The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT: Gen Con 2014

Showing posts with label Gen Con 2014. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Yoda - Process

Waited a long time I have, to share this post. One of my big pieces of 2014 was the Yoda card that I produced for the Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars card game. I have posted this piece everywhere and it has already been accepted as part of Infected By Art 3. This is one of those pieces you wait and wait for and when it arrives you just knock it out of the park... or fail miserably. Luckily for me, this time I had both hands on the bat. I always assume I will never get a major character or hero piece for a project since I specialize in monsters... then Yoda comes along. Just so we are all on the same page, here is my final Yoda piece...

Yoda

Star Wars: The Card Game National Championship Prize

12.4 x 8.9 - Digital

This piece called for something very specific, Yoda on Dagobah in a "bad ass" pose with his lightsaber. The rest was up to me. I got to work on some thumbnails and one of the first ideas I came up with was Yoda levitating rocks to use as target practice. Would anyone else get it? I certainly didn't know at the time. Though I was really excited about the sliced up rock idea I came up with some other version of Yoda being cool and sent them all off...

Yoda - Thumbnails

Turns out that my idea with Yoda slicing up rocks was the winner. Before I get too far I better mention good old reference. I took a ton of reference to work out these poses and to get my head around the pint sized Jedi Master. The only thing was I don't have any good lightsaber reference. My wife stepped in and made an an executive decision and got me a lightsaber for use in this piece. The lightsaber has actually come in really handy for a number of other reference needs, like as a laser blast. Here is a peek at some of the reference that was taken for this piece...

Reference I am. Pose I will.

With an approved thumbnail it was time to move onto the drawing. For this piece I cut out my usual white paper sketch step. I knew I was going to work up a toned paper drawing for this piece and cut out the middle man and went right on the toned paper from with the approved thumbnail. Here is the line are stage of the final drawing...

Yoda - Drawing (Line art stage)

I still needed to get the drawing step approved so I scanned the line art on the toned paper and made it black and white for the approval process...

Yoda - Drawing (Line art stage)

Black and white version that was submitted for review

The drawing was approved with out comment so I was now cleared to finish my toned drawing and get started with the painting. Here is how the final toned paper drawing turned out...

Yoda

Star Wars: The Card Game National Championship Prize

11 x 14

Colored pencil on paper

Original - SOLD

Time to get started with the painting! This one came together as many of my other pieces do, I work back to front and try to touch everything as I build up the piece. There was just a little adjusting while I was working on it, but for the most part it just came together with all the pieces falling into place. Here is the piece coming together in 18 easy steps...

Yoda - Process steps

Once production reviewed the final piece they believed that Yoda's legs were too long. My reference and familiarity with the character told me that my piece was accurate, but production wanted the change, so I made the change. That is how that works. I worked up two ways of addressing the leg issue, one had Yoda about to touch down on the ground and the other brought the ground up to make the requested leg length. The second version was picked. Here are my two variations on shortening Yoda's legs...

Yoda - Revision variants

Lastly, here is an animated gif that better shows the piece coming together. You can see the shortening of the legs clearly and how I adjusted the over all image as I worked...

Yoda - Animated progression thing

This piece will be a benchmark for all my work to come. Since I am now working traditionally I have a lot to learn and a lot to aim for. This piece will be my goal and the level of quality and detail I want to achieve with my traditional work. ...as well as any digital work that I find myself doing. Here again is the final image of Yoda...

Yoda

Star Wars: The Card Game National Championship Prize

12.4 x 8.9 - Digital

Here is how the art looks on the card as seen at Gen Con 2014 where the card was part of the National Championship for the Star Wars LCG. I thought the card turned out great and hope that I can be part of something like this again in the future!

A fistful of Yodas in handy dandy card form

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

Thursday, August 21, 2014

IT'S OVER 900!

*Insert Vegeta clip here*

While I was at Gen Con the blog rolled over the 900 mark. This is actually the 904th post. How time flies when you are having fun! Thanks to everybody who has stuck with me so far... because things are about to get interesting (hopefully). I am hoping to make an announcement in early October if all goes well over the next month or two. ...but that is a conversation for another day.

Speaking of Gen Con, it was a really good year for us. Being awarded second place in the Art Show for my Yoda piece was a tremendous honor and it still has not fully sunk in, but Gen Con offered up even more. The whole convention felt different compared to previous years. Maybe it was more busy, maybe I was in a better spot, maybe it was because some of my Magic cards are now out, maybe we were firing on all cylinders, maybe all of these or none of these... The entire convention was WAY more fun and WAY more rewarding. If you missed any of my posts about Gen Con here are handy dandy links:

Gen Con 2014 - Day 0
Gen Con 2014 - Day1
Gen Con 2014 - Day2
Gen Con 2014 - Day3
Gen Con 2014 - Day4

Gen Con also say the release of a lot of my work which means I can now start sharing so much of what I have spent the last year working on. To that end, here are some sneak peeks at the work to come! Starting on Monday I should be bringing you new work...

With the 5th Edition Monster Manual now spoiled I will be sharing with you the 18 monsters I redesigned for 5th Edition and the 5 monsters I illustrated for the book! Here is a peek at one of my favorite illustrations (and redesigns). RAWR!

Lots of Star Wars work got spoiled including the very first creature I got to design from scratch for the SW Universe! Here is a peek at its hand. RAWR!

The first of my Kaijudo cards are finally being released! I have three cards in the new set and I can't wait to share them. Here is a peek at one of the cards. RAWR!

That is all for another exciting Thursday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow! Until then...

