The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT: Warhammer 40K

Showing posts with label Warhammer 40K. Show all posts

Monday, August 31, 2026

Revisiting Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter - Pink Horror

Either in late 2010 or very early 2011, I worked on one of several Warhammer 40K assignments. At the time, I was doing a lot of them for very, very low pay, as was common at the time. Learning a lot and making monsters for pennies on the dollar. One of the assignments was for a quartet of monsters from the RPG supplement Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter. I always liked these monsters a lot, and I can see things starting to click for me in the creation of these. I thought I would revisit these pieces, share the drawings for them that have never been shared (it looks like I never shared the process either, but that isn't happening today), and show off a monster that is now sixteen years old. This is one of my two favorite of the pieces done for the book, next week's in my favorite of the assignemnt.

Pink Horror

Dark Heresy - Daemon Hunter

7 x 10 - Digital
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Pink Horror

Dark Heresy - Daemon Hunter

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

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, August 24, 2026

Revisiting Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter - Daemonette

Either in late 2010 or very early 2011, I worked on one of several Warhammer 40K assignments. At the time, I was doing a lot of them for very, very low pay, as was common at the time. Learning a lot and making monsters for pennies on the dollar. One of the assignments was for a quartet of monsters from the RPG supplement Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter. I always liked these monsters a lot, and I can see things starting to click for me in the creation of these. I thought I would revisit these pieces, share the drawings for them that have never been shared (it looks like I never shared the process either, but that isn't happening today), and show off a monster that is now sixteen years old. This is another one they wanted me to stretch out, again, I prefer the proportions in the drawing over the painting.

Daemonette

Dark Heresy - Daemon Hunter

7 x 10 - Digital
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Daemonette

Dark Heresy - Daemon Hunter

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

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, August 10, 2026

Revisiting Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter - Bloodletter

Either in late 2010 or very early 2011, I worked on one of several Warhammer 40K assignments. At the time, I was doing a lot of them for very, very low pay, as was common at the time. Learning a lot and making monsters for pennies on the dollar. One of the assignments was for a quartet of monsters from the RPG supplement Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter. I always liked these monsters a lot, and I can see things starting to click for me in the creation of these. I thought I would revisit these pieces, share the drawings for them that have never been shared (it looks like I never shared the process either, but that isn't happening today), and show off a monster that is now sixteen years old. For whatever reason, they made me make this guy tall and spindly rather than beefy, but that is their call, I liked him beefy.

Bloodletter

Dark Heresy - Daemon Hunter

7 x 10 - Digital
© 2011 Fantasy Flight Games

Bloodletter

Dark Heresy - Daemon Hunter

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

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, August 31, 2016

Air Caste Courier - Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Process

Back in December of last year I first shared with you my contribution to the Legions of Death expansion to Warhammer 40K: Conquest, the Air Caste Courier. Today I have for you the process and steps that went into making that piece. To start things off here is what final version of the card looks like as well as what the final version of the painting looks like...

Air Caste Courier (Modified final)
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board with digital edits
Original available over on my web store

Air Caste Courier (Original)
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board
Original available over on my web store

There were some revision requests made after the painting was completed that involved global changes to the piece so they were done digitally, which is why there are two versions of this piece.

As with everything I create, there was a photo shoot for reference and then I got started on thumbnails for this piece. It needed to depict a big headed blue alien from the Warhammer 40K universe carrying a case onto a dropship as it prepares to take off. Pretty straight forward even though the alien is a little silly. Here are how the thumbnails turned out...

Air Caste Courier - Thumbnails

Did I say reference? Here is a look at one of the many images taken during the photo shoot to work out this piece. It was also the image used for the approved thumbnail, option "C".

Air Caste Courier - Reference

Photo by Achsa Nute

With an approved thumbnail it was time to get started on the final drawing for the piece. Here is how said drawing turned out...

Air Caste Courier - Drawing
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
17 x 14 - Pencil on paper
Original available over on my web store

There was some concern the head was not long enough and I was asked to extend it. I still think it ruins the perspective a bit and makes the whole face appear to be more parallel to the viewer than it is meant to be, but I make the revisions requested of me. There were some other little edits here and there to the drawing that I was asked to make as well. I made all of these edits digitally since I didn't want to risk messing up the final drawing with an incorrect revision and I did not have time to redraw the entire with with the revisions. Here is how the revised drawing turned out...

The revised drawing was approved and I was ready to get started on the painting. For some reason I took a photo of my work space right before I got to work on this painting. It was mixed in with all the process images I took and I had completely forgotten about it. For those interested in seeing what my painting space looks like, here you go...

Work space before painting begins

The painting portion for this one was relatively straight forward. Just fumbled my way through it until I had a finished painting, or so I thought. As mentioned before, there were some global revisions requested after the painting was considered completed by me. Making these revisions digitally took a lot of the guess work, anxiety, and risk out of making them. Here is a look at the piece coming together (including digital revisions)...

