The Vale of the Inner Sun - Process

Back in September I shared with a recent Dungeons & Dragon piece that I appeared in Dragon magazine #414, The Vale of the Inner Sun. Today, I have for you a look at the process that went into the mutated elf foulspawn that was ever so briefly threatened by magenta. Let's start off with having a look at the finished piece before jumping into the process...

The Inner Sun

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

 

I have alluded for a while now that there was a story involving magenta with this piece. Basically, as an artist you sometimes take risks or you do something you think at the time is really awesome. Sometimes it IS really awesome and the artistic risks pay off... and sometime they do not and the art director has to tell you to change it. My "at the time good idea" was to put some wicked awesome back lighting on this guy... but I am getting ahead of myself. First it all started with some concepts since this was a new monster. This new creature was described as an elf that has been corrupted and mutated into a foulspawn spell caster with a eyeless mask, staff, spell book, and had blood drenched robes. Its arms and torso needed to be elongated as if stretched. Here are the concepts I came up with...

The Inner Sun - concepts

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

I followed the concepts up with some thumbnails of the creature emerging from a cave entrance is several dynamic and exciting ways. At the time I did not have a clear personal favorite so I used all the concepts in the thumbnails to get a better feel for what it working and what was not. When it was all said and done, I think I was leaning toward thumbnail 'B' or 'C'...

The Inner Sun - thumbnails

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

Production always has a clear perspective on things and went with option 'A'. Now that I had a direction I could move forward with the final drawing to work out the details and flesh things out... 

The Inner Sun - drawing

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

With everything approved it was now time to work on the final painting and this is where it all gets weird. As part of the description for this piece there was a bit of background added describing how underground earthquakes that could happen anywhere could unleash these creatures so that they could be added to any campaign. I imagined some horrific underground event involving magic and arcane wonders and horrors that cause and are the aftermath of all this and so should be included in the illustration... namely in the form of some glow from inside the cave. Let's see how that all worked out when the glow ended up being MAGENTA...

The Inner Sun - process

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

Um... yeah. Everything should look relatively similar to my current build up of my images in steps 1 - 5. In step 5 you can see the introduction of color and the glow taking form. Steps 6 - 8 it just keeps going and going and step 8 is what I turned into the art director the first time. When the note came back to get rid of the magenta it was a little overwhelming and was a bit worried at the scale of this change... at least I was not working traditionally where it would be a lot worse. At first I thought the color needed to just be changed to another color and that added to the confusion of the revision. But after some emails with the AD is was more clear to me on what the problem was and what needed to be done.  The color was not only overwhelming it was also causing the blood to become less noticeable and pulling focus. Sometimes the illustration is just about a monster standing in the opening of a cave. Here is a side by side comparison of the two final versions of this piece, you be the judge...

The Inner Sun - with and without MAGENTA

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

Now that the MAGENTA has been dealt with the piece was quickly approved. This is another reason why it is good to get your assignments in early. I had the pieces in well before they were due and even with this change I was still able to deliver the final work to the AD ahead of deadline and at happy AD makes for a happy artist! ALSO, don't fight the revisions, just do them. You will lose the fight every time and might lose a lot more in the long run if the AD never calls you back for another job. The AD and production  have an objective view point and thankfully in my experience have always been a source for improvement. Granted, there are exceptions and if they are making changes to the final that should have been addressed by them in the sketch phase there are time when you have the power to act on behave... but the general revision notes need to be done quickly and with a smile. Here is the final piece one more time...

The Inner Sun

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

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

Slaves of the Oba - Process

Back in August I shared with a recent Dungeons & Dragon piece that I appeared in Dragon magazine #414, Slaves of the Oba. Today, I have for you a look at the process that went into the giant wolf creature who is about to rip apart a poor farmer. Let's start off with having a look at the finished piece before jumping into the process...

Slaves of the Oba

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

Since this piece centered around a new monster that I needed to design before I illustrated it I started off with some rough creature concepts. The creature was described as being a large wolf like creature that had skin and fur only covering some of the glowing elemental / spectral / spirit monster below. This got me thinking about how much should be covered and what parts should be exposed. I created three roughs of the creature from more wolf to wolf man. I was really leaning towards option "B" and it turns out that so was production...