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

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Gen Con 2014 - Day 4

All good things must end and so we arrive at Day 4 of Gen Con 2014. I rolled into the last day with only the barest minimum of sleep but I was ready to take on the day. I hit the ground running once I got to the convention center and the hours flew by. Before I knew it four o'clock had arrived and another Gen Con was behind us. Tear down went as smoothly as tear down usually goes... with only a few set backs. Art and prints were traded with other artists and it was time to get the heck out of the convention center. With the con behind us we formed a small group to grab dinner, have a little walk, try out a dessert spot, have a great evening of conversation, and to finally depart on all our separate ways. A HUGE THANKS to Barbara Fisher for all she and her team does to make the art show happen each year! It was SO great to reconnect with friends, turn acquaintances into friends, and meet many new folks! This year was a great Gen Con, looking forward to next year already! Here are some images from Day 4...

Started the day off with a Samus sketch.

The request was to do any female video game character.

Did an art for art swop with Juan C. Martinez.

He got a sketch and I got a penny turned into a dragon!

Here is a better view of the dragon penny.

He made it on the spot while I drew! How cool is that?!

A quick breather to look up towards my left...

...and to my right. Okay, enough goofing around, back to work.

With 5th Edition Monster Manuals released at Gen Con I got to sign several of them.

Here is a better picture of my Aarakocra that I shared a day or two ago. It is the very first monster in the book and I got to redesign it for 5th Edition and illustrate it for the book!

AND they are making a miniature of it! More on all this VERY soon.

This might look like just a normal playing card, but it was a Magic the Gathering playing card. It has a MtG back to it. I was rather proud of my solution for a sketch on the card... RAWR! :P

...I felt the urge to crash the party for a second... if my life was a movie, but it is not so I didn't. That would have been SO unprofessional and inappropriate.

Indianapolis offered up a gorgeous sky that last night.

Even with the invasion of a giant finger this image will back great reference!

Good bye Indiana for another year, until 2015! RAWR!

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog! See you back here tomorrow... because this is a REALLY busy week! Until then...

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

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Gen Con 2014 - Day 3

Day 3 of Gen Con 2014! Day 3 already feels like a distant memory as I write this… let's see what I can remember… Saturday is always a big day with a crush of people arriving for the weekend and for just the day. Artist alley was jammed packed all day and there were a lot of people to meet, sign stuff for, and send art home with. There were more spoilers and more work making its debut that will soon be arriving on the blog. I did a lot of drawing and sketching including a commission of a Protos. …and more Groots. The day absolutely flew by, no idea how it went from 10am to 6pm in a blink of an eye. After dinner and some business conversation it was time for some more fun. We are making a tradition of getting out dance on at the Sky Bar and this year was just a fun as last year. We had some new faces in the group and MUCH fun was had. The night went VERY late but it was hard to stop the fun once it got started. By the time it was all over there were only a few hour remaining before day 4 was to begin… Here are some images from Day 3…

One more image of my ribbon and Yoda… forgive me the repetition, I am just super humber and excited about this.

Another new Star Wars piece that was first seen at Gen Con, more about this piece and its companion from this book on the blog soon!

I did not get around much this year at the con… I saw a lot of these guys.

Oh look! Sean won an award too!

Those guys in the last image saw a lot of these guys.

Magic kitty cat lady stopped by with her awesome costume.
Dani Hatel's Ajani costume took home an award in the costume contest!

MOOOOOOOOORE GROOTS!

Some more Yodas stopped by the booth!

The finished Protos commission. RAWR!

The end of a long day! RAWR!

That is all for another exciting Tuesday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow for Day 4 of Gen Con 2014! Until then...

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

Monday, August 18, 2014

Gen Con 2014 - Day 2

Gen Con got ahead of me finally. Too much all happening at the same time and that meant that coverage needed to be suspended over the weekend. Now that the convention is over it can now begin again... hopefully. Day 2, Friday, was really intense! Loads of people, lots of card signing, products getting announced and spoiled... and then the Art Show awards. I am still in rather dumbstruck that my Yoda piece received 2nd place in the show. HUGE thanks again to the Art Show judges, Steve Prescott, Terese Nielsen, and Aaron B Miller, this means so much! Also, more thanks to Barbara Fisher for all she does to make the Art Show happen, Zoë Robinson for the assignment and art direction, and to my wife for making sure I didn't mess it up while I worked on it. Now, for some images from Day 1 of Gen Con 2014...

SOOOOO many Yodas! RAWR!

Really happy with how this bad boys printed!

Another Magic alter, this time the Catoblepas becomes Rocket...

... and a Hippocamp becomes a Nyan Cat... RAWR?

A quick glimpse up at the show around me... Hey look! It is Sean and Steve!

I even got to sign some Salacious Crumb cards too.

These printed VERY well too! RAWR!

HUGE for me was the spoiling of the entire 5th Edition Monster Manual!

All my work is now free to shared and I will be posting it all very soon.

Here is a very bad photo of the first monster in the book, which I did the concept work on AND illustrated! RAWR!

A VERY cropped new piece showing up in Imperial Assault fro Fantasy Flight Games.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Gen Con 2014 - Day 1

Day 1 of Gen Con 2014 came and went in the blink of an eye. A wonderful blink of an eye filled with signing cards, doing sketches, catching up with friends, seeing familiar faces from previous Gen Cons, and SO much more! This was the best first day at Gen Con that we ever had and we hope it is a sign of things to come. I can't believe one day of the con is already over! Luckily I took some pictures during the day so that I could remember it all later...

My booth is all set up and ready for Gen Con 2014!

Finished up everything just in time for the doors to open...

This was the very first thing I got to do before the doors even opened and as this is my first major convention as a Magic artist this was pretty rad!