The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT: dagobah

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Knobby White Spider - Process - Star Wars: Between the Shadows

Today I have for you another process post for a "recent" Star Wars piece. This time around is the piece, Knobby White Spider, from Star Wars: Between the Shadows! I first shared these pieces in February, so here is how the final Knobby White Spider turned out...

Knobby White Spider

Star Wars: Between the Shadows

10 x 8.4 - Digital

The Knobby White Spider appears in the concept work and expanded stories relating to The Empire Strikes Back. While it looks like a massive spider creature it is in fact a plant. The Knobby White Spider is the juvenile state of the gnarltree and wanders around Dagobah eating things before it plants itself to grow into a tree. FUN! Since this piece takes place on Dagobah my thumbnails were really loose and messy, it is a swamp after all. Here are how the thumbnails turned out...

Knobby White Spider - Thumbnails

I really wanted to link this piece to Yoda or the events that took place in The Empire Strikes Back. As you can see my thumbnails included Luke's crashed X-Wing, Yoda's Hut, and even Yoda himself. I was informed that any card with Yoda, no matter how unrelated or minimized becomes by default a Yoda card. I REALLY wanted to have something Yoda in this card... but it just was not going to be happening. That left option 'A' with Luke's crashed X-Wing. One the plus side this is the first X-Wing I have been asked to depict, albeit in a rather minimized state. Now that I have an approved thumbnail it was time to work up the finalized drawing...

Knobby White Spider

12 x 9 - Pencil on paper

Original for sale over on my web store!

Now that I was working on the final drawing it was time to flesh out my portrayal of the swamps of Dagobah and draw all the details. Scribble scribble scribble... Really wanted to capture a moment in the typical say of a Knobby White Spider that just so happens to be walking past a crashed star ship. The drawing was approved and it was time to work on the painting. In the typical easy twelve steps that all my paintings take the piece came together... or not... Here is a look at the process of the painting...

Knobby White Spider - Progress progression

A big issue of this piece was to get a good separation of the background and the monster. There was a lot of push and pull on this to make sure the background, while complicated, fell away and the spider stood out. I also edited the the configuration of the back legs near the end of the painting. I felt the anatomy was off and didn't look right. While it may have be totally okay, I wanted to tweak it to make it better. I also narrowed the body mass a bit a the painting went along. To better show all of these changes in the painting, here is an animated progression of the painting...

Knobby White Spider - Animated Progress thingy

Once again here is the final painting for Knobby White Spider as well as the final production card that appears in the game. I am also including the card mod I did at Gen Con this year. I was asked to make the Knobby White Spider a little more snooty and pompous. It was really fun to do...

Knobby White Spider

10 x 8.4 - Digital

Knobby White Spider in handy dandy card form

Customized Knobby White Spider at Gen Con becomes the Snobby White Spider... 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

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Knobby White Spider - Star Wars: Between the Shadows

On Monday I shared with you the first of my contributions to Between the Shadows, the newest deluxe expansion to the Star Wars card game. Today brings the second new contribution to this set and it is a little more monstrous. The giant Knobby White Spider of Dagobah is here to keep an eye on Yoda and Luke...

Knobby White Spider

Star Wars: Between the Shadows

10 x 8.4 - Digital

I think is my first piece to directly be set during the Empire Strikes Back... because I put Luke's crashed X-Wing in the background. There was that Icetromper on Hoth a while back, but there is no direct tie in to the movie. I think most of my Star Wars work has been taking part in the Expanded Universe or in Return of the Jedi, so it was nice to do something from ESB. This was a weird one to work on but I will share some of that when the process post goes up in the coming weeks. Here is a look at how the final card turned out...

Knobby White Spider in handy dandy card form

This piece was not my last digitally painted Star Wars piece (that would be my work on Stay on Target) but this is the last digitally painted Star Wars piece to be released. From this point forward, unless otherwise mentioned, my Star Wars work is traditionally painted. For me, this is kind of crazy to think about. Got some interesting stuff on the horizon.

I will be bringing you one more piece from Between the Shadows on Friday, but this is a piece that has already been used elsewhere. I will be sharing the process that went into that piece to make it a more interesting post.

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