PreRelease leftovers

Here are some leftover artist proof sketches from the Innistrad prerelease. Many thanks goes to the Mana Core for hosting the event and the players for stopping by my table. They were giving away my promo card for entering the event, and I was a little surprised how few people wanted a free signature on their card! So ultimately, I had some time to sketch.

...And the rest of Innistrad

Here are my final three cards in the Innistrad set. I don't have too many things to say about these particular pieces and I don't have the full-size art yet. But while I wait for the originals to come back from Wizards, I'll share some thoughts.
Unruly Mob was my final Zorn palette (cadmium red, yellow ochre, black, white) Magic card. You can't really see him too well, but the guy with the axe is one of my favorite human characters that I have painted for Magic. I don't even know why. I just think he's cool.

In Innistrad, for every standard piece commissioned to me, there were one or two pieces where the character was breaking into or out of something. Breaking out of a window, breaking into a cottage, or in the case of Claustrophobia, out of a coffin.

I painted this one upside-down for most of the process. I was trying to figure out why it didn't look right and finally realized that I had painted his cuffs falling toward the lid of the coffin. I repainted that area to fix gravity.

For Unburial Rites, the "breaking out" theme continues with a corpse trying to break out of a crypt. There was a time last year when I wished my characters could just stay where they were.

Mythic Rare

The world of Magic: The Gathering can be a random place. Artists generally have no clue whether their art will be used on a very powerful card or a relatively weak one. Army of the Damned is the first mythic rare card I have illustrated, meaning it's the most rare and generally the most powerful kind of card. A total surprise to me.

The assignment was to illustrate the inside wall of a cottage barricaded against a horde of zombies. The importance of the card clearly had to do with the many, many zombies, but the hardest part for me was to make a cottage wall compelling. Architecture, even a rundown cottage, is difficult for me to paint. Add in tons of arms and hands and the assignment becomes a big undertaking.

I don't have a larger image of the painting because I mailed it in before I could photograph it. Honestly though, I enjoy the art more on the card than I did in person.

Mayor/Alpha sketches

Below are the sketches I submitted for Mayor of Avabruck and Howlpack Alpha. You can see that in the sketches for the mayor, I was going for a more peaceful, relaxed, intimate scene. The assignment required that I include the mayor studying a map in front of a big window (or with the window somewhere in the room behind him). The trick would be to get the lighting right. I had a general idea, but I ended up taking very, very complete photo reference.
The success of the piece hinged on the detail and subtlety of the lighting, something that in hindsight I could have done better. At the time, I was also still trying out the Zorn palette (cadmium red, yellow ochre, black and white), which didn't make the job any easier. However, I did have fun designing the mayor. To this day I still dig his outfit, regardless of what others think. I think its Gothic-derivative, but not colonial. Plus, he has a cool collar to ward off vampires (even though he should have been worried about werewolves, apparently).

I did a ton of thumbnails for Howlpack Alpha, but only came up with one idea that seemed to work for me. The werewolf needed to be jumping through the window, glass shattering around him and if possible, to include a full moon. This is the only way I figured out how to do that:
The sketches were approved, but the art director told me to keep the anatomy of the werewolf in line with the other werewolves of the Innistrad world. I reworked the sketch and submitted this:
This was approved but the art director requested that I make his fur mottled. This is very, very hard to do with paints. Mottled fur is meant to hide a creature's form in the wild; just like camouflage. The painter's motive, however, is to create form. So not only do you have to figure out where the light and shadow are falling, but you also have to change that pattern if you are painting a spot of dark fur. It's hard to see on the final but I was happy with what I achieved.

Now, the broken window. The trick with glass is that it's transparent from certain angles and translucent or opaque from others. Since the light is coming from below, any edge of glass that points in that direction would produce a highlight. But if the face of the glass is pointed at the viewer, you can see through it. What if the face of glass points toward the light? How does the moon affect the glass? For each shard of glass, I had to answer those questions.

Again, the lighting effects could have been more subtle and the whole piece could have been moodier. However, I'm really happy with the broken glass. It took a lot of planning and was an absolute pain in the rear, but if I ever have to do broken glass again ( please God, no), I will be referring back to Howlpack Alpha.

Innistrad Prerelease

It's that time of the year again: the new expansion set of Magic: The Gathering is coming out. Called Innistrad, it's the game's take on Gothic horror. The Mana Core will be hosting a Prerelease event in Providence, RI, and I will be there signing cards.

