Yuan-ti Anathema - Dungeons and Dragons

Only one post this week while I wrap things up for the year and recoup from the holidays. ...and the ravages of Beatles Rockband is taking a toll on my productivity.

Today I bring you the Yuan-ti Anathema. This was another creature redesign for Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition as well as a miniature turnaround for the Against the Giants miniature expansion. It is always an honor to have a chance to add my voice to the legacy of Dungeons and Dragons. One of the coolest aspects of this design was the fact it was slated to be a 72 mm "huge" scale miniature. Bigger is always better in my book when it comes to miniatures.

This creature was changing a bit from it's earlier incarnations and it's changes were at first causing me some headache. The body mass had to be a huge swirling mass of little snakes. The problem was I was concentrating on the "little snakes" aspect and not the "huge mass" aspect of the design. Once again I was fretting about the details and forgetting to address the bigger picture. I had some rather horrifying false starts before I got my act together on this one. I remembered a piece I had done previously that involved a creature of twisting tentacles and allowed me to move forward in the right direction.

RAWR! I'm a monster! ...with tentacles...
© 2006 Christopher Burdett

Now with a better outlook on how to proceed I moved forward with the official first pass on the Yuan-ti Anathema and come up with this...

First pass at snaky monster goodness...
© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Not bad for a first pass but there was something that was not quite right. My art director suggested trying the head a bit bigger and lengthening the body...

Giant headed snaky monster goodness...
© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Hurm... the body is working but the head... yeah... Onto another revision. Moving back to the smaller head with the elongated body but this time a bit of a neck...

Proper snaky monster goodness
© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

There we go! Much better. This version is approved and I moved forward with the complete turnaround.

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

You can see how the Yuan-ti Anathema turned out in it's final production miniature form, HERE. That's all for this week. See you next week for a fresh start in a new year!

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

Galeb Duhr - Dungeons and Dragons

I realized as I was getting these drawings together this morning that I have been sharing work on the this blog lately that I promised myself I would never post. I wonder what that says about me?

Moving back to topic, I have for you today the Galeb Duhr that I redesigned for Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition and for the Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures. The Galeb Duhr has been around in D&D for a very long time and it was my privilege to be chosen to update it for 4th Edition. In honor of this opportunity I apparently took some crazy pills and got to work on the first version of my redesign...

Yeah... I think my art director's feedback to this first version was, "YIKES!" (I can't believe I am showing anyone that drawing)
© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Once the crazy pills wore off I got back to work and tried to come up with some a little bit... not crappy. The second version was received a little bit better.

Closer, but there are still some areas that need some additional rock man love.
© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

After a bit more spit and polish and more drawing I think we are getting there. The third version seemed up to the challenge and made it through and was approved.

Much better! Now onto the full turnaround.
© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Here is the final approved Galeb Duhr turnaround is all it's glory. As a side not my wife was quite found of the rock butt. Not sure why, I think she just like the idea of it having a butt. I didn't nessecerily see it as a butt, it did need to be spherical and bolder like. Or... it could have a rock butt.

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

You can see how the Galeb Duhr turned out in it's final production miniature form, HERE. Not sure I will have anything for you tomorrow but I will be back on Friday with something. I am on the home stretch on a project and need to stay focused on it. What project you ask? Well, a project involving miniature designs! Maybe that is why I have been posting so many lately...

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

Toxic Sirroth - Dreamblade

I had planned to post this on Friday, but as with all things there was change. So I am playing catch up and most likely will have an extra post or two this week to make up for it.

Today I bring you an oldie but goody, the Toxic Sirroth. The Toxic Sirroth was a spec design I submitted for the first set of Dreamblade. The original incarnation of the Sirroth was felt to be... ah, um... too suggestive. I didn't see the lurid nature of the design until it was pointed out to me. I was just trying to make a crazy weird monster. I wonder what that says about me... in any event I nicknamed this design 'Freud' during it's design phase.

The naughty naughty Toxic Sirroth. Shame on you!
© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

A quick revision later the design became more family friendly and I was approved to move forward with the rest of the turnaround. Though to be honest I always liked that upper torso. The idea that it's arms turned into spikes that it would support it's weight or use to fight. Oh well, save those in the mental archives for another day.

A much more PG / PG-13 kind of monster.
© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Though the Toxic Sirroth was designed for the first set of Dreamblade it wasn't used until Anvilborn. A wonderful surprise to say the least since this was a spec design that made it all the way through production. I really liked how it turned out and I use two of them in one of my mono fear warbands.

Final Toxic Sirroth turnaround.
© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

To see how this piece translated into plastic, you can see the final production miniature HERE. I should have some more drawing for you tomorrow... the work I was going to post today, actually! Until then...

