Illustration Master Class 2012 - Day 0

It is finally that time, time to cover the ups and downs of my trip to the Illustration Master Class this year. As you should already be aware from my last couple posts I got very ill after arriving in Amherst and proceeded to end up on my back in the dorms for the remainder of IMC. I tried my best and hardest to not have things turn out that way but in the end I had to give up because I just did not have the strength to do otherwise. I did however make it to a couple things and I was able to get some pictures of the goings on of IMC 2012. I will do my best to make this all interesting and the days I was completely bed ridden will all get lumped together to make things move a little more smoothly.

As with last year we will kick things off with Day 0 - the Friday before IMC officially starts. This is the day everyone arrives, checks in, gets settled, and otherwise gets charged up for the week ahead. As will last year, I planned that part of that day was to be spent finishing my drive north from Florida. I was leaving just outside of Washington DC at around 8am and I should, even under the rockiest of conditions be arriving in Amherst around 3-4 pm. My day was to get a lot more rocky then I had ever imagined...

Beautiful Baltimore. Home to John Waters and Frank Zappa (more on this later).

From my travels up and down the east coast I know a lot about Delaware... like it costs $4 to drive into Delaware and a short time later it cost $4 to drive out of Delaware. 

 There's my problem, right THERE.

I'm BAT CAR. Little did I know that BAT CAR was heading to IMC too. Also, little did I know that apparently I was traveling at a speed MUCH slower then the speed limit. How else could BAT CAR fly past me and disappear on the horizon.

I saw a lot of this in New Jersey... the underside of things under construction while traffic was not moving.

Also say a lot of things in New Jersey that Godzilla would like to smash.

 Then this happened. You are looking at 4 hours of waiting. Mind you, there was some movement, but for the most part in 4 hours I moved maybe a mile or so. I learned eventually that a gasoline semi broke down on the George Washington bridge on Friday morning and even though it was all straighten out... traffic was ruined for the rest of the day. Never saw anything like it before. People were going nuts and traffic was in chaos. I made it through and it only cost me 4 hours and put me on the north side of New York at 5 o'clock rush hour traffic for the rest of my driving.

HULK HAVE NO PATIENTS FOR THIS. HULK NO WAIT, HULK SMASH! WAKE HULK UP WHEN WE GET THERE!

 In an attempt to get me through the chaos, my GPS thought I should end up in the Bronx... on the streets.. in the Bronx... yeah, this went well...

Needless to say when it was all said and done I arrived in Amherst a good 5 hours later then I thought I would arrive even under the worse of situations. I missed seeing the movie with everyone as I had planned, but I had a nice late dinner with Drew and Steve and that made up for a lot. Things were still golden and filled with anticipation and the first day of IMC was ahead of us! What's the worse that could happen???

See you back here tomorrow for a look at Day 1 of IMC 2012! Until then...

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

Back but not better...

I made it back home in one piece from IMC. I made really good time and for the most part the drive was straight forward. Unfortunately, I am still sick and the drive took a lot out of me. I had hoped I was doing better and maybe I had been but the drive really took its toll. I will be off the blog for a couple days longer... but when I return I will have my covered of IMC 2012... what of it that I saw and experienced. Until my return in a couple of days I will leave you with one of the many images I took on the drive back...

 South of the Border - much more interesting at night.

That is all for today, see you back here when I am hopefully feeling better. Until then...

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

My unexpected adventure at IMC

You might be wondering where my sneak peak posts from this year's IMC have been... or just why there were no posts on the blog on Monday and Wednesday... well there is a funny story behind all that. I got to have an unexpected and unintended adventure at IMC this year. The long and the short of it is that I got all the way to Amherst and was all ready to experience the wonders of IMC again and I got sick, REALLY sick. I have spent the last 6 days in bed in the dorms and now that we are at the end of the week and I have to make the two day drive back to Florida tomorrow, I am feeling well enough to get myself home. I did get to visit the nearby Emergency Room...

The Holyoke Hospital Emergency waiting room, just 17 short miles from Amherst. Isn't that a very nice aquarium...

 Look at all the neat things to stair at while waiting!

I was able to get some pictures before I was bed ridden and there were a couple times I thought I might have been well enough to attend a lecture... I will do my best to piece it all together and make a full report on the blog at some point next week. Expect for my normal posting schedule to remain off next week as well. I have a feeling there will need to be a bit of rest and recovery time still ahead of me next week. 

That is all for now, see you back here next week. Until then...

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

The HULK goes to the IMC - Travel Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of travel for me as I head to Massachusetts for this the Illustration Master Class... and it turns out just like last year I will not be making the drive alone. Turns out that a member of the Avengers will be joining me on my adventures with IMC... the HULK! I have for you some images from the day before I hit the road for the remainder of my drive...

My new driving buddy.

PUNY ARTIST! DRIVE FASTER, HULK WANT KRYSTALS FOR LUNCH! 

Most of the morning was rather turbulent.

PUNY WEATHER MAKES HULK MOODY AND INTROSPECTIVE!

 As the day moved on and I headed north the skies cleared.

