The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT: Crab Clan

Showing posts with label Crab Clan. Show all posts

Friday, May 23, 2014

Aftermath - Natsumi - Process

Back in December I shared with you my contribution to the Legend of the Five Rings expansion, Aftermath. One of the cards that I had in that set was the mighty water elemental dragon thing... Natsumi. Today I have for you the process that went into making this piece. So that we are all on the same page here is how the final Natsumi turned out...

Natsumi

As I mentioned with the process post for Hida Kaiji this piece and Kaiji just didn't turn out as I had intended. While this piece did hit the mark more so then Kaiji, it just was not the piece I had originally wanted. This was by my doing and by my hand and should in no way reflex upon the client or art director.

Natsumi needed to be a water elemental of a dragon, flowing in and out of the water... becoming water and becoming solid again. I worked up a thumbnail that I hope captured that look and feel...

Natsumi - Thumbnail

The thumbnail hit the mark and I was given the go ahead to move on the final drawing. I got my water elemental dragon drawing on and this is what came of my efforts...

Natsumi - Drawing

As mentioned, I had wanted this to be in acrylic... but it just was not meant to be. Here is how the digital version came about. In just 12 easy steps a dragon painting can come together...

Natsumi - Process steps

Since this piece turned out better then Kaiji (to my eyes) I don't feel as "bad" about it. Maybe it is because it is a dragon... or a monster focused piece, but this one is less painful to revisit. Here is an animated gif to better show how this piece came together and took shape...

Natsumi - Process progression animation

As I have said many times, live and learn and walk away. Again, here is how the final Natsumi turned out as well as the final production card...

Natsumi

Natsumi in handy dandy card form

That is 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

Friday, May 9, 2014

Aftermath - Hida Kaiji - Process

Back in December I shared with you my contribution to the Legend of the Five Rings expansion, Aftermath. One of the cards that I had in that set was the experienced version of the Crab Clan mutant, Hida Kaiji. Today I have for you the process that went into making this new experienced version of that big ole lovable mutant. So that we are all on the same page here is how the final Hida Kaiji turned out...

Hida Kaiji (experienced)

To be honest with you, I am not happy with how this piece turned out. This has NOTHING to do with the client, art director, or assignment... all with me. I had planned to paint both pieces for Aftermath traditionally, which obviously did not happen. After realizing it was not going to happen and that I needed to abandon my failed traditional pieces I was just off my game. As far as I am aware after taking with my AD on this after the fact they were happy with my Aftermath pieces... but that didn't change the fact that I was not. I had wanted to do so much more with these... and failed. So they were completed digitally and I never was able to get my head in a good place to feel like they were finished or successful. I think that Natsumi turned out more successful... but it was a water dragon... harder to mess up.

Getting things started as always was a thumbnail. Hida Kaiji needed to be towering over a bunch of Phoenix Clan monks smashing into them as they feebly breathed fire onto him. I knew what I wanted to do with this piece immediately and jumped into collecting reference. I worked out all the elements and figures and came up with this...

Hida Kaiji - Thumbnail

The thumbnail was approved without correction and I moved forward to the drawing. Everything was still progression on track and I was still eager to get these worked up in paint. Here is how the final drawing turned out...

Hida Kaiji - Drawing

The drawing was approved and I got my board prepped and I was ready to start painting in acrylic... and it all went horribly horribly wrong. This piece had all that fire I was unprepared for and the Natsumi had all that water. Curses to the fire and water! The details of my traditional failure are many and complex... but in the end the paintings just were not working out or coming together at all into something usable and I needed to abandon both pieces. I had to switch to doing them digitally before I ran out of time on the deadline. Back in my comfort zone I got to work on the digital version of Hida Kaiji but fought it the entire time...

Hida Kaiji - Process steps

There is just so much that I wanted to do with this piece and none of seemed to happen. I still did my best to turn in a good product and meet my commitment to the client. Like I said, I believe they were happy with the product, though I was not. Live and learn. Here is an animated gif of the Hida Kaiji coming together...

Hida Kaiji - Process progression animation

Sometime you just have to walk away from a piece. Not every piece can be successful no matter how much you try to make it work. Do the best you can and hope to do better the next time. Here again is how the final piece turned out as well as the final production card...

Hida Kaiji (experienced)

Hida Kaiji (experienced) in handy card form

That is 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 18, 2013

Aftermath - L5R

Aftermath, the newest expansion for Legend of the Five Rings, is now out and that means I can share with you some new monsters. A short time ago I shared with you the wily Nastsumi when it was previewed in the run up to this set's release. Natsumi was not my only piece that I created for this set, I also got to revisit an old friend, the might Hida Kaiji! I first designed and illustrated Hida Kaiji for the Seed of Decay expansion. Despite rumors to the contrary, Hida Kaiji appears to be alive and well and is now EXPERIENCED. Here is how the paintings turned out...

Hida Kaiji (experienced)

Natsumi

I was repeatedly told of Hida Kaiji's demise at Gen Con this year and actually got to meet the player who dispatched him. Looks like the player did not do a good enough job! They say kill it with fire... only it looks like fire is of no concern to Hida Kaiji. So far I have been seeing some happy Crab Clan players online with the announcement of the new Hida Kaiji card.

I had originally planned to do these pieces traditionally... but after starting them and seeing all that fire and all that water... well, I was foiled again. They ended up digital and I was a little disappointed that my original plans for these pieces didn't pan out. This unexpected switch to digital media resulted in a great deal of malice directed towards the finished paintings. A year later... my feelings have eased a bit and I can see them for what they are.