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

Carrion Hulk - Dreamblade

Against my better judgments I am bringing you all of the Carrion Hulk that I designed for Dreamblade. I say 'all' of the Carrion Hulk because there is not much point in showing you just the final designs without showing you my first version.... though it pains me to do so. I originally designed the Carrion Hulk for set 3, Chrysotic Plague, but due to production changes unknown to me it was released in set 4, Anvilborn. This change was fine with me since it meant that the piece was eventually released. I know I say this a lot about my Dreamblade deigns, but this was one of my favorites and I was really looking forward to seeing it as a finished miniature. Even though this mini ended up being one of my favorites it didn't start out that way. It gave me lots of fits and starts and I was a little lost and overwhelmed with the art order. The Carrion Hulk (not it's original name mind you, but that is another issue all together) had the most complex description of any of the Dreamblade I ever produced. Faced with this challenge I took up my pencil and... choked... After several even worst false starts I turned this in as my first version of the Carrion Hulk:

I hold my head in shame. When I think back about this drawing I would get a twisting pain in my gut.

Looking at it fresh with a few years between me and it I can look at it a little more objectivity. Okay, it is not the worst drawing ever, but is lacking a lot. A LOT. Why am I showing this off? I must be mad. To help better demonstrate how I see the above drawing I have created a mental image simulation. So lets journey into my mind and look at the above drawing with all my art baggage hanging off it:

YIKES! I am a hack and need to give up art!

Much to my surprise I was not immediately fired from this job and in fact was given some very helpful feedback and direction. I put my thinking cap on and got to work on something better... which looking back at the first version would not have taken much. I actually was riding in a car on a road trip when I began the below drawing which ended up being the approved front view of the Carrion Hulk. I guess I needed a change of scenery to get my mind back in gear. So, after 8 hours of drawing I had the approved Carrion Hulk:

Carrion Hulk - © 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Okay... maybe I am slightly better then a hack.

The additional views were a piece of cake at this point and I quickly had a completed approved turnaround for the Carrion Hulk:

Carrion Hulk - © 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

To see the final production Carrion Hulk, click HERE. That is all for this week. I am knee deep in miniature turnarounds and loving every minute of it. Next week I should have some more armor, maybe a mini or two and some new work that some how slipped under the radio and came out the beginning of last month! Until then...

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

Flesh, Bone and Mortar - Dreamblade

I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel in regards to my current workload. I figured I could afford the time to find something else to post this week while I patiently wait for new work to be released. So it is back to the Baxar's War expansion of Dreamblade and a couple of miniature designs and their early incarnations. Today I bring you the Citadel of Torture and Skinless, two piece I believe I have never shared with anyone yet.

I received the art order for the Citadel well into the production of Baxar's War. I think in an interview about Dreamblade someone in production mentioned that the locations were a late addition to the game. Most of the locations I worked on for the base set as well as Baxar's War came to me much later then the other pieces. The Citadel was a fun piece to work on and was the first bit of architecture I ever had to work on. Granted I did design the Darkheart Cottage for the base set but that was still just a huge giant laying on the ground. The Citadel was really straight forward and only needed minimal revisions save for the skull base that went though several versions before the final was approved.

The final turnaround for the Citadel of Torture. For this piece I also made extremely loose quick color comps to distinguish different materials so that the sculpture could more easily understand want all was going on in the design. As a side note, I was given this assignment late in the afternoon and had the first drawing back to the Art Director before she got into the office the next day. That kind of extra effort goes a long way. To see how the Citadel of Torture turned out you can see the production miniature HERE.

Oh Skinless... I have included him here today to make the point to ALWAYS READ CAREFULLY when reviewing you art assignment. You see in my haste to get started I some how thought that the word "crossbow" was spelled "crowbar". It was no real calamity that I made this error, but it could have been. I just felt like an idiot after I found out I turned in a design with the completely wrong weapon. Especially after spending all that time to figure out the best way to give a common a crossbow and to make it a cool crossbow.

Besides the crossbow / crowbar issue the feedback was to have more fun with it. The Art Director felt is was to much like an anatomy study rather then a crazy monster. She suggested more gore and nasty bits and to play with the forms to make it more monstrous. Taking all this into consideration I came up with the above turnaround. Looking back now, I could have done more... but that is the way with many of these. Live and learn. To see how the Skinless turned out you can see the production miniature HERE.

That's it for today. I will be descending into my art bunker later today and will resurface on Monday with what will hopefully be a completed assignment. Cross those fingers. I will try to get back on a more normal posting schedule next week as well (hopefully). Until then...

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

Rhinos and Swamp Monsters - Dreamblade

The end of another week of painting, drawing, revisions and the slow advancement of deadlines. I have had my head down and been making slow but steady progress on my workload. I was missing my normal posting schedule here so I thought I would take a short break and reach into my bag of older work and see what I could find. Looks like I turned up a rhino man and a swamp creature.

