more and more assignments.

But I want to be clear, I was in WAY over my head and doing my best to fake it until I made it. I can draw monsters all day long. But drawing them all day long for a client, giving me a lot of freedom while putting a lot of guardrails up, was an interesting situation to find myself in. I learned so much in an extremely short period when I started working on Dreamblade, and my artistic skill set, especially drawing, made vast leaps. I could talk at great length about the mistakes I made at this time, the things I learned, and the nature of the business, communication, etc., but I think I will now show off some art. It all began with the Blight Rat.  

Blight Rat - © 2006 Wizards of the Coast

You might look at this and think, yes, that is totally one of your monsters. It has many of my go-to elements: asymmetrical, deformed or mutated, spikes and points, and a natural sense of "RAWR". But I had to get here kicking and screaming and freaking out. What is so obvious now had to come from a massive amount of work and rejection. I was under the false assumption that I could be fired at any moment if I submitted a 'bad' drawing. So it wasn't until that first approval that I was actually able to breathe and start making monsters and having fun. 

Blight Rat turnaround - © 2006 Wizards of the Coast

There were multiple phases of approval on these. You were given the art order and had to design a front or 3/4 front view. Once that was approved, you then made the side and back view, or more if the design required it. So when I said this one was the first approved, it was the first front view approved, and then I had to get the front views for the other two I was working on approved before moving onto the rest of the views. Speaking of the other two, I shared the Pick-Pick and the Genteel Husk nine years ago. The Pick-Pick was a fun challenge, and I think the end result is very cool and unexpected, while the Genteel Husk was a pain from start to finish.

Blight Rat concepts - © 2006 Wizards of the Coast

Looking at these early concepts for the Blight Rat (or Pigsticker as it was originally named), you might be confused by its final form. These concepts faithfully follow what I was asked to create. There is some of me in there, but these are in line with what production wanted to see. I had some really good chats with my AD while working on these, and she really pushed me to go nuts and 'have fun and do something cool,' which have been the words I mostly worked by on all future WotC projects. So I went back to the drawing table and took up where I had stopped with the third concept and made the leap to the approved Blight Rat design. There were no middle steps and no other versions. I had three rejected concepts and then hit a home run. I learned so much in that leap.  

Blight Rat miniature - © 2006 Wizards of the Coast

And at the very end of the project, I would get a little figure of my monster to hold in my hand. It has never gotten better than this. I wish every assignment ended with a little toy of your work. That would be really amazing. If you want to see more of my Dreamblade work, you can see everything I have shared here on the blog.

That's all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog. See you back here Friday! Until then...

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