Illustration Master Class 2012 - Day 7

The end of another IMC had arrived just in time for me to leave my dorm room and start moving around again. It took a lot of effort that morning, but I was finally able to get myself moving again and to shake off some of the sickness haze. It took almost everything I had to get back to the studio to pack up my equipment and afterwards I needed a little rest, but thankfully as the day continued I finally began to feel better. I was able to have a look around the studios to see all the amazing art that had been created over the week. Then there was the closing lecture in the auditorium which unfortunately for me only drove home just how much I had missed by being bed ridden all week. After closing announcements everyone got their work spaces packed up and displayed their art for the open gallery in the afternoon. A lot of that time is spent swapping sketchbooks, looking at all the work, and socializing. Here are some images of the events of the day...

I finally felt like opening the shades and windows and finally got some much needed fresh air and sunshine. The weather was really nice that last day and helped with my mood.

I timed my return to the digital studio to ensure I had it to myself so I could pack things up at my own pace. It went quickly, but you would think I had to move the entire room with the way I felt after moving a single computer and monitor. It went quickly and smoothly and the one thing I had to accomplish for the day was behind me.

 Here is Brom's work area with the demo piece he worked on.

Pete Mohrbacher is well on his way to having a awesome painting.

Aaron Miller was struck down by something halfway through the week and did not get as much done as he would have liked. He had some different symptoms then me, but I still felt like I had some hand in him being sick.

 Cynthia Sheppard finished he most excellent Tarzan painting.

 Noah Bradly also completed his Tarzan painting.

A view of the ground floor painting studio. I never actually got a chance (or felt well enough) to look around this studio until today.

We are all gathered again for closing announcements, recap video, and acknowledgements of the guidance and help provided by the faculty.

 Standing ovations to the stellar faculty.

Gifts were presented to faculty... super awesome hand made monster bags. Really cool and the photo does not even remotely does them justice.

Another look around the ground floor studio during the open gallery. Some of the faculty were doing a signing and had books and prints available. Looks of sketchbooks were getting passed around and much fun was being had.

As things came to a close and the galleries were emptied one by one everyone broke into small groups for dinner and socializing. I had just enough energy in me for a really nice dinner with Pete and Aaron and then some celebratory ice cream. There was much more socializing and revelry to be had that evening but I had two days of driving ahead of me and needed to be at the top of my game for that. I retired early and tried my best to get some rest in perpetration of heading home.

See you back here tomorrow for some images of the drive home and on Friday I will have some images of the piece I had plan to work on at IMC as well as some other surprises. Until then...

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

Illustration Master Class 2012 - Days 4, 5, and 6

Continuing my coverage of my experiences at the 2012 IMC we arrive at Day 4. Let me say again that last year at IMC I had an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING time and the misfortune that befell me this year was in no way a result of anything relating to IMC. I just got sick at the worse possible time which resulted in me missing pretty much all of IMC this year. Sometimes being dealt a bad hand is unavoidable and you just have to make the best of it. I am trying to stay possible about it all and hope that no one ever has to go through what I did at another IMC.

By Day 4 I knew I was not going to quickly get over whatever I was afflicted with and that there was no use in pushing myself and making things worse. I needed to be well enough to drive back to Florida in several days and that became my new goal. This meant that Days 4, 5, and 6 were spent almost completely in bed. I had food delivered and tried to keep my contact with other people to a minimum in case I was Patient Zero, no one else needed to be this sick. I did manage to take some pictures from my days in bed so that I could remember all those good times...

 Day 4 - In bed. Those were some good times...

 Day 4 - Staying hydrated is very important!

 Day 4 - I was missing a James Gurnay lecture when I took this photo.

 Day 5 - Fun with filters and different camera apps.

 Day 5 - Still more filters as the day crawls by.

 Day 5 - My favorite floor drain in the bathroom.

 Day 6 - Still rocking the fever. This images looks the way I felt.

 Day 6 - I was determined to stay hydrated no matter what. I filled up the plastic recycle bin on the floor I was staying on.

My three days of festering seemed to pay off and my fever finally broke on Day 7, but that will have to wait till tomorrow as IMC 2012 comes to a close.

See you back here for the final day 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

Illustration Master Class 2012 - Day 3

Day 3 for me at the 2012 Illustration Master Class... I still thought the illness was going to pass soon and I just needed a little rest. I festered in my room all day determined to see Brom speak in the afternoon. Brom after all was the guest artist and I HAD to see him talk. It was a good thing I attended because right after the lecture we went outside and had the big group photo taken. It was a very very bad thing that I attended because at the last moment before the lecture started the two seats to my right were filled. Whoever took those seats was wearing an entire bottle of cologne, body sprey, or some other foul chemical bouquet that completely ruined my sinuses for the rest of the week... I proceeded to have an good old fashion allergy attack throughout the lecture. My throat, ears and sinuses we wrecked for the next 5-6 days because of this, so I would like to personally thank whoever that was for making my bad situation that much worse! Much appreciated! But I digress... Here are some photos I managed to obtain of my limited activity on Day 3...

This is what most of the day looked like for me.

We are all awaiting the beginning the Brom lecture. He looms in the shadows, waiting to strike...

 We see a rare photo of a baby Brom in Japan riding strange horned animals.

Brom talked at length about Dark Age, the project that I first really took note of him and his work. It Dark Age that made me realize that I has already familiar with him from his time on D&D Dark Sun.

 Brom talked about transitioning into making his own work and getting his own books and storied published.