Slaves of the Oba - Concept Roughs

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

Thumbnails followed the concepts. I did these all at the same time and before sending anything to my AD... but since I was already leaning toward concept "B" I used that is all my thumbnails. The piece was described as having the creature just about to attack a village farmer at the edge of a forest. I instantly saw it being the creature looming over figure just moments before the poor villager was ripped limb from limb. I worked up three compositions, at the time I was really wanting to do option "B", but production picked "A". Production always has final say and I also defer to their wishes and as always it was the better choice...

Slaves of the Oba - Thumbnails

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

With monster concept and thumbnail approved I moved with the more finished drawing, not much more to say about that...

Slaves of the Oba - Drawing

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

Time to jump back just a little bit... Before I started the concepts or thumbnails I shot some reference photos of my friend Nicholas Rich in a bunch of poses of him reacting to a large unseen monster. I have mentioned MANY times here on the blog the importance of reference and I am going to do it again... REFERENCE REFERENCE REFERENCE!!! Nike was dropping off after we had attended a life drawing session. The whole time I was life drawing I was thinking about monster composition and working out in my head some options and angels. In the spur of the moment I asked Nick if he wanted to be about to die horribly in a painting and he was game. The street light was the perfect analog for a large glowing monster - even though it was the the wrong color light - and it all came together quickly and easily. If not for Nick I am confident this piece would not have turned out as well as it did. I would not have gotten as good or interesting of reference if I had to recreate what was naturally happening at that moment. All the visual information I needed to make the image and the figure more believable and interesting was all right there. Thanks, Nick!

Reference! Thanks, Nick!

Concepts, thumbnails, drawing, and reference all taken care of, time for the painting. Last week I talked at length about my new technique for building up my under painting. I used the same method on this piece as well. Since I had worked everything out very well in preproduction and since I had such helpful reference, this piece really came together quickly and easily. No horror stories or wrong turns (those stories are for another day). Here is an over view of the painting coming together from drawing to final...

Slaves of the Oba  - Process

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

Everything finished up I sent the piece off to my AD and it was approved without any changes, which is always the best news I can ever hear on anything I create. Being able to hit the mark on the first pass is a very real goal for me on each and every painting I create and thankfully I am still achieving this goal many more times then I am not. Here is the final piece one more time...

Slaves of the Oba

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

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

The Vale of the Inner Sun

Last month (August) a new article in Dragon magazine #414, The Vale of the Inner Sun, went up on the Dungeons & Dragon website and I contributed a piece to the article! I have never been quite about my dislike of Elves, so when I had a chance to mutate one into a Foulspawn I was super exccited! Here is how the piece turned out...

The Inner Sun

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

This piece is depicts some of the potential horrors that could arise from earthquakes deep underground as they release the foul creatures below. Or I am completely wrong since I have not had a chance to read the article. All I know is there are underground earthquakes and mutated Elf Foulspawn monsters coming out of caves... and they most likely will say 'RAWR'. When I am assigned to create a new mutated Elf monster covered in blood and standing in front of a cave apparently the first place my mind goes is... MAGENTA. When I do process post for this piece you will get to see all the magenta goodness and how I fixed it. It really did seem like a good idea at the time... but I am getting ahead of myself... Check back in the coming weeks to see what the heck I am blathering about! As always, I would like to thank Kate Irwin for involving me on this project and for her art direction ...and for being patient with my color choices!

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

Slaves of the Oba

Earlier in the month a new article in Dragon magazine #414, Slaves of the Oba, went up on the Dungeons & Dragon website and I contributed a piece to the article! Corrupted primal spirits terrorizing villagers in the Dark Sun campaign setting? Count me in! Here is how the piece turned out...

Slaves of the Oba

© 2012 Wizards of the Coast

I am a little behind in posting new work since it seems like so much hit this month as well as loads more being previewed at Gen Con. I would like to thank my friend Nicholas Rich for the impromptu reference shoot, he make a great villager who is about to meet a very unpleasant end. I had a lot of fun with this piece and it is always a joy to design and illustrate a new monster for D&D. I will have a walk through and process post for this piece in the near future. As always, I would like to thank Kate Irwin for involving me on this project and for her art direction!

That's all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday for a monster starting with the letter "C". Until then...

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