The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT

Friday, May 3, 2013

In search of Monsters - Leeds and York, England

Today I have for you a look at York and Leeds, England... or should I say I have for you a handful of the hundreds of images that I took while visiting Leeds and York. I found the north country of England to be beautiful and and rich with history. We had an outstanding tour guide and host in the form of fantasy illustrator, Ralph Horsley. Could not have asked for a better guide and more enjoyable adventure. Here is a taste of Leeds and York...

Why has no one ever told me there is a dragon on one of the pound coins?

York Castle in all its castle-y goodness - York, England

Detail from the only surviving suits of elephant armor... as in armor worn by elephants - Leeds, England

Pangolin scale armor, it is not enough that the armor is made from all those scales... but each scale is painted and detailed - Leeds, England

Detail of Samurai helmet - Leeds, England

Detail of Samurai chest ornamentation - Leeds, England

Another detail from Japanese armor - Leeds, England

Legit chainmail - Leeds, England

Ruins of an abbey - Leeds, England

More ruins of an abbey - Leeds, England

Ralph Horsley was kind enough to let me try on a lot of his armor - Leeds, England

Victorian cemetery - Leeds, England

Needless to say, all images are...

Hope you enjoyed a taste of Leeds and York. Next we head to London, England. I will be breaking London up into two days since there are so many image... nearly the whole history of humanity and the planet Earth can be found in London museums.

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

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

In search of Monsters - Vencie, Italy

I have just returned from a much needed two week vacation in Italy and England. ...hence my posts about my monsters running the blog while I was offline. I am back and am now going through over 2,900 images that I took while adventuring. Over the next several posts I will have some highlight images that I will like to share with you. I plan on doing some more targeted postings relating to what I discovered on our adventures... but I have many images to go through first.

Today I have for you a look at Venice, Italy and its neighbor, Murano, Italy. I highly recommend travel and I can't express how amazing and awe inspiring I found Venice. There are monsters on everything and so much incredible reference everywhere you look. These images are just the tip of the iceberg... but I do not want to bore, so here is a taste of Venice...

St. Mark's Basilica - Venice, Italy

AMAZING reliquary in St. Mark's Basilica - Venice, Italy

St. Mark's Basilica - Venice, Italy

Found this just wandering the streets - Venice, Italy

Monsters and creatures around every turn - Venice, Italy

Don't forget to look up - Venice, Italy

Wood carving in a church - Murano, Italy

The churches don't spare any expense - Venice, Italy

Grand staircase at the Doge's Palace - Venice, Italy

A view of St. Mark's Basilica from the Doge's Palace - Venice, Italy

From the balcony of St. Mark's Basilica - Venice, Italy

Inspiration everywhere you look - Venice, Italy

Even in the most unsuspecting churches you will find massive works of skill and art - Venice, Italy

Layers of detail upon layers of detail - Venice, Italy

Needless to say, all images are...

Hope you enjoyed a taste of Venice. Next we head to Leeds and York in England. But don't worry, I will be returning to Venice eventually... I have some specific work I want to do in response to the things I saw and experienced there.

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, April 29, 2013

Beastly Rifleman

My studies continue and this time it is a dog with a gun! You might remember my related posts about the Beastly Caster, Beastly Fighter, Beastly Archer, Beastly Scribe, Beastly Pirate, Beastly Rider, Beastly Mercenary, and Beastly Thug. I am trying to make the most of my personal drawing time by incorporating more reference to hopefully improve my overall drawing skills. So today on the blog I have for you the ninth of my studies...

Beastly Rifleman

History + monster = Beastly Rifleman... There are many historical sites in Florida, and one just so happens to be on the other side of my town. I was touring the site with visiting family a little while back and I made sure to take lots and lots of photos of the reenactors in period dress. A pair of gentlemen giving a rifle demonstration really caught me eye and imagination and this is the first piece based off them. If the indication was any example of the functionality of the period firearms I would take my chances with a bow and arrow. Really interesting and informative! HISTORY!

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, April 26, 2013

Mist, Steam, and Water Mephits - Prcoess

Back in March I shared with you the nine Mephits that I designed and illustrated for Dragon magazine issue #421. Since there are nine of them I am going to slit them up and share the process that went into making them through out this week. Today I have for you the last three Mephits, the Mist, Steam, and Water Mephits. As a reminder, here is how the final illustrations turned out...

Mist, Steam, and Water Mephits

As before, we start things out with some good ole thumbnails to see where the monsters take me. I worked on all of these in the order I have been posting them... basically alphabetically. By the time I got to these last Mephits I was beginning to suffer a little Mephit madness. They were all beginning to blend together and I was worried that they were beginning to be in the same poses and were not unique enough from each other. In the end I think I had just been staring at them all too long. Here is how the thumbnails turned out for the last three Mephits...

Mist Mephit - Thumbnails

Steam Mephit - Thumbnails

Water Mephit - Thumbnails

The thumbnail that got away was option "B" of the Steam Mephit. I know it is not very different from "A", but it had a flow and movement I really liked. In the end the winners wereMist "B", Steam "A", and Water "B". With that all settled I moved onto the final drawings...