Here is how both pieces turned out in card form... OH! If you were curious, there is also a nice and shiny foil version of the Hida Kaiji out there too...

Hida Kaiji in handy dandy card form!

Natsumi in handy dandy card form!

These two pieces also mark the last of my outstanding L5R work. Due to my very busy schedule for the majority of 2013 I have not been able to work on anything new for L5R. Hopefully I will have time in my schedule to return to the world of L5R in the not too distant future. If I do, you will hear about it first here on the blog! 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

Monday, November 26, 2012

Hida Kaiji - Process

Back in October I shared with you my contribution to the Legends of the Five: Rings Seeds of Decay expansion. Today I have for you the process that went into those three cards. I am grouping all three into a single post because they all centered around one single character, the Hida Kaiji. I was tasted with designing Kaiji as well as depicting him in several exciting activities. As will all my work I started with some concepts and loose thumbnails. Here are the concepts...

Hida Kaiji - concepts
© 2012

They wanted a part man, part monster, part oni who is still retaining his humanity and is still a samurai. I don't recall if the description specifically stated he was asymmetrical and oddly put together, but I knew he had to be depicted in this manor. Anytime I can put one huge arm onto something I am happy! I do know he was to be represented as a 20 foot giant, something akin to a medieval Japanese Incredible Hulk. From the beginning I was leaning toward option "A" and the ADs agreed. Since Kaiji was going to be doing a lot of activities I went ahead and sent in some very rough thumbnails with descriptions of what I had in mind...

Hida Kaiji - rough thumbnails
© 2012

The thumbnails and notes were really straight forward... standing and looking fierce, jumping from the wall, fighting a giant oni. There were a couple of minor notes to keep in mind moving forward and I moved forward with taking my reference photos and working out all the details with the more fleshed out thumbnails...

Hida Kaiji - thumbnails
© 2012

The thumbnails were all approved and I moved forward with the final drawings. The drawings were all approved and I pressed forward on the final paintings. I have grouped the drawings and the painting processes together for each card. For the character card of Hida Kaiji I envisioned him standing triumphant on the battlefield surrounded by the mutilated corpse of some giant horror he just destroyed. His normally sized companion directs him to the next target in the distance. This is how the final drawing turned out...

Hida Kaiji - drawing
© 2012

With the painting I was a little lost with what I wanted to do. I had to include a lot of information (my own fault) and it need to set a mood for the character and be interesting. Very early on when I was working up my under painting I saw the sky being bright and blue... that quickly changed as the piece started coming together. I realized the sky needed to be more of a sun set (has the battle waged all day?) and fires needed to glow in the distance. There needed to be a back glow as well as the frontal light. The piece built up as usual and came together without trouble once the sky and lighting were figured out...

Hida Kaiji - process
© 2012

Ruthless Onslaught was a pretty straight forward piece. Kaiji is leaping from the wall to the battle below. Shooting the reference for this was interesting. Here is the final drawing for the piece...

I again wanted an interesting sky and looked at a lot of images of skies till I found several to reference from. I liked the front/back lighting of the first Kaiji piece and brought it into this one as well. A bright light aiming up at Kaiji as the sky glows behind. Is this realistic? No idea, thought it looked good and worked well for this card. Here is the process progression...

Finally the up close and personal fighting portrait. I wanted to depict that moment where Kaiji snaps the neck of the Oni he is fighting... not sure if it reads... but that is what I was going for. Here is the final drawing...

I wonder if I should have twisted the Oni's head more... or painted in the word "SNAP" next to the neck... or not worry about it and just be happy that a huge mutant is fighting a giant Japanese devil. Of the three pieces this painting came together the quickest and was done before I knew it. When I was done this was also my least favorite of the three. Now that a year has come and gone and I have held all three in card form... there is something about the final card that I find more successful then the other three. I can not put my finger on what it is though. I am VERY happy with how all three turned out in card form, they are a little darker, the details pull together, and there is a tightness to the paintings that I think really improves the images. All of these things really helped the Determined Challenge. Here is the process progression...

Here are the final paintings one last time so that you can see how they turned out...

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

Monday, October 15, 2012

Hida Kaiji - Seeds of Decay - L5R

About a year ago I was asked to design and illustrate a new monstrous samurai for Legends of the Five Rings and it sounded like a interesting challenge. This member of the Crab Clan was to be over 20 feet tall and be able to wield a tetsubo that was basically a tree trunk wrapped with some metal. This Hida monster needed to be mutant... part man, part monster, and a whole lot of oni. He is a shadow of the man he use to be but still determined to serve his clan against the threats of the oni. Here is how Hida Kaiji and his three illustrations turned out...

This set had a super limited early release at Gen Con this year and I was able to see some of my cards in person when folks brought them by for me to sign. I am still waiting to have all three in hand but there are plenty of good images online of them and here they are for you to see how the cards turned out...

I am really happy with how the final cards turned out... and my name was not cropped out in all of them. In the coming weeks I will be sure to share with you the designs, thumbnails, and process progressions for these pieces. As always a big thanks to Adrian and Steve for the opportunity, advice, and monsters! It is not everyday that you get to make a landscape out of a dead oni. More L5R will be along in the fullness of time... and I will need to be patient to share the pieces I just finished for them!

That is all for another exciting Monday of new monsters of 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