Wednesday, September 29, 2010

My first TeeFury shirt (SOON!)

Those of you who follow my Facebook Fan Page have already heard the whispers...

I am pleased to announce that I will have my first shirt available through TeeFury on October 13th! Mark your calendars! I will be previewing the actual design next Wednesday, Oct 6th. What I can tell you today is that a monster will adorn the shirt... but I am sure you figured that out already. I will leave you with this teaser image that has little to nothing to do with the actual shirt.

Not shown to scale or in production colors... What could it be?!

For those of you unfamiliar with TeeFury, they sell one shirt a day and it is only for sale for that 24 hour block of time and then it is gone. I will have more on this next week and do not worry, I will be ever vigilante in reminding EVERYONE about this. I will insure you know about this!

That is all for today. I will be back with some pencil on paper 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

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Geek Night 2010 wrap up

Back on my feet and ready to talk about Geek Night 2010. First let me say I did have photos of Lee Bretschneider and Justin Peterson tables at Geek Night but they turned out so horribly that it would have done them an disservice to show them here. I am sure they will blog or post about their adventures at Geek Night, so please stop by their sites when you have a chance. My apologies for having an unreliable camera.

Geek Night 2010! Way better then last year. It was crazy busy and a blur of a night. Last year people just wanted to get their sketch card and get out but this year folks wanted to talk and were willing to wait to have a custom sketch drawn for them. I still have many of the sketch cards I created in advance, but I know I will be able to put them to good use later. Enough talk... bring on the pictures!

My table set up with my huge custom banner I made myself in case there was not one provided for me by the event. ...note to self, bring at least 4 more next time...

An event like this is the perfect opportunity to give away older promotional items! And look, you can win a free print and get a free sketch card!

Here is that canvas print of the Scuttling Grizzly again. The first person that walked up to my Friday night pointed at it and ask, "Did you make that?" and when I him I had he followed up with, "Did you make the pictures on the computer too?"

This would be the before mentioned "free print". 11 x 17 inches of tentacled horror. Really happy with how this one turned out.

And last but not least, our winner of the print! Congrats!

A big thanks to everyone at the FSU Union Productions for having us out again this year and to everyone that came out! I hope you all enjoy your sketch cards and that you had a fun time. I know I did!

If you missed out on Geek Night, don't worry, I have another event coming up at the end of October! More on this soon!

See you back hear on Wednesday for something new. Until then...

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

Monday, September 27, 2010

One more day...

I had a full and busy weekend to say the least with Geek Night, work and the marriage of my best friend. Coupled with a less then stable internet connection today and way too much to get done I will be postponing today's blog post till tomorrow. I do not want to leave you empty handed, I have for you a image from Geek Night 2010.

...wait... is that a canvas print of one of my paintings?

15 x 20 inches of canvas printed goodness. It is like I actually made something tangible!

I would be remiss if I didn't congratulate Rodney and Amy on their big day yesterday!. You guys rock!

See you back here tomorrow for my full coverage of Geek Night 2010. Until then...

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

Friday, September 24, 2010

GEEK NIGHT TONIGHT!

Tonight is the night! GEEK NIGHT 2010! If you are in north Florida stop on by for the fun and FREE sketch cards. Speaking of sketch cards here are some more that I have ready for folks coming out tonight...

Geek Night sketch cards
© 2010 Christopher Burdett

Geek Night sketch cards
© 2010 Christopher Burdett

Geek Night 2010 • Union Ballrooms
Friday, September 24 • 8:30 p.m. • Free for all all ages

For more details on Geek Night you can find them all HERE. Hope to see you out there tonight. Stop by and say hi and get a sketch card and enter to win a FREE print... wait, have I not mentioned the drawing for the FREE print until now? My bad... FREE sketch cards and a drawing for a FREE print! Plus video games, board games, other artists, and lots more geeky fun!

That is all for this week. I have a full day ahead of me before Geek Night. See you back here on Monday for a recap of how things went. Until then...

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

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Getting ready for GEEK NIGHT 2010 (Sketch Cards!)

As with Geek Night 2009 I have gone ahead and preemptively made some sketch cards to stay ahead of the game Friday night. Also, they are just too much fun to work on! Not sure if I put more time into these but I am a lot more happy with how they turned out compared to last year.

Geek Night sketch cards
© 2010 Christopher Burdett

Geek Night sketch cards
© 2010 Christopher Burdett

Geek Night sketch cards
© 2010 Christopher Burdett

If you come to Geek Night 2010 this Friday night on the Florida Sate University campus you will have a chance to get one of these actual cards. I am giving one away FREE to everyone that stops by my table at the event so make sure you mark your calendars! Only days away.

That is all for today. See you back here on Friday as I frantically get my ducks in a row for Geek Night! Until then...

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

Monday, September 20, 2010

Fresh from the drawing table... Goblin!

I have for you today another drawing that is fresh from the drawing table. This time around it is a Goblin! 'G' had a lot of great options; Gnoll, Giant and Golem were all high on my list, but I HAD to go with a goblin. Here is my take at a what makes a good Goblin...

