The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Gudul Lurker - Dragons of Tarkir - PROCESS

Today I have for you the process and steps that went into a Magic the Gathering piece of my that I first shared with you back in March, the Gudul Lurker. The Lurker is a happy little salamander that lives in a happy little pond and thinks happy little salamander thoughts all day long. ...OR it is a monster that wants to eat your face and say, "RAWR!". Your choice. To start things off, here is how the final art for Gudul Lurker turned out...

"Gudul Lurker"

Magic the Gathering: Dragons of Tarkir

12 x 8.7 - Digital

PRINTS available at OMA!

ARTIST PROOFS available over on my web store!

I got things started off with some thumbnails, as always. The art order asked for a large salamander creature that "...is crawling about in the reedy muck along the riverside. The creature is partly obscured by the river plants but is ready to pounce on some unseen prey." I provided a bunch of options, but I secretly wanted to move forward with option "D". To tell you the truth I would have been happy with any of these. Any of these pieces could have been a successful piece, I think "D" would be (and was) a MORE successful piece. I feel "D" just was a more realistic portrayal of this type of creature and of a living breathing animal. I also wanted to paint a little damselfly on the Lurker's nose. Here are how the thumbnails turned out...

Gudul Lurker - Thumbnails

In addition to the thumbnails I also worked up some color / pattern concepts and provided an image of how I envisioned the Lurker over all. Again, I would be happy with any of these, looking back now, I am not sure which of the color I liked best at the time. I think the blue works best... which is a good thing that it was picked! Here are how the concepts turned out...

Gudul Lurker - Body / Color Concepts

Option "D" was the winning thumbnail and I knew I needed some reference to make sure I had something from the real work to look to to help guide the piece forward. I made a stop to the local pet store and went straight to the turtle tank. The turtles did their best impressions of a Gudul Lurker and I took lots of images. Here is the winner that best informed the final piece...

Gudul Lurker - Hnady dandy turtle stand in reference

As you know by now option "D" was the winner. As far as the color / pattern concepts go I was instructed to go with option "B". Now that I had a direction and plan of action it was time to gear up and move this piece forward. I got to work on the drawings...

"Gudul Lurker "

Magic the Gathering: Dragons of Tarkir

12 x 9 - Colored pencil on paper

Original - SOLD

Drawing the Lurker was a lot of fun to say the least. The initial drawing was approved and I was ready to move forward on the tonal study and the painting...

"Gudul Lurker "

Magic the Gathering: Dragons of Tarkir

12 x 9 - Colored pencil on paper

Original - SOLD

This painting was generally a straight forward process... except near the end when I need some outside encouragement to help push the piece to where it needed to go. I was playing it really safe for a lot of the piece and not really pushing it like it needed. These things happen. Chalk it up to where I was mentally and artistically early last year. Chalk it up to the perceived added stress of this being a Magic assignment. Whatever it was or whatever combination of things, I played it safe and then needed to be kicked over the finish line. Live and learn! You will see the major push and pull changes near the end of the piece to see what I am talking about.

In just 16 easy steps you too can have yourself a painting of a giant salamander monster! Or not. Here is a look at the painting coming together...

Gudul Lurker - Process progression

Here is another look at the painting coming together in a handy dandy animated progression so that the progression may be clearer to see as I worked up and edited the image during painting...

Gudul Lurker - Animated process progression

Moving the entire image down midway through the process was my own edit. I felt the piece needed some breathing room at the top and the damselfly was getting crowded. Pushing the environment above the water brighter and less saturated while pushing the water very much more blue... yeah, I needed that encouragement to make those edits. This is why it is good to have a second option, a fresh pair of eyes, and to talk to other artists about what you are working on to make sure you are doing the most you can with your work. We are all in this together, even if we sit alone in our studios. Thanks, Aaron!

And with that another painting is completed! Again, here is the finished Gudul Lurker painting and the corresponding card from Magic the Gathering...

"Gudul Lurker"

Magic the Gathering: Dragons of Tarkir

12 x 8.7 - Digital

PRINTS available at OMA!

ARTIST PROOFS available over on my web store!

Gudul Lurker in handy dandy card form

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, November 9, 2015

RAWR! Opening Night

Friday night was the opening reception for RAWR!, my show at 621 Gallery that features nearly 200 of my monster drawings. The turn out was far better then I had anticipated and it was a truly fun time. My sincere thanks to all that came out to support me and my art, it is greatly appreciated. It may have been a warm November evening, but that did not seem to keep people away. The opening reception started early and went late, so I take that as a good sign.

