The Other Kind of Promoting

While I don't often talk about my day job here on the blog I also don't hide the fact that I have one either. This blog has always been about my journey as a working artist in the gaming and entertainment industries. That said, most of this journey has happened along side and because of the day job. In the last few years my role at the day job has been changing and evolving and for most of this year has been moving to an ultimate goal, my promotion into a new position.

I am happy to report that I am now, officially, an Instructional Designer! This is something I have been working towards for a while now and very glad that all the paperwork and steps have finally been completed with the university. While I will have some of the responsibilities of a production artist, I am now designing, building, and maintaining style guides, working more directly with the writing team to make sure the content meets the needs of the art team, overseeing development of new assets like activities, animations, and videos, and working with other teams to make sure their projects are working as best they can from the art, design, and layout standpoint. A little bit of art directer, a little bit of designer, and a little bit artist all rolled into one position.

I won't bore you with the details, but this is very good for me, very good for my monster art, and will hopefully lead to a better quality of life in general. This promotion is one of the things that has allowed me to focus on my work on The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia this last year. While I don't talk about the day job, it is always there and is intertwined with the monster work.

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

Salivating Gremlins - Kaladesh - PROCESS

Today I have an overdue post about the process and steps that went into a Magic the Gathering piece of mine that I first shared with you way back in September of 2016, the Salivating Gremlins. This was an enjoyable piece, and I was so happy to have a chance to work on some of the Gremlins for the Kaladesh expansion of Magic. To start things off, here is how the final art for Salivating Gremlins turned out...

Salivating Gremlins

Magic the Gathering - Kaladesh

14 x 10.2- Digital

PRINTS available at OMA!

ARTIST PROOFS available over on my web store! 

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast

Starting things off as always are the exciting and fun thumbnails. The focus of this piece was a group of Gremlins finishing up a meal of some hapless piece of tech. Since the gremlins were already designed, it was all about arranging them in an interesting composition and making them look cool. I really wanted to do something interesting with the lightning on this one, so I was really focusing on the arrangement of the three bodies, the background, and foreground light elements and hopefully telling a little bit of a narrative. That narrative being the viewer who has just opened a door, has come upon the gremlins and their meal, and one of the gremlins is looking up suddenly to face the viewer. Maybe that came through, perhaps it didn't, but that was what I was going for with this piece. Here are how the thumbnails turned out...

Salivating Gremlins - Thumbnails

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast

Option "C" was the winner here. It does read the best with the whole light spilling in and highlighting the startled gremlin. There was one note from production to remove the multi-pointed stars from the background elements and make them more in line with other shapes in the style guide. I was happy to comply and sent in a revised thumbnail...

Salivating Gremlins - Revised thumbnail

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast

The thumbnail was approved, and I was given the go-ahead to work up a finalized drawing. This was super fun to work on, so I was happy to spend some time working on some nice gremlin figures. Here is how the final drawing turned out...

Salivating Gremlins - Drawing

Kaladesh

17 x 14 - Pencil on paper

Original - SOLD

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast

For myself, I worked up a tonal study of the piece as well. Figuring out if the plan in my head will actually work out the way I want it to. Here is the tonal study for this piece...

Salivating Gremlins - Toned drawing

Kaladesh

14 x 11 - Pencil on paper

Original - SOLD

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast

The drawing was approved with a caveat to ensure the half-eaten piece of tech is nice and fancy and has a lot of detail and ornate, but eaten details. A straightforward request any day of the week. With an approved drawing, tonal study, and a single note from production, I was ready to get started on the final painting of the Salivating Gremlins. Here is a break down of the painting coming together. Each step reflects a different layer in the painting's file. You can see how the layers add up to make the final image. In just 18 easy steps, you too can have a digital painting... or not...

Salivating Gremlins - Process progression

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast

This piece came together fairly quickly and easily. There were a couple tweaks requested by production at the end to enhance the blue glow and to widen the eyes of the gremlins to make it look less intelligent and more like an animal. This was all straight forward request that I was happy to do. Here is an animated progression of this piece coming together to better see each step layering to create the final painting...

Salivating Gremlins - Animated process progression

© 2016 Wizards of the Coast

I still like this piece a lot. I was pleased with how a couple of my cards for Kaladesh turned out. They just clicked while I was working on them. This is, of course, really great when it happens, but it is not necessarily going to happen every time. When it does, it can really make the painting go that much faster and easier.

Fun fact, this piece was initially titled Clutch of Gremlins. It is very common for the names of cards to change throughout production. Still, since there was no mention of the gremlins salivating in the original art order, that was my addition. I would like to think I influenced the final name for this piece. This might be a common occurrence, but this was the first time my art influenced the name, and I think that is pretty neat.

Again, here is the finished Salivating Gremlins painting and the final production card...

Salivating Gremlins

PRINTS available at OMA!

ARTIST PROOFS available over on my web store! 

 © 2016 Wizards of the Coast

Salivating Gremlins in handy dandy card form.

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday (maybe its a holiday)! Until then...

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

Lammergeier Transport - The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia

I have a new piece from The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia! Today's monster is the mighty Lammergeier Transport. Not every section of the Grand Bazaar can be reached on foot. For those areas high in the sky and out of reach for the earthbound beings, they will need special assistance, plus proper paperwork, appropriate passes, a small bribe, and the right passwords. The Lammergeier Transport can help with one of those things, and it might even get some of your merchandise there and back again. If you are a savvy merchant with an eye on the sky, you will need to employ a Lammergeier Transport.

