The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT: Mind Flayer

Showing posts with label Mind Flayer. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Gen Con Monsters Now Available!

UPDATE: All three have been claimed. THANK YOU!

Did you miss out on Gen Con?! Cause you know I sure did (due to situations beyond my control that all worked out in the end, and it was all just bad timing)!! Did you miss buying one of my ink and paint monster tributes exclusively made for Gen Con?! Cause you know I sure did (miss selling you one)!!

Well, the wait is over! You can now head to my store, where you can find all three of my monster tributes! Each piece is 9 x 12 with pencil, ink, and acrylic on illustration board. Available are a Beholder, a Beholderkin, and a Mind Flayer. Get one before one gets you!

Monster Tributes

9 x 12 - pencil, ink, and acrylic on illustration board

That's all for another exciting Wednesday 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

Friday, July 25, 2025

New Monster Originals Coming to Gen Con!

With Gen Con next week, not only am I bringing my Mystery Print Bundles and NEW Ethra Crest stickers, debuting new art from The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia, but I will also have with me some new monster originals! I will have at Gen Con three illustrations that are based on some of my favorite monsters. These pencil, ink, marker, and acrylic images are on 9x12 illustration board and come in two varieties: Beholder and Mind Flayer. After the attention a piece I did last year for a charity auction received, I decided it would be fun to make more pieces in the style. These were super fun to make and a nice break from my usual work. If these are well received, I might just have to make some more!

Beholder
9 x 12 - Pencil, marker, ink, and acrylic paint on illustration board
© 2025 Christopher Burdett

Mind Flayer
9 x 12 - Pencil, marker, ink, and acrylic paint on illustration board
© 2025 Christopher Burdett

Come find me at Gen Con Art Show table 50!

Near the front of the Art Show, you will find me and all my monsters!

That's all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here on Monday for the last of my Gen Con surprises! Until then...

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

Friday, April 7, 2023

Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Visual Dictionary - The Return of the Mind Flayer Tadpole

I have seen a lot of talk online about the new book out from DK, Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Visual Dictionary. People were talking about how much art was in it and how older pieces were making a repeat appearance. That got me thinking that I have made a lot of D&D art since 2006, and I wondered if any of my art was there. After picking up a copy, my hunch was correct, and I do have a piece of art in the book. To start things off, here is the cover of Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Visual Dictionary.

Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Visual Dictionary

In 2016 I had several pieces released in Volo's Guide to Monsters, one of them being the Mind Flayer Tadpole. The piece was well received and had a nice creep factor that resonated with a lot of people. As Drizzt hails from the Underdark, it is not surprising that there is a large section of the book devoted to Mind Flayers. If you are talking about Mind Flayers, you will eventually get to their reproduction cycle, and with that, you will speak of their tadpoles. And if you are talking about Mind Flayer Tadpoles... well, you know, you use the art available for that. Here is my final art of the Mind Flayer Tadpole originally created for Volo's Guide to Monsters.

Mind Flayer Tadpole

9.1 x 10.1 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

I have always liked this piece, and it is great seeing it out in the world again, especially since this is one of my many self-portraits in D&D. Hard to believe this is piece is seven to eight years old now (while it came out in 2016, I would have painted it in 2015). Time flies when you are making monsters. Finally, here is a photo of the painting in the book.

Mind Flayer Tadpole on the page in the book.

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, September 15, 2017

Mind Flayer Tadpole - Volo's Guide to Monsters - Process

The monsters are in charge of the blog, and they have decided to share with you the process and steps that went into making the five paintings that I contributed to the Dungeons & Dragons supplement, Volo's Guide to Monsters. I hope you enjoy it!

Today's selection is the Mind Flayer Tadpole. This one was a fan favorite. Everyone really reacts to the tadpole up against the eye and responds well the to creep factor. This was also an excellent opportunity to get a self-portrait into a D&D book! Here is how the final Mind Flayer Tadpole turned out...