My show consists of two large installations of drawings. On the big wall are my first 100 completed drawings from my personal project to redesign and illustrate everything in the original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. On the small wall are 27 miniature design turnarounds created for either Wizards of the Coast or Fantasy Flight Games for the Dungeons & Dragons Miniature Game, Dreamblade, Arkham Horrors Miniatures, or Nexus Ops board game. On the small wall a production miniature is displayed with the original design.

I took a "go big or go home" mentality with my installations. I have a ton of drawings and I planned to show as many as I could. Monsters definitely need their time in the spot light. Everything seemed to be well received which is always nice. Some were shocked I would display the original drawings, but why not? That are they for, if not to be looked at?

Here are some images of RAWR! and of the opening reception...

The big wall, the first 100 completed drawings from my personal project to redesign and illustrate everything in the original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual.

The small wall, 27 miniature design turnarounds created for either Wizards of the Coast or Fantasy Flight Games for the Dungeons & Dragons Miniature Game, Dreamblade, Arkham Horrors Miniatures, or Nexus Ops board game.

Because of the way I have been working through the Monster Manual there are a larger amount of "A" and "B" monsters. There are at most three of each other letter except for the letters that have only one or two entries.

A little closer on the monsters.

I had originally planned to only pin the drawings along the top, but due to air flow in the gallery the drawings were flipping up. They eventually received four pins and my figures are still sore from the nearly 600 pins I used to hang the show.

While the top rows might be hard to see or appreciate, I wanted to fill the wall with drawings and miniatures.

Plenty to see at eye level or lower on the wall. I made sure the smallest of the miniatures were placed low on the wall so they could be seen.

The Carrion Husk got lots of attention... RAWR!

Some people taking in the wall for scale.

And some more people taking in the wall for scale. SOOOO many people were taking photos, selfies, and video of my drawings. No idea what all those people will be doing with them or if I will be credited in them as the artist... but that is the way it goes. The guy in taking the photo in this image took a LOT of images of my work... so it only seemed fair to take one of my own.

Got to sign some Magic cards at the show too! Thanks, Brain, you made my night!

After the opening reception closed we wandered around Railroad Square taking in the sights for a little while. Here is one of the weird sights I found... a window full of derby posters, many of which I created. Why? Who knows...

Again, A HUGE thanks to all who made it out for the opening reception! RAWR! will be up though November 28th if you missed the opening. On Thursday, November 19th there will be am Artist Talk and happy hour event at the gallery from 5-7pm for those interested.

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, November 6, 2015

RAWR! Show Set Up

RAWR! opens tonight at 621 Gallery @ Railroad Square in Tallahassee, Fl! The opening receptions is from 6-9pm for those that can attend. It will be part of the First Friday events at Railroad Square and I am showing gallery space with two other artists. It should be a really fun time!

I hung and installed my work this week and after a very long day and a half everything should be ready to go! I am still very bad at judging how long installations will take and I underestimated by half if not more. The gallery was a bit warm which slowed me down, but in the end, it was all taken care of! Learned a lot about installing my work in a large space and hopefully the next time around it will go that much quicker and easier.

My work is displayed on a 24'x12' wall and a 12'x12' wall. I tried to use as much of the space as possible. I wanted to make an impact with the volume of work that I am showing. I have some images from my installation that should give you a sneak peek of the show.

The big 24'x12' before I made the grid to start hanging 100 monster drawings.

Each drawing is 9"x12" and will be displayed in four 5x5 blocks. It took the first fifty to get a feel for how best to hang the drawings.

75 down and 25 to go

The 100 monsters are up!

The 12'x12' wall will feature turnaround sets of drawings that were created as designs for miniatures. Under the drawings will be shelves that feature the finished miniature.

The drawings are up and so are the shelves.

The Dragonborn Paladin is all set and ready for the opening! RAWR!

All the details for the show again in one handy dandy image!

That is all for another exciting Friday 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, November 4, 2015

Heated Tempers - Process - Star Wars: Stay on Target

Today I have for you another overdue process post, this time around it is for my Heated Tempers interior illustration from Age of Rebellion: Stay on Target. I first shared this with you back in December of 2014. This was one of the last pieces that I painted digitally for Star Wars. Here is how the final Heated Tempers turned out...

Heated Tempers

12.5 x 14.5 - Digital

The assignment for this piece was to depict a heated exchange between a Bothan mechanic and the Chadra-Fan pilot whose ship is not ready for combat. This was my first opportunity to paint an A-Wing fighter, a Bothan, and a Chadra-Fan... so it was a WIN, WIN, WIN for me. It was a fairly straight forward piece that needed to focus on the interaction of the two Rebels, a ship, and a gloomy, cavernous hanger. As always, this piece came to life with a photoshoot followed by thumbnails. Here is how the thumbnails turned out...

