Fantasy Hero (part 1)

You might recall a mighty stack of books I took a photo of while I was at Gen Con. That mighty stack was the newly released Fantasy Hero source book from Hero Games. Since I worked on it early this year I thought it was about time I shared my work with you. So, today I have for you the first two of four pieces produced for Fantasy Hero...

It BURNS!
© 2010 Hero Games

Cavern Creature
© 2010 Hero Games

I was assigned two vertical and two horizontal pieces. The vertical pieces were really fun and allowed for some interesting compositions. I think I had the most fun with 'It BURNS!', but how can you not with a dragon melting a knight.

See you back here on Wednesday, I will have for you the rest of the Fantasy Hero pieces! Until then...

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

Taking the Imposing Demon back - part 3

You might remember the recent posts concerning the really crappy drawings I did for the Imposing demon used on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you need a reminder you can see them HERE and HERE. When I had a few more spare moments I had a chance rework another version of the demon, this time around I picked concept "B"...

Another attempt at taking the Imposing Demon back!
© 2010 Christopher Burdett

I am again left wondering if this is at all a better design, but at least I can rest easy that this is a better drawing. The original sketch for this concept was so vague I could have almost done anything with it... so on that point alone I guess this is a better design. I have also completed the reworking of the final concept "D" and will share it with you soon.

That is all for an exciting black and white week on the blog. Next week I think I will brighten things up with some color work! I have a couple of projects that should be safe to share with you. Until then...

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

WiP Podcast Episode 16

You should head on over and check out WiP Podcast #16. They have a great round table interview from Gen Con (that I was a part of!) as well as a great post Gen Con look at what the good folks at WiP came away with from this years premiere gaming convention. Some great thoughts on setting up for the con, what to bring and some great resources for prints. What more could you ask for?

So, just to clarify... RUN, don't walk on over and give a listen to WiP Podcast #16! I would like to give a special shout out to Jeff & Caroline Himmelman and Peter & Anna Mohrbacher for egging me on to come to Gen Con this year. If not for their encouragement I most likely would have let another year slip by. It was super awesome to meet them and I can't wait to get back to Gen Con next year and to have a booth of my own!

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

Fresh from the drawing table... Frog (Giant)!

I have for you today another drawing that is fresh from the drawing table. This time around it is a Frog and in parenthesis... GIANT! While 'F' didn't offer a lot of options (granted, more then some of the letters to come) it did offer up a critter that I can have some fun with and flex my monster muscles... a massive froggy.

Frog (Giant)
© 2010 Christopher Burdett

Yes, I know it feels more like a toad then a frog but toads are just more monstrous to me so this Frog (Giant) has a lot of toad features. I do not expect fleeing peasents to correctly identity to massive creature that just ate half their village. The subtle differences of a giant frog and and giant toad can be so easily lost when running for your life. When I got to work on this I instantly thought of him living in a broken down tower with his butt backed up against the wall. Our tree frogs do something very similar when sitting on plants in the yard.

My first 100 original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual redesigns (A - Z): Aerial Servant, Ankheg, Ant (Giant), Ape (Carnivorous), Ape (Gorilla), Axe Beak, Axe Beak (version 2), Baboon, Badger, Barracuda, Basilisk, Baluchitherium, Bear (Black), Bear (Brown), Bear (Cave), Beaver (Giant), Beetle (Giant) - Bombardier, Beetle (Giant) - Boring, Beetle (Giant) - Fire, Beetle (Giant) - Rhinoceros, Beetle (Giant) - Stag, Beetle (Giant) - Water, Beholder, Black Pudding, Blink Dog, Boar (Giant), Boar (Warthog), Boar (Wild), Brain Mole, Brownie, Bugbear, Buffalo, Bulette, Carrion Crawler, Catoblepas, Cerebral Parasite, Chimera, Cockatrice, Coutal, Crab (Giant), Demon Type III (Glabrezu), Demon (Juiblex), Demon (Manes), Devil (Ice), Dragon (Red), Elemental (Earth), Ettin, Eye of the Deep, Flightless Bird, Frog (Giant), Fungi (Violet), Giant (Hill), Goblin, Golem (Flesh), Hobgoblin, Homunculus, Hydra, Imp, Intellect Devourer, Ixitxachitl, Jackal, Jacklewere, Jaguar, Ki-Rin, Kobold, Lich, Lizard (Giant), Lizardman, Manticore, Mind Flayer, Minotaur, Naga, Neo-Otygugh, Nixie, Ochre Jelly, Ogre, Owlbear, Peryton, Pixie, Purple Worm, Quasit, Ram (Giant), Roper, Rust Monster, Sahuagin, Salamander, Shambling Mound, Treant, Troglodyte, Troll, Umber Hulk, Unicorn, Vampire, Wasp (Giant), Wight, Wyvern, Xorn, Yeti, and Zombie.      

