My life as a crappy artist - Cyvus Vail

You of course remember Cyvus Vail from episode 18, Origin, from season 5 of Angel, right? Any good Angel fan would, right? I barely recall the dang thing and I designed it. So that everyone is on the same page, this is Cyvus Vail...

RAWR! I am an old demon... *COUGH* ...fear me!... *COUGH* ...I need a nap...

I was able to find some time to take a fresh pass at another monster that I designed while working on Joss Whedon's Angel series. This time around Cyvus Vail was the lucky winner. Here are the original "designs" for Cyvus Vail from 2004...

Wait? What the? This is just a photo of an old man with funny ears... what gives?!
© 2004 Almost Human

This "design" was done during a period in which I was not allowed to draw on paper at the effects house I worked at. I was to only make my "designs" using photo manipulations using Photoshop. In this case I was backed into a corner and was given a photo of a really old man and was made to give him funny demon ears. Oh, I guess I blacked his eyes out and gave him a weird skin tone since it was a black and white photo. I did have a little fun coming up with some funky patterns for his skin...

RAWR! I am mottled! ...and completely rejected as an option...
© 2004 Almost Human

I guess Cyvus Vail is best described as a very old demon mafia boss. He is hooked up to IVs of vital fluids all the time and appears weak, but he still holds much power. Cool right? How much cooler would he have been if he had some cool patterns? I bet LOADS more cooler! Unfortunately, just as I was being made to only use photo manipulations for all my design work the show's production head decided that all demons are RED. Bright, glaring, and with no modeling ...FIRE ENGINE RED. Go back and watch, a TON of the demons at the end of season 5 are all BRIGHT BRIGHT RED. Cause, you know, demon are red. So I painted a lot of bright red demons at the end of season 5. ...and Cyvus Vail was one of them. All that aside, here is my chance to actually finally draw a design for Cyvus Vail...

Taking Cyvus Vail back!
© 2011 Christopher Burdett

RAWR! I am now hand drawn! Feels good to finally be able to draw this guy. It may be pretty much the same character, but at least I was able to do it my way this time and have some fun drawing a creepy old demon that to me looks a tad like Bill Nighy. Beady eyes and a broad mouth... maybe it is just me. I thought he would look good in a big furry collar. I made sure to keep the next IVs going in the wrong way. ...even though my wife would have preferred me to correct it! On to the next art albatross that I carry around my neck...

Here are a couple extra bonus images from Cyvus Vail. Here is the BRIGHT RED makeup I painted that I mentioned above. With this makeup, there was a face piece, cowl and a paint of ears that more form fitted the actor and allowed less muffle hearing. After I painted it our hair person laid down the fine white hair that completed the look. You might notice I added some modeling to the makeup with a darker tone even though production demanding we didn't. I could not see sending out a flat even painted makeup to be then be put on the actor, it would have looked so bad...


Here are more of my pattern variations that were all rejected for the more desirable fire engine red complexion. No big loss in the end I guess, some of these may have been a tad too much and may have looked silly... but a little pattern would have been fun...


That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you 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