Here is an animated version of the painting coming together so you can better see the stages building on each other as well as the edits that were done digitally. Besides making the entire piece more yellow, there were small changes to his anatomy were the interruption of the miniature and the painted figure were ambiguous.

Here again is the final version of the Air Caste Courier painting as well as an image of the final production card for you viewing pleasure. It is funny how some of the things I was asked to edit, revise, and change in the final are not even visible on the final card do to cropping. Oh well, that is the way of things...

Air Caste Courier (Modified final)
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board with digital edits
Original available over on my web store

Air Caste Courier 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

Monday, December 21, 2015

Air Caste Courier - Warhammer 40K: Conquest

I for you a new piece of Warhammer card art that was spoiled last week with the announcement of the newest expansion of Warhammer 40K: Conquest, Legions of Death. While the piece was painted traditionally the final art was edited digitally to give production what they wanted. Here is how the final production art for the Air Caste Courier...

Air Caste Courier (Modified final)
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board with digital edits

Original available over on my web store

Art Director - John Taillon
© 2015 Fantasy Flight Games

To compare that with the original painting you will see the entire image was color shifted more yellow and that the entire drop ship in the background was made significantly more yellow. While easy to do on the computer it would have meant a major edit to the painting to make happen. Here is what the original painting looks like...

Air Caste Courier (Original)
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board

Art Director - John Taillon

Original available over on my web store
© 2015 Fantasy Flight Games

The drawing for the Air Caste Courier will also so another change that was made after the drawing and prior to the painting, the head of the Courier was elongated significantly. This guy could not catch a break... edits and every turn. Oh well, things happen... especially when I work on Warhammer...

Air Caste Courier - Drawing
Warhammer 40K: Conquest - Legions of Death
17 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Art Director - John Taillon

Original available over on my web store
© 2015 Fantasy Flight Games

Finally, here is a peek at the final production card that will coming out sometime first quarter of 2016...

Sneak peek of the Air Caste Courier in handy dandy card form

I will have more stories about the ups and downs of this piece (and some classic reference images of me as the Air Caste Courier) once the set is released next year!

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

Friday, February 27, 2015

Uber Grotesque - Process

Back in November I shared with you a piece that I produced for the Howl of Blackmane expansion of Warhammer Conquest. Today I have the process that went into creating the Uber Grotesque. So that we are all on the same page, here is how the final painting of the Uber Grotesque turned out...

Uber Grotesque

12 x 9

Acrylic and pencil on board

Original for sale over on my web store!

I worked on this at the end of January 2014 and it was one of several "baby steps" as I moved towards transitioning from working digitally to traditionally. Little did I know when painting this that within six months I would be working completely traditionally.

As with all my work I start with thumbnails. I took some very silly selfies for reference and got started on a few concepts for how I envisioned this piece. Here are the thumbnails that made the cut...

Uber Grotesque - Tumbnails

Option "A" was the winner, but production did have some notes to tweak it. Some additional mass needed to be added and the larger curved back was incorporated. I updated the thumbnail and sent it back to production for approval...

Uber Grotesque - Updated tumbnails

This updated thumbnail was given the green light and I ready to work up the drawing. At this time I still had not made the decision to work on all my drawings at 100% the size of the final painting and simply worked on my usual sized paper. Here is how the final drawing turned out...

Uber Grotesque

Warhammer Conquest

12 x 9

Pencil on paper

Original for sale over on my web store!
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

The painting went fairly smoothly. I was still very much trying to learn how to use the paint and how best to build up a painting. Not that I am still not constantly learning from each painting I work on, a year ago I was very much still fumbling and bumbling through a painting. My success seemed to be more of sheer luck then any efforts of mine. I have produced many paintings since this one and already looking back at this it feels very chaotic.

I took many process images of this piece coming together. Some of these images were actually even clear enough to share! Here is an animated process gif of the painting together. Many of the individual images were not good enough to stand on their own so I decided to just jump to the animated thingy and not share the individual images.

Uber Grotesque - Animated process thingy

As mentioned when I first shared this piece in November, after the painting was completed I was asked to rotate the entire image to the right. This this was a traditionally painted piece I made the edits on the computer. With my years of experience painting digitally, this was an extremely quick fix. Here is how the final used version of the Uber Grotesque turned out...

Uber Grotesque

Digital alter of final painting

Uber Grotesque in handy dandy card form (RAWR)

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

Monday, November 17, 2014

Uber Grotesque - Warhammer 40K Conquest: The Howl of Blackmane

At the end of last week I noticed a new piece of my work has popped up on the internet. This means I can now share it with you! This is a piece done for the first expansion for Warhammer 40K - Conquest, The Howl of Blackmane. I created this back in January and it is the second piece that I created traditionally for Fantasy Flight Games. Before I go too much into this piece, here is now the final turned out...

Uber Grotesque

12 x 9

Acrylic and pencil on board

Original for sale over on my web store!

A lot has happened and changed with my traditional work since January. So it is a little weird to be showing this off now while I know what the future holds. Enough about that for now!