That's all for today. Trying to have a low key week while I can. I will be back on Friday another drawing if nothing else exciting rears it's head. Until then...

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

Fresh from the drawing table... Ettin!

I have for you today another drawing that is fresh from the drawing table. This time around it is an Ettin! Two heads are not always better then one, especially when you might be sharing one brain between the two. The Ettin has a lot going for itself though; big, dumb, massively strong and a fondness for club like weapons so I couldn't help but give it some pencil on paper love.

Ettin
© 2010 Christopher Burdett

You may have seem me nursing this guy along at Gen Con, he was not being really cooperative at first. This was in fact my third or fourth attempt at the Ettin. I was having a tough time getting all the elements just right. To complicate things I was asked by a client to create an Ettin for them when I was in the early stages of my own. Luckily, I had much better and quicker success with their Ettin then I had at first with mine. It is hard to go wrong with a big hulking bruiser. It only gets complicated when I try to put weird helmets on them.
 
My first 100 original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual redesigns (A - Z): Aerial Servant, Ankheg, Ant (Giant), Ape (Carnivorous), Ape (Gorilla), Axe Beak, Axe Beak (version 2), Baboon, Badger, Barracuda, Basilisk, Baluchitherium, Bear (Black), Bear (Brown), Bear (Cave), Beaver (Giant), Beetle (Giant) - Bombardier, Beetle (Giant) - Boring, Beetle (Giant) - Fire, Beetle (Giant) - Rhinoceros, Beetle (Giant) - Stag, Beetle (Giant) - Water, Beholder, Black Pudding, Blink Dog, Boar (Giant), Boar (Warthog), Boar (Wild), Brain Mole, Brownie, Bugbear, Buffalo, Bulette, Carrion Crawler, Catoblepas, Cerebral Parasite, Chimera, Cockatrice, Coutal, Crab (Giant), Demon Type III (Glabrezu), Demon (Juiblex), Demon (Manes), Devil (Ice), Dragon (Red), Elemental (Earth), Ettin, Eye of the Deep, Flightless Bird, Frog (Giant), Fungi (Violet), Giant (Hill), Goblin, Golem (Flesh), Hobgoblin, Homunculus, Hydra, Imp, Intellect Devourer, Ixitxachitl, Jackal, Jacklewere, Jaguar, Ki-Rin, Kobold, Lich, Lizard (Giant), Lizardman, Manticore, Mind Flayer, Minotaur, Naga, Neo-Otygugh, Nixie, Ochre Jelly, Ogre, Owlbear, Peryton, Pixie, Purple Worm, Quasit, Ram (Giant), Roper, Rust Monster, Sahuagin, Salamander, Shambling Mound, Treant, Troglodyte, Troll, Umber Hulk, Unicorn, Vampire, Wasp (Giant), Wight, Wyvern, Xorn, Yeti, and Zombie.      

It is looking like it will be a week of drawing fun on the blog this week. I will see you back here on Wednesday with something else new from the drawing table! Until then...

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

Sea Demon's Shrine - PROCESS CONTINUES!

The process post on Wednesday has been really well received so I am forgoing my previous planned post to continue to talk about went into the Sea Demon's Shire.

I first want to say that what I am sharing with you is a process that I have come to after about 6 years of trial and error. This is by no means a perfect method. Every artist has their own methods and process. Just because you follow the path of the process it does not mean you will end up at the same destination. I am not trying to scare anyone off, there is just no one perfect method to making art. This works for me, I hope it can show you some new paths you might want to try that will take you to new places in your own work.A lot of the questions I have received have been about what is happening from layer to layer in my painting. I heard from more then one person that they could not see what was different in the fixing stage progression. To help better illustrate what is happening I have broken down the layers of my painting into separate elements...

Layer breakdown
© 2010 Wizards of the Coast

Each layer was a separate step in the process. The first 3 and the last 2 can be found in all my current paintings. The number of 'correction' layers varies from painting to painting. This should better illustrate some of what I was talking about in the last post. Please note that the Overlay layer is shown inverted and as a normal layer.

Now that I have shown you all the pieces here is a complete progression side by side from drawing to final layer...