The Bloodcut Behemoth and the Bogillian were designed for set 2 of Dreamblade, Baxar's War. Baxar's War is one of my favorite sets. Not only for all the pieces I had in it but I felt it offered a lot of new aspects to the game and it plays real well in sealed games (IMHO). But I digress... These two pieces are the type of designs I could have done 20 variations on and still felt like I could have done more and better. You can't go wrong with a giant rhino man warrior or a hulking swamp monster. The descriptions were loose enough to allow me to really have fun with the designs. Speaking of designs...

The first passes on the Bloodcut Behemoth and Bogillian were really close to how the finals ended up. Got to dig those crazy Bloodcut tattoos.

The final Bloodcut Behemoth included a larger head and a lot more skin texture. The design is shown here without the tattoos that do appear in the final mini, I just prefer the drawings without them. This piece was one of the first larger sized Dreamblade miniatures and was a promotional piece for set 2. I really like how this piece turned out, see it for yourself HERE.

The final Bogillian just included a lot more surface detail to make it look more like it was made from items found in a swamp. I love big hulking creatures, so this was a real treat to work on. I was really looking forward to seeing how this piece was going to turn out. Since this piece was a common it only received a two color paint job, but I think the sculpture is sound. I wonder how it would have looked with a translucent body....? To see how it turned out, click HERE.

That's all for this week. I have some surprises in store for next week that I am really looking forward to sharing! Until then...

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

Crazed Kuo-toa

A quick update today since I am on deadline and tonight is the big night, GEEK NIGHT! I have been doing a lot of Dreamblade on Fridays recently so I figured I would switch it up with a Dungeons and Dragons miniature. Here is the Crazed Kuo-Toa from the Demonweb expansion. This was another redesign of a classic creature for it's new premiere in 4th Edition. I started with a series of loose sketches based on notes from my art director.

Yikes! Looking back now I am a little embarrassed by these to be honest. But they are loose sketches. I was trying to get my ideas out and explore some new directions... which is the point of rough sketches.

Ah, better! "D" is looking pretty good and with a few more notes I am moving forward on a more fleshed out sketch. Apparently these creature are a whole lot less modest then I imagined!

Turns out that I was mistaken with what was possible for a common rarity miniature. I thought for sure the spear across the body would not be a huge molding issue, but apparently it was. One last revision was in order before I move onto the complete turnaround.

Final turnaround for the Crazed Kuo-Toa with proper spear placement. To see how the production miniature turned out you can see it HERE.

Don't forget if you are in the Tallahassee area tonight to come out to FSU's GEEK NIGHT 4.o! Games, contests, trivia and I will be doing FREE sketches and will have a drawing for some signed prints! See you there!

Geek Night Version 4.0
Friday, September 18, 2009
Event at 8:30 pm
Union Ballrooms (FSU Campus)

For more information there is a Facebook event page that you can check out HERE!

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

Zungar Invasion! - Dreamblade

I hold a special place in my heart for the Zungars of Dreamblade. They were a new race of recurring creatures designed for Dreamblade as a type of alien that lives or manifests in the dreamscape and I got to be the lucky guy to design them. They were described as being put together with the wrong size pieces but yet functioned as a normal living creature, they had the big hair tendrils, eyes on the side of the head and a unique skin texture. With all that in mind I got to work and came up with this:

Ardent Zungar - © 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

The Ardent Zungar was the first pass at the Zungars and was approved straight out. I did have to go back and make the pose a little more dynamic but I always liked this first drawing the most and that is why I am not including the turnaround for the Ardent Z. A side not about the weapon, it was described as having this big crude mace. I was still getting my head around the culture and style of the Zungar since I was creating it on the fly with each new miniature I realize after finishing the Zungar Blademaster for Baxar's War that the Ardent's mace was all wrong for what the Zungars were becoming. I submitted a drawing of a replacement mace but production had moved along to far to do anything about it.

Zungar Bodyguard - © 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

The Zungar Bodyguard is still one of my favorite miniatures from Dreamblade. The detail is all there, it is big and the paint job is great. I really began fleshing out the culture of the Zungar with this guy. You will notice the "face" on the shield, it will become a recurring theme. I thought of it as a holy symbol or graven image. I imagined the face being a stylized representation of a huge creature that the Zungars worshiped as a god. I even did some drawings of what that creature looked like in hopes of maybe submitting it as a miniature idea, but time was against me and it never happened.

Zungar Blademaster - © 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

The smallest of the Zungar miniatures and a useful piece in play in my opinion. You can see some of the shapes and images I established with the bodyguard reappearing.

