I have updated the available Magic the Gathering original drawings over on my store. A couple of pieces were missing. In celebration of getting everything updated, I will be offering a 20% discount on all of my original Magic the Gathering drawings until April 27th. Use code MagicMonsters at checkout to get the discount. Head over to my store to take advantage of this limited-time offer!
Here are all of the drawings currently available, with links to each drawing on the store.
Today I have for you an overdue post about the process and steps that went into a Magic the Gathering piece of mine that I first shared with you way back in January of 2017, the Lathnu Sailback. I fought this particular painting tooth and nail through the entire process. To start things off, here is how the final art for Lathnu Sailback out...
Unlike a lot of my work, I had a real struggle on my hands with this one... which is funny since it is a giant lizard monster painting. The thumbnails and drawing were pretty straightforward, but after that, it was a lot of work, revisions, and frustration to get this one over the finish line. The focus of this piece was a large lizard monster with a sailback. The sail needed to be red and the body dark gray. That was about it. I just had to make it cool and get it done, which turned out to be a bit harder than expected. I got to work on the thumbnails, and I was happy with how they tuned out...2
While "C" was the winning thumbnails, I am still drawn to options "B" and "D." I wonder how one of these versions would have turned out. It was important to draw attention to the sail, and in a lot of these, I was trying to backlight it, so there were a glow and cast color. As with all my work, I have planned out the lighting from the beginning. With a selected thumbnail, it was time to get started on the drawing...
The drawing was approved without comment, and I was all set to move forward with my process. I was still feeling really good about the assignment, and everything seemed to be in order. I was looking at a lot of references, making sure all my ducks were in a row. Progressing as planned. Here is a look at a time-lapse I filmed of me working on the drawing. You can view it here or follow the link along to YouTube...
With the drawing approved, I worked up a tonal study to get my value down... or at least what I think they will be at this point. Things can change, but I do the best I can at the moment. Still, everything is moving along as it should.
Okay, here we come to the actual painting process when things go a little funny, and I have to fight with the painting through most of the process. If you follow my blog and my process post, you should immediately see the there are a lot more steps depicted here than normal. At some point in the process of painting, it became clear to me the anatomy of the lizard was just not working for me. It seemed fine through the drawing stages, but now it just was not clicking. Also, the lighting set up that I was envisioning was not working well either. While I had a direct light source on the creature, it was a dark gray creature, and a lot of it was in shadow. Getting the sail glow and cast light was also proving to be a bit more tricky. ...even with reference. Here is a look at the process progression for this piece...
It might be a little hard to tell from these step by step images, but the leg and head anatomy change a lot, and there is a lot of push and pull with the lighting. A lot more of all of these things compared to my usual painting. Things always change, that is a given, but they typically don't go through this much editing throughout this much of the painting. In a normal painting of mine, the major changes either come at the beginning when I realize there is an error I show how missed in the drawing, or at the very end when I am making the last edits to make sure everything is looking its best.
Quickly made maquette for lighting reference
The above image is a quickly made maquette that I bashed together one evening while painting to make sure I was on the right track. I dropped everything while working and ran to the store to get some clay and some transparent plastic sheeting. I put it all together and worked out the lighting ... and I was happy to see that i was on the right track. It did allow me to update the lighting in the painting to get it to look a bit more believable. Here is the animated process for this painting that better illustrates all the steps and changes this piece went through. You should all be able to see at which point I made the maquette and updated the lighting.
I know many artists who constantly change and update their paintings while working on them, especially those that paint digitally. That has never been my style. So the amount of editing in this one really threw me off and had me reeling through most of the painting. With so many changes, it shook my resolve and made me question my abilities on this one. Not the best place to be when working on client work. In fact, I turned in an initial final for this piece that was not accepted, and I had to make additional edits too. Here is a look at the original version of the Lathnu Sailback...
The bones and saliva needed to go to make it more Kaladesh, but I was also asked to rework and better address the rim and edge lighting. I had been looking at references and was sure I had done a good job, but in the end, I needed to update it. Here again, is the approved version of the Lathnu Sailback and the final production card...