Heated Tempers - Thumbnails

This thing about the interior art for the Star Wars RPGs is they need a ton of bleed depending on size and placement on the page. Silly me, I forgot about that when I worked up these thumbnails. I made them to size but forgot about the bleed. It was just a matter of adding background to resolve the situation, but I felt like a rookie forgetting about the bleed in the first place. A thumbnail was selected, and I was asked to adjust for the bleed and resubmit it. Option "B" was the winner...

Heated Tempers - Revised thumbnail

The updated thumbnail was approved, and it was time for the drawing. Throughout this entire process, there was a lot of issue with the scale of the relative elements in the illustration. The first issue was the size of the A-Wing compared to the figures. Historically, the A-Wing has been depicted as a rather small ship, maybe the size of an average car. I guess over the years, the A-Wing has increased in size in the Star Wars universe, and there was a bit of back and forth with the AD to get it the right size. I still think I was correct, and it is small, but my job is to fulfill the wishes of the client, and I made sure it was as big as they required. Always be a professional! Here is how the finalized drawing turned out...

Heated Tempers

Age of Rebellion - Stay On Target

9 x 12 - Pencil on paper

I mentioned reference earlier, and once again, I have some super top secret reference of me as the alien monsters... in costumes no less. Who knew that mechanics that work on star fighters use pipe wrenches, but I am sure there has to be at least one pipe in a fighter. Posing for reference allows me to get into the physicality of the assignment, work out computational and anatomy issues, and get much-needed lighting and material reference. You can make it up and risk getting it all wrong or use reference and let the reference to inform your choices to get a lot of it right. Enjoy the reference...

Bothan and Chadra-Fan reference! RAWR!
Photos by Achsa Nute

Time to paint! In just twelve easy steps, you too can have a completed painting of some Rebels arguing over repair completion times. ...or not. Here is a look at the piece coming together...

Heated Tempers - Process progression

You *MIGHT* have noticed that the Chadra-Fan greatly changed size near the end of the painting. In fact, she changed size after the piece was completed and long after it was turned in. The person at Lucas Film that approves everything felt that the Chadra-Fan was way too big. I know that Chadra-Fan are very tiny creatures, this one, in the context of the illustration, is the right size as I painted it. She is in the foreground close to the viewer looking at the Bothan up over there in the middle ground. By shrinking her, she is moved into the middle ground right next to the ship. This effects the composition, tangents, and the interaction between the two figures. I explained that she was in the extreme foreground, and she was the right size. I then made the change because that is what the client wanted, and I am a professional. If this has been a traditional painting, I most likely would have made the change digitally and left the original as I intended. I think I still like the Chadra-Fan larger, but that is not my call. Here is a better look at the process coming together with a handy dandy animated gif...

Heated Tempers - Animated process progression

Once again, here is a look at the final published illustration in all its heated temper goodness...

Heated Tempers

12.5 x 14.5 - Digital

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, November 2, 2015

RAWR! 621 Gallery Show Preparations

This Friday my RAWR! exhibition opens at 621 Gallery in Tallahassee, Fl. I will be showing close to 200 monster drawings and sharing a space with two other artists. I have been preparing for this for a while now and everything is just about done. I will start hanging the show tomorrow and hopefully it will go smoothly!

If you are in the Tallahassee area I hope that you have a chance to come out to the opening the evening of November 6th. If you can't make the opening the show will be running all November long. I made a little Facebook Event for the show if you are interested.

Here are some teaser images of my preparations of for my RAWR! Show...

From Aerial Servant to Zombie, my first 100 monster redesigns from the original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. RAWR!

This is what 100 monsters on paper looks like in a stack...

...and here is the plan of how I want to put them up on the wall.

A mighty stack of miniature turnarounds! Close to 100 more drawings that were created to help create miniatures for various games. RAWR!

Not only will the drawings be on display, but the actual production miniatures will also have a place in the show so you can see the finished product.

All the details for the show again in one handy dandy image!

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

Sunday, November 1, 2015

ALL Deluxe Canvas Prints DEEPLY DISCOUNTED!

ALL of my remaining deluxe customized canvas prints are DEEPLY DISCOUNTED over on my store! I am making room in my inventory and here is your chance to get a GREAT DEAL! I have only a few canvas prints left in stock and once they are gone... they are GONE.

Each of these canvas prints are unique one of kind customized images. All come stretched and sealed. The sizes and details for each available image are over on my store.

Looking for that special gift? It is almost time for the holiday gift giving time! Take advantage of these reduced prices! All the deals at my STORE! RAWR!

Here are all of my remaining available canvas prints...