Zungar Standardbearer - © 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

These guys had quite the wingspan. Again, repeating the imagery and forms on the armor and items. Wonder if I should have put something on the back of the banner...

Zungar Shieldsworn - © 2006 Wizards of the Coast LLC

I really like the drawings of the two Zungars I did for Anvilborn. I tried to branch out a little more with the style and feel of the Zungar with this set, didn't want to just keep repeating. Though you will see similar equipment, like the helmet of the Bodyguard, just less fancy since it is a lower ranking Zungar. Also trying to make them a little more Dynamic.

Zungar Envoy - © 2006 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Like the Shieldsworn I was really happy with how this drawing turned out. I felt like I did some fun stuff with it's robes and items.

I did not work on any of the Zungars for sets 5 and 6, Night Fusion and Serrated Dawn. Other artists got to add their voices to the look and feel of the Zungar to make them more diverse and varied. But I did get to work on one last Zungar for the unreleased set 7.

Unreleased Zungar Priest - © 2006 Wizards of the Coast LLC

I was really itching to work on another Zungar and when I was assigned this one I went all out. Since it was a priest I really played up the "god face" as well as tie in some elements from the Envoy. I think this is my favorite of my Zungar drawings. I wonder how the mini would have turned out...

That's it for now, I have been itching to share my Zungars for awhile but I was waiting for the right time. You can look forward to more of my set 7 designs to start showing up as well.

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

Unreleased Dreamblade - Lost along the way

Today's look back at unreleased Dreamblade designs features one piece from each of the first four sets. With each of these I eagerly anticipated seeing the final miniature, imagining ahead of time that these would be my favorite above all other (no, really). Looking back now I begin to understand why they may have been dropped.

"Sword in the Stone" was designed for the very first set of Dreamblade. It was described as being an object. Looking back I imagine it was designed in the same vien as the Scarab Warcharm. Not necessarily a creature but would aid in other ways. It's aspect was Valor.
© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

"Bound Rider" was a spec piece I came up with and submitted while working on Baxar's War. It was accepted, but fell through the cracks along the way. No idea what aspect it would or did have. It came to me one night as I was trying to fall asleep, it kept me up for hours as I drew it in my mind. I figured that was a good sign ...not good enough, I guess ;)
© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

"Hairy Monster" was designed for Chrysotic Plague. I really thought it had a fun look and feel and would make a cool miniature. I had hopes it would have ended up being one of the really big minis like some of the pieces in Baxar's War that I designed. It's aspect was Passion.
© 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC

"Hypnotic Freak" was designed for Anvilborn. Again, I thought this one had a really cool look and feel and would make a great mini. It was unlike many of the others I had designed for the game (to me at least). I really liked the little dangling harlequin that I put on the bottom back of her dress. It's aspect was Madness.
© 2006 Wizards of the Coast LLC

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

Dragonborn Armor Designs #2

Today's post is a second grouping of female Dragonborn armor. This completes all eight female armor variations that I was assigned to create for the Dungeons and Dragons Character Visualizer. There are male counterparts to all of these that should be showing up on the blog sometime next week. Until then...

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

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

Dragonborn Armor Designs #1

You may remember that several weeks ago I finally gained permission to show off work I created for unreleased Wizards of the Coast products. Today I am sharing some of the armor I designed for the Dungeons and Dragons Character Visualizer. Under the art direction of Stacy Longstreet I had the opportunity to design armor for the Dragonborn, Tiefling, Genasi and Warforged races. Needless to say I generated a great deal of art while working on this project. So not to overwhelm anyone I will be spreading out my posts of armor designs. Without further ado, here are four turnarounds for female Dragonborn armor:

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

© 2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC

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

Troglodyte Bonecrusher

Another crazy busy week and I am running a little behind schedule today, so a quick look back at the Troglodyte Bonecrusher I redesigned for the Dungeons of Dread expansion of Dungeons and Dragons. The redesign process went fairly quickly for this monster and I was told the end product was very well received by the development folks on D&D. The first pass on the other hand...They wanted the Troglodyte to have the proportions of a dwarf and to be a feral minion to stronger smarter masters. This first pass was seen to be too civilized and lacked the correct proportions. So with that in mind I moved onto a new drawing.

I nailed it on the second drawing. The only outstanding change they wanted was to equip it with a cruder weapon. The art order did originally call for a mace but reviewing this incarnation it just didn't seem right now.

Equip one crude club. Made out of rock? Or is that a fossilized piece of shell? Or both? Turns out there was one minor tweak as I moved into the final turn around and that was to adjust the angle of the club.

Final turn around of the Troglodyte Bonecrusher. To see how the final production miniature turned out, click here.

I would also like to thank everyone that voted for me for last weeks ArtOrder challenge. It is an honor to win and I could not have done it with out your votes. THANKS!

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