Mind Flayer Tadpole

9.1 x 10.1 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

To start things off, I did a photo shoot with a kneaded eraser on my face to stand in for the tadpole. Not the most elegant of photo shoots, but it got the job done, and I got some great reference to work with. I know much of the work that I do needs to be creepy, but after so many years I am desensitized to it and go on instinct. This piece seems to have hit all the right buttons with people, so I must be doing something right. Here are the thumbnails for this piece...

Mind Flayer Tadpole - Thumbnails

I was given the go-ahead to take option C to a finalized drawing. Once I turned it in, there was some concern that the drawing looked off and that the anatomy of the face was not working. Since I was working from the reference, I was a little confused, and there was some back and forth communication to figure things out. Finally, I sent my reference photos in to show what I was aiming to do and it was all cleared up immediately. One of those things was a picture is worth a thousand words. We were all on the same page, and production could continue. Here is the final drawing for this piece...

Mind Flayer Tadpole

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Kate Irwin

Original - SOLD

Now that the drawing was approved I could get started with the painting. With all of these Volo pieces, the painting went quickly, smoothly, and there were no issues or concerns. Which is always nice. I just got to sit back and have fun making pretty monsters. Being an isolated figure helps out a lot too. Here is the paint work for this piece coming together...

Mind Flayer Tadpole - Process steps

You will notice that there was some adjustment of the green background glow behind the ear. This was a request from production. The original green was considered too bright, and I was asked to knock it down a little. To better show how the painting developed, here is an animated progression of it taking shape...

Mind Flayer Tadpole - Animated process

While there is a fair bit of pushing and pulling of form and value the painting was extremely straight forward. I get into a zen state when working on isolated figures as I work the large forms and then lay in all the detail work. I just want to make a really pretty monster for these types of pieces, and hopefully, I did. Here again, is how the final painting turned out...

Mind Flayer Tadpole

9.1 x 10.1 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

That's 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

Monday, November 21, 2016

Volo's Guide to Monsters - Dungeons & Dragons - Part 1

I am happy to be able to start sharing my contributions to Volo's Guide to Monsters, the newest gaming supplement to Dungeons & Dragons. Volo's is just the kind of project I like - Dungeons & Dragons, monsters, and getting to work with the most excellent art director, Kate Irwin. Kate assigned me some really awesome monsters and this was a really really fun assignment to work on. I produced a total of five illustrations for the book, I will be sharing three today and the last two on Wednesday. Enough yammering, here are my illustrations of the Lizardfolk, Beholder Gazer, and the Mind Flayer Tadpole...

Lizardfolk

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

I think the Lizardfolk was my favorite piece from the book. I have a soft spot for the D&D Lizardmen that goes back decades. I played a Lizardman back in 2nd Edition and after reading the section of Volo's Guide to Monsters that had the player character Lizardfolk I am ready to roll up a new one! Thrilled to have been able to create the illustration for this section of the book. I love to work on scaly lizard people.

Beholder Gazer

11 x 14 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

You can never go wrong with a Beholder of any kind. I was given a tiny little image of an old Gazer illustration and was told to flesh it out and make it cool. I can totally do that! There ended up being two version of the drawing for this one since the first one was found to be a little questionable when it came to the eye stalks. You can see both drawings below and I will go into more detail about this when I share the process and step later.

Mind Flayer Tadpole

9.1 x 10.1 - Digital

Art Director - Kate Irwin

Last but not least of these is the Mind Flayer Tadpole. This was the perfect opportunity for me to do a self portrait of myself in a D&D assignment. I have some fun photo reference to share for this one that involve me and a kneaded eraser on my face as a stand in for the tadpole.

Below are the drawings that went into these illustrations. Since I was working on five pieces and I didn't think I had the time needed to do these traditionally the painting are digital. It would have been nice to have paintings of all of these, but the final pieces did end up way better by me doing them digitally. At least there are the drawings, get them while you can, they are going fast...

