The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT: x-wing

Showing posts with label x-wing. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Star Wars Process - Bossk

I have waited a long time to share the process for this painting. At times I considered never sharing it. Four years on, I am comfortable sharing it and talking a little more about this piece. I have talked a LOT about this piece over the past four years, and this will likely be the last time I mention it.

For those that know me, I have a particular love for Star Wars, specifically the monsters and aliens in the Star Wars universe. I watched the original Star Wars movie in the theaters when it was released, and it changed everything for me. I was only three years old, but it had a profound impact on my career and passion as an artist. The cantenna scene specifically had a significant effect on my young mind. I didn't know what I was seeing, but I wanted to make it. I have spent my life making monsters, I continue to make monsters. The work that I have done on the Star Wars games is some of my favorite client work and something I am still proud of to this day. Through the game art, I was able to be a part of Star Wars and create my own little corner of that universe. It is something I will also be thankful for FFG for giving me that opportunity.

Of the monsters and aliens in the Star Wars universe, my favorite character and alien is Bossk. The reptilian Trandoshan bounty hunter instantly caught my eye, and though he only was in the Empire Strikes Back for seconds, I was forever in love. The character has since been fleshed out in cartoons, books, comics, and games, and I have enjoyed every second of it. I perused the opportunity to work on a Bossk piece for some time, but the time was always off. FINALLY, it all came together, and I was able to create an official Bossk painting. Here is the final version of my Bossk painting.

Bossk - Final Version
X-Wing Nationals Tournament Alternate Art
16 x 12 - Traditional with digital edits and finish

The narrative of the painting is that Chewbacca was the prey that got away. Out of all of Bossk's successes, the hunt that never resulted in a kill was his pursuit of Chewbacca. You might think that this narrative is a little hollow in the image, well things have a way of changing along the way. With every piece of art I make, it starts out with reference. Such as this image.

Reference Photo

Photo by Achsa Nute

This is but one of the many images of me making my best Bossk impression. I wanted to make a connection between Bossk and the holo image of Chewbacca. Now that I had reference, it was time to work on some thumbnails.

Bossk - Thumbnails
Digital

These thumbnails were well received, but there were some requests and some issues with templates, cropping, and final card arrangement. I needed to move the composition around a little and make it a little more dynamic. Here is the revised thumbnail.

Bossk - Revised thumbnail
Digital

This updated thumbnail was approved, and I was given the go-ahead to move forward with the final drawing. To this day, this is one of my favorite drawings that I created for the Star Wars games, which is why it is the only drawing that I have kept. Here is the final drawing.

Bossk - Drawing
X-Wing Nationals Tournament Alternate Art
17 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Original - NFS

The drawing was approved, and it was time to paint. I created this piece a little larger than I usually worked at the time. I wanted to give it the size and attention is deserved now that I was finally painting Bossk. Here is an animated process of the painting coming together. As with most of my paintings, I work back to the front, leaving the main elements to the end. There is a rather pronounced jump in the image of the painting at the end, this is a result of the photos of the painting while working on compared to the final scan of the painting.

Bossk - Painting Process

Here is the final scan of my Bossk painting. I was pleased with it, and it was everything I had hoped to do with the painting and the character. The painting was approved, and I moved onto other work.

Bossk - Original
X-Wing Nationals Tournament Alternate Art
16 x 12 - Acrylic and pencil on board

Original - SOLD

Three months after the painting was approved, I was asked to make significant edits to the piece. As a professional, I made these changes. I do not need to agree with the changes, but I need to do the best job I am capable of to ensure that the edits and changes are made to the expectations of the client. This is just the way of things. Here is an image of the parts of the painting that were still approved.

Bossk - Approved elements

Since it was such a profound change to the painting, I started over with thumbnails to ensure that the client and I were on the same page and in agreement with what needed to be done. It was agreed that Bossk needed to be in an interior location, possible in a cantenna without figures in the background, or simply against a wall. Here are the new background thumbnails for the painting.

Bossk - New background thumbnails
Digital

Option C was chosen. While it was a little bland, I went with their choice and moved forward with having Bossk against a wall. Here is the process of the background being added digitally to the painting.

Bossk - Edits Painting Process

While it is far from where it began, I made the requested updates and presented the client with the edits and changes they wanted. Here is the updated Bossk painting with a sterilized background.

Bossk - Background Version 1
X-Wing Nationals Tournament Alternate Art
16 x 12 - Traditional with digital edits and finish

After submitting the new version of the painting, I was told that the background needed to be a spaceship interior with windows showing space in the background. This was news to me, but again, as a professional, I moved forward with making additional changes to this painting. Here is the painting process for turning the wall into a spaceship interior.