If you would like to read the thoughts of Reginald Blatherskite, Anointed Seer of the Impure Husk, regarding this monster, then head on over to The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDaila blog!

Lammergeier Transport
11 x 14 - Pencil on paper
Currently Available Grand Bazaar Originals
© 2017 Christopher Burdett

Lammergeier Transport - Drawing 
11 x 14 - Pencil on paper 
© 2017 Christopher Burdett

Here are all the other completed monsters for The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia: Aberrant Stilter, Belled Kreep, Corrupted Knight, Dight-Kin, Eau-de-nil Elder, Ethra VanDalia, Footman, Gray Wanderer, Gullet, Humgruffin Mother, Irritated Girasol, Judicator, Kiplorbic Animal Dealer, Lammergeier Transport, Myopic Riflemen, Nimsbane Curse Victim, Ophiomornous Bureaucrat, Petrous Blacksmith, Quincaillerie, Saint Marque, Smokestack, Thrice, Uncanny Scribe, Virulent Artificer, Xandrell Tree, Yote Arms Dealer, and Zombic Spore.   


As an added bonus, I have some images of the line work and rendering process of this piece so that you can get a better idea of it taking shape... 

Lammergeier Transport - Process © 2017 Christopher Burdett

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

Illuxcon 2017 - Part 4: The Crystal Cave

I will end my coverage of Illuxcon 2017 with something a little different. While this is not directly related to our time at IX, we got to experience it because of our trip to IX. About half way between Reading, PA and Allentown, PA you will find the Crystal Cave. We build in extra time at the end of our trip to Illuxcon so that we are not rushing to get to the airport and can take in some local sites on the way out of town. We never have a plan and just play it by ear to see what jumps out at us. This year we decided to stop at Crystal Cave near Kutztown, PA. I love a good cave tour and I find the formations of the rock to be gorgeous and I am humbled by the time it takes to forms the caves. Crystal Cave was really nice, but it was sad to see how much had been damaged or destroyed over the years by ignorant and destructive humans. Nevertheless, there is plenty of beauty to be seen in the cave and the tour was nice... though I could do without all the pareidolia. They are just rocks and rock formations, that is enough and they are a thing of beauty. If you have the time and are in the area I recommend stopping and taking the tour. Here are some images from the cave...

All images © 2017 Christopher Burdett

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

Illuxcon 2017 - Part 3

I had the fortune to be part of the Urban Sketching Workshop hosted by Sean Murray and Ron Lemen at Illuxcon this year. When I received the announcement email for the workshop and that it was limited to only a handful of people I made every effort to make sure I was a part of this awesomeness. I have been a huge fan of Sean's work for years and I love how he sees and creates architecture. As I continue working on The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia I inch closer and closer every day to begin visualizing the actual Bazaar and not just the monsters. I knew an opportunity to work closely with Sean would greatly benefit me and help me in my efforts. Both Sean and Ron had a lot to share as they talked about approaching sketching, architecture, and then abstracting and creating your own worlds. I can not speak highly enough about this workshop. It got me out of my comfort zone and got me to do a lot of things I never do, but really want to. I hope they provide this workshop again because I will definitely be there!

The workshop began with a brief conversation at the GoggleWorks about sketching and approaches to seeing rather than just looking at the world around you. Sean and Ron covered ways to approach abstraction and building complexity and that lived in feel that makes a world believable. A van was provided to transport us to a couple locations, which saved us a lot of time and allowed us to work outside the bubble of a few blocks of the hotel or GoggleWorks. The first location was an old shopping and manufacturing area. It was old but is still in use with layers of construction and remodeling from years of use. Sean and Ron would give a quick lecture about the area and approaches to working and then we were set free to sketch and move around the area. As a group we moved to a completely new area nearby on foot for more conversation and sketching. We sketched for 30-45 minutes in each area. We then took the van to a completely different area closer to the hotel. It was a small manufacturing area surrounded by a lot of very different buildings. Again, there was a small conversation about the surroundings and then we sketched. We moved as a group on foot to the last area a few block over that was more of a typical city street with large governmental buildings and architecture. Scale and detail was discussed and we had our last sketch setting. We returned to the hotel on foot and had final thoughts. In the end it was a four hour workshop and never a dull moment.

Here are some images from the day, as well a selection of my sketches that I liked...

Everyone's sketchbooks at the end of the workshop for review.

This was my favorite sketch from the workshop, it was also my last of the day.

It focused on something smaller and more intimate, which I prefer.

While these are not all of my sketches from the workshop, I feel these were the most successful and achieved the goals of the workshop. The fist two sketches of the day were my worst as I was figuring out which stylus to use and how I needed to approach what I was working on. I tried to stick with everything I was working on and did my best not to abandon a drawing if it was not working out as planned.

Here are a selection of images I took at the workshop. So might be recognizable as what I was looking at while sketching while others are just neat things I saw while exploring. Sean and Ron stressed that you sketch FIRST then you take your images. Once you sketch it you will remember it better and the image will help with details later.

After sketching in the first two areas we took a break to look at what every one was working on and do a recap before moving to out next two locations.

This is an invasive species that is reeking havoc on the local tree population.

They were everywhere... and I mean EVERYWHERE.

Tomorrow I will share some images and thoughts from after Illuxcon when we were in a cave!

That is all for another exciting Thursday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow! Until then...

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