Lizardfolk

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Kate Irwin

Original - SOLD

Beholder Gazer (Final Version)

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Kate Irwin

Original - SOLD

Beholder Gazer (Original Version)

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Kate Irwin

Original - SOLD

Mind Flayer Tadpole

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - Kate Irwin

Original - SOLD

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

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Flayer

Finished up a small personal painting after many starts and stops. This one was meant to be a quick piece in between client assignments, but ended up being stretched over a much longer length of time. No worries, it is finally done and I have another piece to take with me to convention season. Here is how Flayer turned out...

Flayer

4 x 6 - Acrylic and pencil on board

Original - SOLD

I am actually happy it took so long to arrive at a point when I could finish this painting. This piece was completed after a long run of back to back Star Wars paintings. I have been learning a lot about the paint and I have been able to turn around and put that knowledge into something I can share right away, rather then waiting a year. This painting started off with a painter at one skill level and was completed with that artist and a different skill level... at least that is how I feel about it. As with some of my other smaller personal work the drawing for the painting is actually a bit larger then the painting...

Flayer

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

As an added bonus, here on some images of the piece coming together. Super sloppy becoming a little less sloppy. The third image is where it stayed for weeks (if not longer) while I was super busy working on client work. The last two images were taken in my last sitting with the piece when it all came together.

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

Friday, January 25, 2013

Fresh from the drawing table... Mind Flayer

I have for you another drawing that is fresh from the drawing table. This time around it is a MIND FLAYER! Arriving back at "M" there was only one clear choice on the third pass and that was the very iconic tentacled terror known as the Mind Flayer. This eater of brains has been whispered about since my earliest interactions with D&D and has remained a most singular and frightening monster (for the players). I present to you my version of a Mind Flayer…

Mind Flayer

First off, yes, I added wings - let's move on. For years I have seen an intentional or unintentional link between the Mind Flayers (or Illithids if you want) and Cthulhu. For me it is hard not to see. Having the opportunity to make my own Mind Flayer I decided to take some of the things I have been thinking about for Cthulhu and make a Cthulhu-like race that has manifested in the Realms and causes nothing but trouble. I wanted it to be somewhat awkward and uncomfortable AND what seemed totally natural, a bit of a dandy. Weird hats can really set a mood. Would you want the last thing you see coming toward your face to be a tentacled maw adorned with a creepy tri-pointed hat? I think not! They may look tubby, they they will ruin your day... RAWR!

My first 100 original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual redesigns (A - Z): Aerial Servant, Ankheg, Ant (Giant), Ape (Carnivorous), Ape (Gorilla), Axe Beak, Axe Beak (version 2), Baboon, Badger, Barracuda, Basilisk, Baluchitherium, Bear (Black), Bear (Brown), Bear (Cave), Beaver (Giant), Beetle (Giant) - Bombardier, Beetle (Giant) - Boring, Beetle (Giant) - Fire, Beetle (Giant) - Rhinoceros, Beetle (Giant) - Stag, Beetle (Giant) - Water, Beholder, Black Pudding, Blink Dog, Boar (Giant), Boar (Warthog), Boar (Wild), Brain Mole, Brownie, Bugbear, Buffalo, Bulette, Carrion Crawler, Catoblepas, Cerebral Parasite, Chimera, Cockatrice, Coutal, Crab (Giant), Demon Type III (Glabrezu), Demon (Juiblex), Demon (Manes), Devil (Ice), Dragon (Red), Elemental (Earth), Ettin, Eye of the Deep, Flightless Bird, Frog (Giant), Fungi (Violet), Giant (Hill), Goblin, Golem (Flesh), Hobgoblin, Homunculus, Hydra, Imp, Intellect Devourer, Ixitxachitl, Jackal, Jacklewere, Jaguar, Ki-Rin, Kobold, Lich, Lizard (Giant), Lizardman, Manticore, Mind Flayer, Minotaur, Naga, Neo-Otygugh, Nixie, Ochre Jelly, Ogre, Owlbear, Peryton, Pixie, Purple Worm, Quasit, Ram (Giant), Roper, Rust Monster, Sahuagin, Salamander, Shambling Mound, Treant, Troglodyte, Troll, Umber Hulk, Unicorn, Vampire, Wasp (Giant), Wight, Wyvern, Xorn, Yeti, and Zombie.

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