Layer Prgression
© 2010 Wizards of the Coast

The majority of heavy lifting in all my paintings is in the first three layers. The under painting is key to set the mood, color palette, and over all lighting of the piece and the main painting layer pulls it all together. I try to work on the piece at 50% - 66.7% for as long as possible to ensure that I work the entire image before going crazy on the details. For far too long getting caught up on the details too early has really hindered my paintings. I love the detail work and try to use that as icing on the cake after I have done all the hard work. Here is a view of the painting at 100% to show how much detail is in the piece...

Sea Demon's Shire at 100%
© 2010 Wizards of the Coast

I continue to welcome any questions you have regarding my process and methods. I hope this additional post helps explain a little better what is going on in my paintings layer to layer.

That is all for another week! I will be back on Monday with a new drawing and hopefully a surprise or two if I can pull them off. Until then...

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

The Sea Demon's Shrine - PROCESS!

Today I bring you a look at my current process as it pertains to my recently released piece, the Sea Demon's Shrine. My process has been slowly changing since January and I thought some of you might enjoy seeing what goes into a painting for me these days.

The biggest change to my process compared to what I was doing last year is that it is about 2-3 times more involved. I have added several steps to ensure I get and maintain the level of quality I want out of my current work. Granted, not every assignment allows me to do all this but I try to do my best and stick to it as much as possible.

I begin each piece with some really loose 'just for me' thumbnails. They are often small and sloppy. I seem to have misplaced the one I did for this assignment so you will have to use your imagination. After I get my head around what I want to do for thumbnails I shoot figure reference for all my ideas. This makes sure that I am not getting off on the wrong foot and it is also building me up a really nice reference library. Once all my reference is complied I will do my rough drawings that will ultimately lead to the thumbnails I submit to the client.

Rough sketches and concepts
© 2010 Wizards of the Coast

I will create the figures and main elements separately on the computer so that I can edit and move them around as I build up the thumbnail. You never know what new directions you will discover once you begin combining the elements on the page. These are still fairly rough but they should be clear enough to give the client an idea so that I can move forward on the final drawing.

Thumbnails submitted for review
© 2010 Wizards of the Coast

Once a thumbnail is selected, in this case the pose and composition of the first with the idol of the third, I move forward on the final drawing. I will now gather up more reference so that everything in the drawing appears the way I need it to. This might be rock reference, skin textures, and of course the vital style guide for the depicted monster. You can't have a Sahuagin looking like a Troglodyte!

Final drawing
© 2010 Wizards of the Coast

Once the drawing is approved it is time to get the last round of reference. This reference is to get lighting ideas, color palettes and anything else I might have forgotten about. For this piece I gathered up a lot of images of cave interiors with interesting lighting and color and lots and lots of images of water. It is now time to get to painting in photoshop.

The painting begins!
© 2010 Wizards of the Coast

All of my paintings begin with the duplication of the drawing layer. The top drawing layer is set to 49% opacity and the bottom drawing layer is set to 21% opacity. I Gaussian Blur the lower level at 4.0 and then merge both drawing layers together. Once merged I apply a median noise filter set to a level of 4. All of these steps really knocks the drawing down and begins to make it a series of tones rather then lines (see above). I then do a full under painting on a new multiply layer. I usually lay down a color or gradient of two colors over the whole image before I start so that there is some commonality throughout the image. I try to hit all the colors I need but really try to stay loose and sloppy. Once I am happy with the under painting I create a new layer and start with the main painting. Always trying to work big and loose slowing getting more and more tight I build up forms, add details and work to create depth in the piece. I will usually work until I can't see anything else that needs my attention, it is more of a gut reaction then something cognitive. When I hit that point I close the file and leave it alone for a while.

The painting continues!
© 2010 Wizards of the Coast

After a break I will come back to the piece with fresh eyes and begin to address elements that aren't working or need additional attention. I will also often flip the image horizontally to get a better view of any problems. This process of leaving the file alone, coming back to 'fix it' and leaving it alone will go on as long as the deadlines allow. But I usually do 2-3 passes of tweaking it. Once I am finally happy with it I will make a copy of all the layers and correct the levels of the image. I usually work darker then I should and I can correct it at the end. I add my signature and it is all done and ready for approval.

Sea Demon's Shrine
© 2010 Wizards of the Coast

Once approved the file heads off to the client and I start the process all over again, if not for a client for myself. I hope this has been helpful. If you have any questions about any of this just let me know and I will try to answer them in a timely manor.

I will be back on Friday with some from the drawing table! Until then...

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