Today I have for you a very overdue time lapse video that I recorded over a year ago. This is the drawing for the Lathnu Sailback that I did for the Aether Revolt expansion to Magic the Gathering. With the next expansion soon to be out I figured I better hurry up and post this while it is still a little relevant. This should have been up months ago... but things are a bit hectic right now. Enough excuses, here is an image of my work station right before I started drawing as well as the video...
The video should speak for itself. If you follow my blog at all you will be familiar with my thumbnails that I create as part of the process of creating an illustration. When I go about making the final drawing I use the approved thumbnail as a guide. I make changes and corrections along the way, which you can clearly see in the video when I erase and rework the creature's front right leg. It was not working and was not correct as per the thumbnails and needed to be fixed. If all goes as planned, which it mostly did here, it comes together quickly so that I can move onto the next step in the process. Here is the final drawing again for a better look...
Lastly, here again is the final painting for the Lathnu Sailback. I will be sharing more about this piece when I finally get to the process post for it... which at I current pace will be sometime later in the year. All at once I feel like I have too much and not enough to post on this blog. It is a strange feeling.
Regular and foil artist proofs of my Aether Revolt card are NOW AVAILABLE in my store! So if you are interested in the Lathnu Sailback or Foil Lathnu Sailback artist proofs, now is the time to act! All of my artist proofs come signed and numbered and the standard APs are limited to 50 and the foil versions are limited to 30. As always, there is an option to just buy the artist proof or to get a unique, one of a kind sketch on the back of the card.
Don't forget, I have prints available for the Lathnu Sailback! If the Lathnu Sailback is not your desired monster, I have prints of my Magic the Gathering cards available too! If you need to have bigger versions of my cards in your life, I have you covered.
The internet it still not back and I am extremely busy right now, so another quick blog post today. This time around I have for you the drawings that went into making my most recent Magic the Gathering card, the Lathnu Sailback. I meant to share these with you sooner... but things got in the way, as per usual. They are here finally, so it all works out. Here is the line drawing and toned value study for the wily Lathnu Sailback...
I filmed myself working on the line drawing and I will have that to you very soon. Again, meant to have it up sooner... but life has been rather complicated as of late. Also, I will have these up on my store very soon. I have been neglecting the store and have a lot to add to it!
That is all for anther 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
I have updated my store with Aether Revolt prints! Follow the link below to get your very own signed and numbered prints of the Lathnu Sailback from Aether Revolt, the newest expansion of Magic the Gathering. As always, these prints are limited to a print run of only 50 copies.
I will part of the Aether Revolt prerelease events at Gamescape this weekend in Tallahassee, Fl. Friday night, arriving prior to midnight, I will be at Gamescape signing card and selling my wears. This will be my only prerelease appearance this time around. If you are in the area or interested in getting your hands on my newest prints then I hope to see you out there. The fine folks at Gamescape even made a gif thingy for promotion, here it is a static image...
Come see me at Gamescape!
2415 N Monroe St, Suite 2064
Tallahassee, Florida 32303
If everything goes well at the printers this week I will have prints of my new card from Aether Revolt with me at gamescape! I will have prints, playmats, artist proofs and more with me... basically everything I have that is Magic the Gathering related. I should even have some of my original art with me. Here is the art from my card appearing in Aether Revolt...
The entire set of Aether Revolt, the newest expansion to Magic the Gathering, was spoiled last week. This means I can now share my card coming out as part of Aether Revolt. I present you with the Lathnu Sailback...
Nothing like a big scary lizard monster to make me happy. This piece offered up some interesting challenges with lighting that I solved with a maquette, but that discussion will have to wait for another day. I will share more about this piece in the fullness of time when I break down the process and steps. A HUGE thanks goes out to Cynthia Sheppard for the Lathnu Sailback assignment!
While the final for this piece was digital, the original drawings associated with this piece will be available soon. Prints will be also be available soon. Finally, artist proofs will be available once the set is released and I have received them. Here is a look at the final card version of the Lathnu Sailback...
LathnuSailback in handy dandy card form
As an added bonus, I will go ahead and share with you how the first version of the final Lathnu Sailback turned out. a little different in some spots and a little more snarly bad monstery. The whys and hows of this will come later, but for now here is the art...