Goblin
© 2010 Christopher Burdett

While listening to a program on the radio I heard a story of a woman being arrested for shooting strangers with a blowgun. She claimed that she did it because she liked to hear them scream "OUCH!". I instantly thought that is exactly what a goblin would do! I made a mental note and filed that tidbit away for when I got to this drawing. Hopefully these monsters do not all start looking like me since I am the reference for them all...

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.      

DON'T FORGET! Geek Night 2010 is this Friday! All the details can be found HERE!

That is all for today. See you back here on Wednesday to see some of what I have in store for Geek Night! Until then...

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

Friday, September 17, 2010

GEEK NIGHT 2010!

Some of you might remember me talking about this last year... I have been invited back to take part in the Florida State University's annual Geek Night event! GEEK NIGHT 2010 is upon us!

Once again I will be on hand giving away FREE sketch cards, talking about my work and giving away a print or two in an auction at the end of the night! What more could you ask for? ...okay, there are going to be two other artist! Lee Bretschneider will be back and we have a new challenger, Justin Peterson! Still need more?! How about board games, trivia contests, web design contests, old school video arcade games, demonstrations by The Mary Brogan Museum of Art & Science, and Cosmic Cat Comics!

RAWR! I am shameless promotion!

Geek Night 2010 • Union Ballrooms
Friday, September 24 • 8:30 p.m. • Free for all all ages

For more information I have an EVENT set up through my facebook FAN PAGE. Enjoy a helpful friendly google map link to the location HERE.

Mark your calendars and parachute on into the big event.

That is all for this week. I will see you here next week with some more updates on Geek Night and hopefully some other exciting news! Until then...

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

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Pathfinder Chronicles: City of Strangers (part 2)

On Monday I shared with you the monsters I created for the recently released book from Paizo Publishing, Pathfinder Chronicles: City of Strangers. Monsters weren't all I was tasked with, I also produced three pieces that were all a little more human...

Aranis Wizard
© 2010 Paizo Publishing, LLC

Slave Rougher
© 2010 Paizo Publishing, LLC

Sweettalker
© 2010 Paizo Publishing, LLC

For not being monsters these were really fun to work on. I tried to go nuts with all the textures and details with the costuming. I am really happy with how everything turned out in this book.

Funny side story... while at Gen Con I stopped by the Paizo booth to flip through a copy of City of Strangers because I hadn't gotten a good look at it yet and wanted to show it to a friend. A Paizo representative came up to me and told me to let him know if I had any questions. When he saw what I was looking at he introduced himself as James Sutter, the author of the book. Very cool! I of course introduced myself as one of the contributing artist, and we had a 'small world' laugh. Did I mention before how cool Gen Con is?

GEEK NIGHT 2010 is coming! I will have an official post about it on Friday. Mark your calendars, Sept 24th 8:30 pm on the campus of Florida State University! Until then...

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

Monday, September 13, 2010

Pathfinder Chronicles: City of Strangers (part 1)

These are a long time in coming. Pathfinder Chronicles: City of Strangers was actually released in stores before Gen Con and I just got my copies last week. I am happy to finally be able to share the work I did on this release from Paizo Publishing. I produced a mix of character shots for this book, I will save the people for later in the week and just jump into the good stuff... THE MONSTERS!

Troll Auger
© 2010 Paizo Publishing, LLC

Wormfolk
© 2010 Paizo Publishing, LLC

I had SO much fun with that Troll. I think it is possibly one of if not the favorite piece I have produced for Paizo. A big monster AND guts... it is a win/win situation. I went a little nuts on the skin texture, but that is kind of becoming my thing these days. In all seriousness, a big thanks to Sarah Robinson for thinking of me for these pieces. I can not ask for better images to have to create!

GEEK NIGHT 2010 is coming! I will have an official post about it this week. Mark your calendars, Sept 24th 8:30 pm on the campus of Florida State University!

That is all for today. I will have some humans and some info on Geek Night for you later in the week! Until then...

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

Friday, September 10, 2010

ArtOrder Challenge - Log Monster

First let me say that I apparently was confused regarding the release date for a piece of work I am really excited to share with you all. It was not released today so all my preemptive hype was for naught. Lesson learned!

Thankfully I have another piece ready to share with you that I have been meaning to post! The great and powerful Jon Schindehette has a new challenge up on Artoder, the LOG MONSTER!

Just us trees - Log Monster Challenge
© 2010 Christopher Burdett

Yes, I know this is more of a monster with a log rather then a log monster. He was just having too much fun and I didn't have the heart to tell him he might be disqualified. Always looking for an opportunity to just have some fun drawing!

Don't forget to stop by the fan page on Facebook I set up! I am humbled and shocked by the turnout so far!

GEEK NIGHT 2010 is coming! Mark your calendars, Friday Sept. 24, 2 weeks away (YIKES!). More on that VERY SOON!