Bossk - Contuned Edits Painting Process

For a third time, I submitted a final for this painting, and for a second time, it was accepted.

Bossk - Final Version
X-Wing Nationals Tournament Alternate Art
16 x 12 - Traditional with digital edits and finish

After all of this work, changed, and edits here is the final card produced using the painting.

Final Bossk production card

During the painting of this piece, I stood back and took a photo of my workstation. I was excited about this piece and really happy with how it was turning out. I could not wait to share it when it came out.

The painting on my workstation nearing completion.

And this ends the journey of my Bossk painting. May it now be put to rest, and we can all move on. I have spoken.

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, November 7, 2018

The Return of the Wookiee Navigator - Veteran Turret Gunner

A quick post today about the return of the very first Star Wars card I ever painted. The Wookiee Navigator first saw life in the Star Wars Card Game and went fairly unnoticed. When it was added to to the X-Wing miniature game as the Gunner card it got a lot of attention. Now that the second edition of X-Wing has been released it looks like the Gunner card has made the leap and is now the Veteran Turret Gunner. Here is look at the original art from 2012...

Wookiee Navigator

The good thing is that this time around the art is a little bigger. I think. Never the less, it is on a bigger card. I think. Which ever it is, here is the card...

Veteran Turret Gunner Card

If you want to get your hands on the card all you need to do is buy one of the new Y-Wing ships and it will be in there...

X-Wing 2nd Edition release of the Y-Wing that contains the Veteran Turret Gunner

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, July 6, 2016

Take Two... Bossk - X-Wing Nationals Tournament Alternate Art

Trying this again... You might remember last week when I posted about my alternate art used on the Bossk card for the X-Wing Nationals Tournament. This post got a lot of attention from a lot of people all over the internet. Due to the attention it received I was asked to remove my original version of my painting. I was asked, so I did it. That is how these things work. What I can share is the final version of the piece that was used for the card...

Bossk - Final Version
X-Wing Nationals Tournament Alternate Art
Traditional with digital edits and finish

I previously talked about the level of changes this piece went through, and of course it was easy to see those changes when juxtaposed with the original. That is no longer an option, so here is the part of the original that made it through to the end piece...

Bossk - Original Version (What I can share of it)
X-Wing Nationals Tournament Alternate Art
16 x 12 - Acrylic and pencil on board
Art Director - John Taillon
© 2016 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games

Clients have every right to expect edits and changes to work they are hiring an artist to create. I have made every change to every piece I was ever asked to make. I am a professional and that is just what you do. I started my career as an artist in 1999 when I started working in the movie industry and I have worked in the gaming industry since 2005. I don't mess around and I perform my job with the utmost seriousness and professionalism. This piece meant a lot to me when I accepted it and I put a lot of myself into it. I am committed to creating the best work I can for my clients and at the same time giving my own artist voice and vision to everything that I do. Was I happy about the changes to this piece? No, but I did them anyway, all of them, to the best of my abilities. I don't have to like things for me to still do them.

This blog has always been a place for me to talk about the ups and downs of working as an artist. This is my little corner where I make the rules. I have stated time after time that if you are a professional artist you make the changes. You suck it up and you do the work. It is not always easy, but that is part of the agreement when taking on assignments. I continue to stand by all of this. BUT, in my corner, I speak freely and if I don't like something I say it and it is in NO way a disparagement to the client, the product, or anyone else involved. It is my opinion to events that happened, in most cases, a year or more ago. Changes happen for any number of reasons, for good and bad. I have had changes that have made pieces better (IMHO)... and I have had changes that detract from the piece (IMHO). I explain and talk about this all the time here on this blog.

Everything culminated with complete strangers on the internet criticizing me and my blog and their actions most likely resulted in the original of this piece being removed. Always nice to have people wander in after you have been doing something for 7+ years and tell you are doing it all wrong. Always great to get advice from people who are not artists, have never made art, and have never worked in a creative freelance job. Again, this is my corner of the internet and I get to make the rules here.

Sometimes pieces are super easy and sometimes they are not. For whatever reason, AND TO NO FAULT TO ANYONE, this Bossk piece sure has had a rough time of it. Last week's blog post situation was the cherry on top. I have been SUPER lucky over the years and 95% of my assignments having been smooth and straight forward events. You can't win them all and that is just the way things are.

I was planning on sharing all the ins and outs for the process of this piece getting made, but I guess I can't do that now. I did a LOT of work on the back end to get this piece made. Oh well... I will leave you with the final production version of my Bossk card...

Final Bossk production card

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