I will go into more detail about this piece when I share the process in the near future when the expansion is officially released. For now though I will show how the piece ultimately turned out. While I did this piece traditionally there was sizable modification requested for this piece once I had completed the painting that required a digital fix. Here is how the final modified piece turned out that was used in the game...

Uber Grotesque

Digital alter of final painting

As I said, I will be going into more detail about this piece and the process that went into creating it here on the blog once the card is officially released. In the meantime, here is a small watermarked look at what the final card will look like...

Uber Grotesque in handy dandy card form (RAWR)

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, May 29, 2013

Only War: Hammer Of The Emperor

Hammer Of The Emperor, the newest supplement to the Only War RPG is now out, and I have several monstrous mounts in it! Set in the grim future of the Warhammer 40K universe Only War centers around the Imperial Guard, the galaxy-spanning armies of the God-Emperor... but that doesn't mean there can't be some monsters in there. For Hammer Of The Emperor, I was asked to do a series of three drawings depicting various mounts used in war. The first one, the Aethexe, was brand new, and I got to design it! Here is how the drawings turned out...

Aethexe

Krieg Death Rider Horse

Mukaali

Sad Mukaali is sad... Here are scans from the book so that you can see how they were eventually used in the final product...

Since the final product was drawings, there is not a lot to share regarding the process for these. I can share the thumbnails and concepts that I submitted before creating the final drawing. For the first two, you will see a fourth unlabeled box. This is the thumbnail after implementing notes from my art director before I moved onto the final drawing...

Aethexe - thumbnails / concepts

Krieg Death Rider Horse - thumbnails

Mukaali - thumbnails

As mentioned time and time again, the drawing part of the process of creating monsters and illustrations is my favorite, so anytime the drawing is the finished product, I am happy with an assignment. Thanks to Andy Christensen for thinking of me for this assignment! 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, July 23, 2012

The Rising Tempest

Late last year I was approached by the good folks at Fantasy Flight Games to help out on the newest supplement for the Deathwatch RPG, The Rising Tempest. They needed a new monster for the Warhammer 40K universe designed and I was put to the task. I am always happy to be able to design a new monster for a project. To make this more interesting the assignment called for me to produce drawings as the final art (a bonus!). The drawings were to be rough and sketchy as if done as field notes with some spot art elements to be added in. I handed over the elements and the design team at FFG put them all together. The book arrived in the mail on Friday so I can now share it with you! Here is my contribution to The Rising Tempest, the Ghanathaar...

Ghanathaar (disguised)

Ghanathaar (revealed)

These were the the two main creature designs that I was asked to produce. After these were all set I did some quick detail spot art elements that would be added in to make a sketchbook/field note book type graphic...

Ghanathaar (spot art elements)

The wild scribblings of a deranged madman? Here is how the final pieces all came together in the book...

Ghanathaar art as it appears in the book

Here are the early sketches that I submitted for the approval process. It was nice to be only producing drawings for the assignment, though it was a little weird since they had to be rough and sketchy. But I was drawing, so it was all okay in the end!

Ghanathaar sletches

That is all for an exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday to see the first test of something new! Until then...

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

Monday, March 26, 2012

The Jericho Reach

Last year I was approached by the good folks at Fantasy Flight Games to help out on the newest supplement for the Deathwatch RPG, The Jericho Reach. They had a straggler monster that needed to be done for a fast approaching deadline. I stepped in and made quick work of it. The book arrived in the mail on Friday so I can now share it with you! Here is my contribution to The Jericho Reach, the Harridan...

Nothing like working on crazy Warhammer 40K monsters. This quarter pager came together rather quickly and reproduced well in the book. Not much more to add, it was a really quick turnaround from start to finish and it was a really straight forward process. Here are the thumbnails and the drawing that went into this piece...

That is all for another exciting monster filled Monday, 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, August 29, 2011

Black Crusade

Starting off the week with more new work! Following the recent trend, it is new Warhammer 40K work for Fantasy Flight Games. This time around though it is from the new RPG title, Black Crusade! I was able to get my copy and release permission while at Gen Con which is pretty cool since the book has not officially available for sale. I produced three pieces for the book...

Giant Spined Chaos Beast

Nurglings

RAWR! Space monsters! More monsters from the dark grim future, what more could you ask for? These were of course really fun to work on. The one thing that strikes me about working on Warhammer 40K is the importance of being incredibly faithful to the miniatures the art is based on. Miniature reference has been provided to me for 99% of my Warhammer work and each time I was told to make the art look like the mini. For me, this brings up one issue... the color of the monster. I tend to include a lot of color and pattern in my monsters and often the 40K reference I am provided has the monster painted... RED or GREEN and that is it. It is a fine line of putting too much blue and yellow into that GREEN monster when it stops looking like the reference. I make the best of it and know that I am hired to preform a skilled task and it is my job to stick to the reference and make it look good,

That is all for another exciting Monday, 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