That is all for another week! Loads going on and I am trying to keep my head above water. Lots of new work to share and announcements to make. More to come! Until then...

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

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Facebook Artist Fan Page

It has been on my 'to do' list for some time now and this past Labor Day Monday I finally had some time. I know you have all been clamoring for it and here it is, my very own Facebook artist fan page! You will need a Facebook account to fully experience it but since there are about 5 humans on Earth left without one it shouldn't be an issue. So head on over and click that happy little 'Like' button! You know you want to.

I'm a FACEBOOK, RAWR!

If I am already friends with you on Facebook expect an invite shortly. I also have a handy dandy 'Like' link over on the right of this blog if you prefer that. What are you waiting for? Head over to Facebook and go wild with the 'Like" button! The fan page will be your best source for big upcoming news as well as any appearances I might be having is a few weeks... *HINT HINT*

In other exciting news I have been invited to join the very impressive list of artists that take part in Creaturespot.com! It is an amazing blog of folks that specialize in creatures art! So many amazing artists and amazing visions of creatures. I highly recommend you stopping by and check it all out. I will begin blogging there as well in the very near future!

That is all for today. I will be back on Friday with something I am really excited about! Until then...

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

Friday, September 3, 2010

Sea Demon's Shrine - PROCESS: BRUSHES!

I have received even more questions regarding the process that went into the Sea Demon's Shrine piece I had in last months issue of Dungeon Magazine. Most of these questions center around my brushes so I figured it was time for a post on this topic. If you missed either of my previous process posts you can find them HERE and HERE.

I would like to repeat something I said over on DeviantArt before we get started... in art the brushes, computers, paints, clay, tablet, paper, pens, or pencils we use are all merely tools. Good tools help us work faster and achieve out goals more easily. There is no one magic brush in Photoshop that will make the perfect painting... believe me, I have searched and searched.

With PS brushes I went through a lot of experimentation over the years. Trial and error is the name of the game until you understand how all the controls in the brush panels work. I would be sitting here writing until next week trying to explain it all and do neither of us any good. Go into PS, pick a brush out and start messing with it, it will be crazy at first but the more you work with it the more you will come to understand the amazing power you have with the brushes.

For most of my current paintings I use 4 different brushes, for the Sea Demon's Shrine I used 5 because there was some splashy water. These are the 5 brushes:

Photoshop brushes.
Top row: 100%, all controls turned off, "single mouse click". Middle row: marks made using the mouse. Bottom row: marks made using stylus on tablet.

BRUSH (A) - I got this from Mark Winters. He offers this brush on his DeviantArt account and I highly recommend you stopping by and getting a copy. I use this brush now to do all my under painting. It is nice and chunky and has loads of texture. (Thanks again Mark!)

BRUSH (B) - Standard issue hard round. This is a stock PS brush with the opacity control set to the pressure of the stylus. I use this brush to do all my heavy lifting when it comes to the painting. This is and will likely always be my main painting brush.

BRUSH (C) - A version of this brush came with a magazine I bought a while back. I didn't really start using it until early last year and after I made some changes to it. I use this brush mostly in my under painting, the color jitter gives me some really nice unexpected color events on the canvas that I then can play off of in the main painting. I also use it to help add texture and reduce the digital feel to the painting. This is the brush I use for the 'overlay layer'.

Control panels for BRUSH (C)

BRUSH (D) - I made this brush when I worked on the Monster Manual 2 and I have been using it in every painting since. Like BRUSH (C) this one is used a lot in the under painting to add texture and then again to help break things up in the main painting. It was REALLY easy to make and incredibly invaluable.

Control panels for BRUSH (D)

BRUSH (E) - Identical to BRUSH (D) in almost every way save that the marks are circles to help make the splashy water stuff a little more quickly.

I hope added to my two previous post regarding my process helps give you all a much clearer view of how I go about making my work. What I can't show and quickly explain is the time and hard work that also needs to accompany all these steps.

If you have any further questions please feel free to pass them along!

That is all for another week! Monday is a holiday do I will not be posting, but I will be back on Wednesday. Really looking forward to sharing with you a brand new piece on Friday! Can't wait! Until then...

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

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Fantasy Hero (part 2)

On Monday I shared with you the first part of my work recently released in the Fantasy Hero source book. Today I am happy to share with you the final two pieces from this newest book from the fine folks at Hero Games.

The Thing From Below
© 2010 Hero Games

The Dark Overlord
© 2010 Hero Games

Tentacles, CHECK; gaping maws of teeth, CHECK; glowing red eye clusters, CHECK... I think all the major elements of art have been achieved. These were both fun to work on and I have some funny photo reference of myself posing for the Dark Overlord. Taking photo reference really helps you get into the physical mind set of the characters and well as discover new avenues to take. Right before one of the photos I shifted and put my foot up and it got into view. When I saw the photo I knew I had the shot.

I would like to send out a big thanks to Fred Hicks for including me on this project. It is always a pleasure to work Fred!

That is all for today and for Fantasy Hero. 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