Mist Mephit - Drawing

Steam Mephit - Drawing

Water Mephit - Drawing

As with the rest of the drawings these were all approved without issues and I moved onto the final illustrations. This week the Mist Mephit won this week's process progression place...

Mist Mephit - Process progression

The finals were all approved save for a couple little tweaks. Two of the tweaks were that the Mist and Steam Mephits were too dark. As you can see above the last step shows how much I lightened the piece to meet approval. The original Steam Mephit was about a dark as the final Mist was and to be lighten a lot as well. This was easy enough to handle since I was working digitally... I shudder to think if I was working traditionally...

That's 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

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Fire, Ice, and Magma Mephits - Prcoess

Back in March I shared with you the nine Mephits that I designed and illustrated for Dragon magazine issue #421. Since there are nine of them I am going to slit them up and share the process that went into making them through out this week. Today I have for you the second set of three of Mephits, the Fire, Ice, and Magma Mephits. As a reminder, here is how the final illustrations turned out...

Fire, Ice, and Magma Mephits

These three Mephits are running hot and cold... But seriously, these Mephits were a great exercise in creating different materials and effects. I have a ton of great magma and lava reference now. That stuff is really fun to paint. As before, I got started on some thumbnails to get things rolling...

Fire Mephit - Thumbnails

Ice Mephit - Thumbnails

Magma Mephit - Thumbnails

I will say I had high hopes for Fire option "C". There was just something about it that I really liked... something about the feet just being fire and the body reforming from the tops of the 'ankle' flames. Also, who doesn't just love a tongue made out of fire? The idea of Magma option "C" seemed like a really cool design before I began working it out on paper. I imagined a lower torso made out of rock with a bowl like waist. The lava upper body would be coming out of the container that the lower body like a fountain of magma... but I am not sure I really hit the mark with this thumbnail. I should have spent some more time working it out... but by the time I was finished with it I was liking "B" a lot more.

When it was all said and done, Fire "B", Ice "A", and Magma "B" were the winners. I moved onto creating the final drawings...

Fire Mephit - Drawing

IceMephit - Drawing

Magma Mephit - Drawing

The drawings were all approved and I was given the go ahead to work on the final illustrations. As before, I am posting one of the three as a process progression. I was really happy with how the Magma Mephit turned out so here it is from start to finish...

Magma Mephit - Process progression

Again, in just eight easy steps... not really. This one took a little longer then the rest do to all the smaller forms and textures in the whole. I was worried that in the end it would become a jumbled mess and not read well. Hopefully I succeeded in not making it a mess...

That is all for another exciting Wednesday, see you back here on Friday for the last three Mephits! Until then...

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

Monday, April 22, 2013

Air, Dust, and Earth Mephits - Prcoess

Back in March I shared with you the nine Mephits that I designed and illustrated for Dragon magazine issue #421. Since there are nine of them I am going to slit them up and share the process that went into making them through out this week. Today I have for you Air, Dust, and Earth Mephits. As a reminder, here is how the final illustrations turned out...

Air, Dust, and Earth Mephits

I was given very simple open ended descriptions for all of these which allowed me a lot of room explore my take on the Mephits. I tried to give a range of cautious to a little wacky on all of these to see what the art department was looking for.

Before I began to work on any of the Mephits I did a photo shot with both myself and my wife in front of the camera. I wanted to work out some poses that I planned to use and to see what else happened while I moved around in an open space thinking about each of the different kinds of Mephits. I recommend doing this! Not only does it produce the unexpected, it helps you get physically into your subject matter and generates a bunch of reference that you can use for the assignment and hopefully on other projects.

Once the photos were taken and sorted I got to work on thumbnails for all of the Mephits...

Air Mephit - Thumbnails

Dust Mephit - Thumbnails

Earth Mephit - Thumbnails

"A" was always a 'safe' concept and by "C" I was trying to push things to see what works and does not work. For each of these "A" was the winner. I would have really liked to work on "C" of the Air Mephit... but that is how it goes. Once I had approved thumbnails I moved forward on the final drawings.

Air Mephit - Drawing

Dust Mephit - Drawing

Earth Mephit - Drawing

There were a LOT of transparent and translucent Mephits. I think this is the most transparent and translucent monsters that I have even created and they were all in once assignment. Most of my monsters tend to me a little more... solid. All of the drawings were approved and I moved onto the finals. Since there are so many Mephits I chose one of each set of three to share the process progression. The winner from this set is the Earth Mephit...

Earth Mephit - Process preogression

In just eight easy steps you to can have your very own Earth Mephit... or not. Of the three, this one took the most time to complete. The Dust Mephit seemed to be done before I even began it. There were some very different completion times for these illustrations. Which is to be expected with this many different materials and capacities.

That is all for another exciting Monday, see you back here on Wednesday for another three Mephits! Until then...

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