 

I had to of course stop at the HAPPIEST PLACE ON .... the border of North and South Carolina.

BUY HULK SOUVENIR SALT AND PEPPER SHAKERS!

 HULK NOT UNDERSTAND ATTRACTION TO PLACE! GARISH COLORS HURT HULK'S SENSITIVE YET ANGRY EYES!

This guy still bugs me...

 HULK WISH YOU MAKE TIME IN DAY SO THAT HULK COULD STOP AND SMELL ROSES... AND RIDE TO TOP OF HAT TOWER!

 The Day moved on and I moved slowly further north.

After some wacky traffic in Virginia we got closer to our goal... oh look, the Nations Capital... I still don't think the GPS should be taking me this close to the White House...

HULK THINK YOU TAKE WRONG TURN!

 Day 1 of driving done... after a nights rest, next stop, IMC!

HULK NOT GET KRYSTALS FOR LUNCH, BUT HULK TIRED, HULK GOES TO BED!

That is all for another exciting week on the blog! As a reminder, I will be attending IMC starting tomorrow so I may not have a chance to post anything next week on the blog, but I will do my best to get an image or two from the week up if I can! Until then...

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

IMC - Once more with FEELING!

It is that time again, early tomorrow morning I will be getting in my car and driving to Amherst, Massachusetts for the Illustration Master Class. Almost on this exact day last year I expounded on my fears, worries, and expectations for IMC 2011. Feel free to take a moment and read all the details of my freak out. This year, not so much...

This year, I am actually not even fully packed yet and don't have all my stuff together that I am taking. I have of course shot reference, done roughs and thumbnails, and have a finished drawing I will be presenting for critique on Saturday. The important end of things is done and the rest will fall into place today. What is lacking, as I may have mentioned, is all the freaking out. I have a really bad habit of expecting the worse and over thinking things that I have not done before. Thankfully that has been dealt with in regards to IMC.

If IMC 2012 is even a little bit like 2011 it will be an amazing time. I will be seeing a lot of friends and familiar faces and there will be a lot of new people to meet and get to know. I had so many hopes, expectations, and fears last year that IMC had a lot to live up to, and it did so many times over. This year I am just looking forward to returning and letting IMC do its magic with the constant worries in my mind. IMC will be awesome, the instructors will be awesome, and my fellow students will be awesome. The only less then completely awesome aspect is the two days of driving up and two days of driving back, but I can make the best of it.

I will leave you with a single image today. This is the photo that got my project rolling for this year's assignment. For now I will leave it at that... ENJOY...

 Getting my ideas... together?

I will of course be completely covering and documenting my time at IMC, but like last year I will be posting after I return home. There will not be enough time in the day to do everything I need to do at IMC as well as completely cover the previous day on the blog. I will however try to once again sneak onto the blog next week and give little glimpses of what is going on!

That is all for today. I will be traveling on Friday, but will try to stop by the blog before I get on the road. Until then...

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

Niiro no Oni - The Shadow’s Embrace - L5R

Over the weekend the first piece that I produced for the Legend of the Five Rings CCG was spoiled over on the L5R art tumblr page! I started working on L5R last August and it is very exciting to see the first of my contributions to the game finally get released. You guessed right if you thought it would be a monster! In fact, it is a giant living swarm of leeches called the Niiro no Oni...

Niiro no Oni
© 2012 Alderac Entertainment Group

This piece will appear in The Shadow’s Embrace expansion and should be out very soon. I had a lot of fun working on this piece and I had a great team of art directors to get me through my first piece for L5R. I have been aware of L5R for just about as long as I have been aware of Magic the Gathering, so it was a real treat to finally be able to add my voice to such a long lived game. If only I still had my old card...  Be sure to check back once the game is released and I will have more details about the piece as well as sketches, drawings and a walk trough of the painting.

That is all for an exciting day on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday when I should be all est to head out for the Illustration Master Class! 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... Troglodyte!

I have for you another drawing that is fresh from the drawing table. This time around it is a Troglodyte! 'T' is one of those beefy letters that offers up a lot of tasty options for monsters. Much like several previous letters I skipped over my preferred monster on the first pass and went with a monster I did not a history with. I was tapped to redesign the Troglodyte for 4th edition D&D so I have some experience with one version of the Troglodyte. With all this in mind I tried to approach this beasty with a fresh pair of eyes on my second pass through the Monster Manual. I present to you my version of a Troglodyte ... 

 Troglodyte
© 2012 Christopher Burdett

If you were not already aware the Pan troglodytes is the scientific name for the common chimpanzee. This was my starting point for my new take on the Troglodyte. In D&D the Troglodyte has been a reptilian creature since the beginning and it is hard to go wrong with tradition, but I really needed to put my own spin on it. In the end I went with a scaly quasi reptilian monkey man primate creature. Hard to go wrong with a combination like that. It is just smart enough to be dangerous but not smart enough to know its own potential... the perfect thrall, minion, and or hired army.

As a side note, the next letter is 'U' and the only remaining 'U' monster is... the Unicorn... you have been warned...

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 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