Brom returns to Japan and finds more strange animals to ride.

Brom has a quick Q&A. My head was about to explode so I am not really sure what was talked about.

We all filed out and grouped under the big tree and patiently waited.

Greg Manchess set up the camera and got his remote ready but we were all just a little too far away for the remote to work. The timer was used instead and the disaster was averted. 

 Everybody looks like they are having a great time! Which they obviously were, just like I did the previous year. This is important to remember, I was a worse case situation and an anomaly to the rest of the awesome time that was going on all around me.

That was the extent of my activity for Day 3, I went right back to bed after some dinner and that was that. I will be bringing you a very minimal report tomorrow for Days 4, 5, and 6 since by then I had given up all hope and resigned myself to that fact that I was very sick and fighting it was a lost cause.

See you back here tomorrow was a look at Days 4, 5, and 6. Until then...

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

Illustration Master Class 2012 - Day 2

Day 02 of IMC 2012 had arrived and things all began to fall apart. I woke up and just felt off, and by breakfast I realized I had used up all the energy I felt I had to expend that day... oh, and my little cough from the night before had grown and matured into a force of nature. I had to face facts that I was getting... had gotten sick and I needed to get ahead of it. Since I was 1000 miles from home this meant the emergency room and the closest one was 17 miles away in a neighboring town.

Here is were it further went wrong, I was given a clean bill of health at the ER and was given a prescription to what turned out to be over the counter cough syrup and sent on my way. By the time I got back to the dorms I was coughing up a horror show and only wanted to go to bed... which I did. Thankfully my wife and super awesome nurse came to my aid. I eventually had an antibiotic prescribed for me to at least cover my bases if it was bacterial and a list of things I needed to have on hand to better weather this storm.

Then things got weirder. So the pharmacy gave me the WRONG medication when I went to pick up my antibiotic. They gave me someone's thyroid medication... thankfully I was familiar with what I should have received and a disaster was averted. At this point I still was confident that this would blow over quickly and I just needed to get some rest and let the antibiotics do their thing. I ended up missing all the lectures of the day and when I dragged myself later in the evening to the studio to try to get some work done I managed about one and a half hours behind my computer. This would be the only time I worked on anything for the entire week. I did manage to get some pictures of what was going on before my energy was completely drained...

 The lovely Holyoke Hospital waiting room for the ER... just look at that aquarium... so exotic.

 The room at the ER was very green, everything seemed to be colored green or was bouncing green. Not the more comforting color for the mood I was in... but at least they told me I was completely healthy. 

 The mother ship had arrived to take me away...

I think those were there to plug Christmas lights into... or maybe your charger for you phone...

 This was how I sent the majority of my day... and was a glimpse of the week to come.

 

Finally out of bed and wandering the studios seeing what I had missed. Pete has gotten to work on his under painting.

 When Awesome Horses fight they make sure it looks awesome... or something...

Noah freaked everyone out by making his under painting very RED. *Spoiler Alert* it all turns out in the end.

 Everyone is hard at work in the upstairs painting studio.

We see Marc Scheff hard at work. We shared a table again this year... which meant he pretty much had an entire table to himself this year.

 A glimpse of the digital room. This will be the last time I am here until Friday when I dismantle my equipment and pack it in my car. I may have been here only one an a half hours, but I made sure I packed as much into that time as possible. More on this soon...

I had already given up on taking photos of the Hulk figure as the plague stripped all joy from my body. I still had hopes that this would pass quickly and that most of the week was still ahead of me. I just needed some rest, let the antibiotics work (*spoiler alert* I am pretty sure it was not bacterial), and that I would bounce back quickly. By the end of day 03... I knew I was wrong about everything...

That is all for today, Day 3 coverage will be up on the blog 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

Illustration Master Class 2012 - Day 1

It feels like a distant memory now, but Day 01 of IMC 2012 was exciting and we all had the week ahead of us... well, most of us did. Everybody was gearing up for their critiques and the first lectures of the class. It was a big exciting day for everyone. I know I was ready to have my critique behind me so I could start paining. Here are some images and take away moments from the day...

Breakfast with some Awesome Horses and a WIP.

HULK STILL MOODY AND INTROSPECTIVE FROM LONG DRIVE NORTH. HULK WANT TO ENJOY THE DAY AND TAKE THINGS SLOW.

IMC 2012 welcome address and instruction introduction.

Let the critiques begin! As in years past the instructors are broken up into 3 groups - one for each classroom - and you sign up for the group you would like.

This is the group I had wanted to sign up for, but loosing 5 hours to traffic the previous day limited my options when I arrived and checked in. This is a very similar mix to my group last year and I got a lot out of the group. Iain, Rebecca and Greg give outstanding crits.

This is the group of instructors that I signed up with. Solid critique and my piece cleared the instructors with only very minor tweaks.

 HULK EAT ALL THE FOOD! NONE FOR YOU!

A look around the Amherst campus. The large brink building to the left is where our studios are and the dinning hall is to my back. 

 My arch nemesis Noah Bradley gets to work on prepping his board.

Most critiques are now concluded and everyone is getting ready to work. Arron Miller, Cynthia Sheppard, Lauren Cannon are doing just that.

 Iain McCaig turns a shoe into a monster... RAWR!

Dan Dos Santos shows us all the different ways to shot photo reference of Iain and what works to get the results that we want and need.

 As the night went on, things got weird... and I, unfortunately, began to cough... a lot.

 
That is all for today, Day 2 coverage will be up on the blog tomorrow! Until then...

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