The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT: Beyond the Rim

Showing posts with label Beyond the Rim. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Trandoshan Rival Explorer - Beyond the Rim Process

Today on the blog I have for you the process that went into the making of (in my opinion) the best space lizards, a Trandoshan, for the Star Wars RPG book, Beyond the Rim. I shared this with you originally in September... how time flies. To get us back up to speed, here is how the final Trandoshan Rival Explorer turned out...

Rival Explorer

This is not my first nor will it be my last Trandoshan piece. I think there is a standing order still over at Fantasy Flight Games to give them to me if at all possible. They are one of my two favorite aliens from Star Wars... the other being the Mon Calamari, but I have mentioned this many times. I have lots of reference and years of familiarity with these guys so it is always fun to work on them. I got started with some thumbnails as always...

Rival Explorer - Thumbnails

Nope, totally not standing in the yard dressed in what I imagined a Trandoshan explorer would where... nope, TOTALLY not happening. At the time I think I was leaning more toward option 'B' after being really excited about option 'A'... but it didn't matter, option 'A' was the winner with the client. With a selected thumbnail in hand it was time to get started on the drawing...

Rival Explorer -Drawing

After all the right and perfect marks are made on the paper (HAHA!) I had myself a drawing of a Trandoshan... or should I say, another drawing of a Trandoshan. As I type this I keep looking back at option 'B' of the thumbnails and wonder, "What could have been". Oh well... moving on, no time to second guess the art directors.

With the final drawing approved it is now time to get started on some paint work! In just eight easy steps you too can have your very ownTrandoshan ! Or not...

Rival Explorer - Process steps

Another straight forward piece to paint. I think the only note on this piece was at the end I needed to shorten the height of his face between the lib and nose. I just had to shift his face down and it was a quick fix. Not that understood why this was an issue, but it is not my job to question, just to make sure the client is happy with the final product. RAWR!

Again, have you ever wondered what one of my paintings looked like at 100% at its original size? Well, here you go! The original is 9x11 and is 300 dpi. Here is a crop of the face / shoulder area, at 72 dpi this section now measures over 14x14. You can compare this close up to the close up I recently posted on the Nexu, which was from this same project. Hurm... I feel like I could have put another layer of time and work on this piece... oh well, too late now!

Rival Explorer -Painting at 100%

While not printed nearly as large on the page as the Nexu, this Trandoshan ended up much larger on the page then expected. Good thing I paint big! Remember, you can never make the painting too big, but a painting can definitely be too small... and then there is a problem not easily fixed. YES, you can loose information in a big painting... but that is no where as bad a providing a image to the client that is too small to use or looks horrible when they up-res it.

Rival Explorer hanging out with some text...

Again, here is the final Trandoshan Rival Explorer for your viewing pleasure... RAWR!

Rival Explorer (this continues to totally not be me standing in the yard dressed this way)

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

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Nexu - Beyond the Rim Process

Today on the blog I have for you the process that went into the making of one bad space kitty, the Nexu, for the Star Wars RPG book, Beyond the Rim. I shared this with you originally in September... how time flies. To get us back up to speed, here is how the final Nexu turned out...

Nexu

Since the Nexu is an established creature there is a lot of reference out there to make sure to looks accurate to what was on screen in Star Wars: Episode II. That said, it is amazing how much inaccurate reference out there. From my experience with film production and manufacturing constraints it looks like the Nexu went through a final set of revisions for the movie after "approved" designs were sent out to the toy and product companies. If you look hard enough you can final some very different looking Nexu. After negotiating the Nexu reference I was able to gather film accurate resources to work from and I got to work on some thumbnails...

Nexu - Thumbnails

As a rule I usually submit a minimum of three thumbnails for any project, but sometime for these isolated figures two thumbnails are enough (this is after years of working in general in addition to having lots of experience working on a specific license and with specific art directors). After thumbnail "A" I thought I nailed it and then I did thumbnail "B"... and then knew I was totally wrong about my initial thoughts on "A". Maybe if "A" had more of a curve to the body like a pouncing cat it would have worked batter... but it is very stiff. Oh well. Needless to say "B" was picked and I was given the blessing to move forward with the drawing...

Nexu - Drawing

The drawing came together quickly and was approved without incident. While rare, there are times when an issue comes up after the final drawing is completed. At this stage of the process I am really starting to gear up to start working, so any big revisions to the drawing can sometimes throw me off my game for the painting. Thankfully it is VERY rare.

With the final drawing approved it is now time to get started on some paint work! In just eight easy steps you too can have your very own Nexu! Or not...

Nexu - Process Steps

Again, really straight forward piece that come together quickly. With no environment, being a single figure, and having rather generic lighting these isolated pieces can come together very quickly. There was one note at the end after it was submitted to tweak the lighting on the tail... but I can barely figure out now what I did or was asked to do.

Have you ever wondered what one of my paintings looked like at 100% at its original size? Well, here you go! The original is 9x11 and is 300 dpi. Here is a crop of the face, at 72 dpi this section now measures over 14x14. You can see just how loose and how tight I work these days. As tight as it might look to some of you it is VERY loose to where I once was and have to keep myself from returning to...

Nexu - Painting at 1000%

I think the intended size of this piece was to be 4.5x 5.5. FFG asks for the pieces at 600 dpi or to make them double size at 300 dpi. I prefer to work on them at 300 dpi and will gladly make them at double dimension size. Why? Because you never know how the piece will be used and when the piece is nice and big this can happen...

Living large on the page... RAWR!

Notice anything about the tail in the final printed book? Hmmmm.... I wonder why that choice was made after I turned in the work? It is theirs now, they can do whatever they would like with it! Again, here is how the final Nexu turned out on my end of the process....

Nexu

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

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Star Wars - Edge of the Empire - Beyond the Rim

My contributor copy of Beyond the Rim (the newest source book for Star Wars - Edge of the Empire RPG) arrived on Monday, so I am happy to be able to share my contribution today! I was able to produce two figure pieces this time around, a naughty naughty Nexu (BAD KITTY!) and a Trandoshan that is TOTALLY not me standing in the yard... nope, totally not that...

Nexu

Rival Explorer (totally not me standing in the yard dressed this way)

Needless to say, these were really fun and I always love to paint me some Trandoshans. Trying my best to illustrate the entire population of Dosh single handed. Hopefully when I look back my Trandoshans will look different from each other and I am just not painting the same one over and over again... Bossk on my mind. I took some photos of the art in the book so you can see how it was used. They ended up a lot larger then I had expected! Which is really cool... that Nexu is HUGE! No one is going to miss that one...

I CAN HAZ WHOLE PAGE?

Ready for adventure!

Thanks goes out to another exciting Zoe Robinson for another exciting Star Wars project! There will be more Star Wars on the blog in the fullness of time... RAWR!

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