Coincidentally, I illustrated the promo card that will be given out at the event. It's a double-sided card in which the Mayor of Avabruck (below) turns into Howlpack Alpha (bottom). This is breaking the mold in the world of Magic, so it will be interesting to see how players deal with the new cards.


There are many things I did right with these illustrations. But, as always, there are things that I definitely could have improved upon. Maybe I'll cover those things in a future art-related post.

Cards and original sketch for sale!

It's been a hectic 2011 so far. The work has been good, but I have had to put in long hours. I probably won't get a break in the action until mid-March. Unfortunately, due to non-disclosure agreements, I can't show you a single thing. So in the meantime ...

I'm selling some goodies on eBay.

It's a complete, factory-sealed Booster Box of Mirrodin Besieged. Also included is a sketch on the back of a Brass Squire artist proof card, showing a Phyrexian version of the same card. I'm also throwing in the Player's Guide Booklet.


Get your bids in, MtG fans!

Vedalken Infuser

This new Magic card had no concept from the art director, other than, "paint me a cool Vedalken of your design." This is great for an artist to hear and I think in this piece I did what I had hoped to accomplish. I just wish I had planned out a stunning background, but at the time I wanted to simplify for some reason. That said, it's still the best of my recent work and the only one I will post to my site.


I provided a detail to show you what I was most proud of. Whether by the grace of the art gods or by luck, I was able to maintain the transparency of the shadows. I love this effect, but can rarely achieve it. The opaque illuminated head merges quite nicely with the brushstroke-y transparent shadows.

IlluXcon prep

My parents are great. I'm 27, and I spent most of my mid-twenties living with them. They didn't kick me out and they never complained. They believed in my ability to make it as an illustrator and gave me the rent-free opportunity to do nothing but try to make that happen. And now, living in Boston, I'm making this illustration thing work.

But they are still helping me out. My dad, for instance, has been making frames for IlluXcon. He bought a Morso chopper and set up a joiner in the garage. He's been buying leftover or cheap moulding from local dealers and making frames in his spare time.

Buying unwanted moulding can be a gamble. Occasionally they are pretty ugly. When paired with the right painting, however, they usually work. I'm excited to show off an ugly green frame that is absolutely perfect for Plague Stinger.

Alternative Art

Every piece requires a series of sketches. I usually provide 2 or 3 options to a client, and they can choose their favorite. Sometimes when I'm really stumped, I'll just do one sketch and hope for either approval or some constructive criticism.

For Affa Guardhound, I provided two ideas. The first would have been easier to do, but the one that was chosen made for a more exciting piece. It illustrates the function of the card better as well.




Plague Stinger was a similar story. I provided three options. The first is a downward shot and would show the setting from above. The second is an extreme upward view, with the insect horror attacking the viewer. The final idea (my favorite) was the one chosen to move to final.

Scars of Mirrodin Pre-Release Boston

The Scars of Mirrodin Pre-Release was held yesterday in Charlestown. It was a good turnout. I sold a few prints here and there. But mostly, people wanted the tokens I was drawing on the back of the artist proof cards:



About the cheapest original art you'll find anywhere!

Glimmerpoint Stag

Last card of the Scars of Mirrodin set. Glimmerpoint Stag, the second elk I have illustrated for Magic the Gathering. But this one shines in the sun ... glimmers, I guess. Trying to figure out how all that light was bouncing off the multiple surfaces was a nightmare. Of course the job also called for two different color suns. But I feel it's fairly successful.

I also did half the piece with a sliced-open thumb and got stitches in the middle of completing the face. You can see I blurred out the art back in the February post.

Click the image for a better view.

Myr Propagator

Another new card!


I wasn't sure how I would go about composing this scene: A basic Myr standing beside a copy of himself that it made by tearing up the landscape around it ... in this case, the landscape is the Glimmervoid, which is made up of hexagonal tiles of metal. The Myr also had to be staring blankly at the viewer, emotionless.

I'm pleased with the image that resulted. Click through for a better view.

Myr Art

The full art. Click through for a better view. I was lucky with this one. The day I mailed it to Wizards, I put a coat of varnish on it. Turns out, some red oxide in the lower right hadn't dried, and the varnish washed it away, spreading it all over the canvas. It didn't affect the look of the piece and I was quite happy with the texture it created. A rare happy accident.

The Myr

There are bunch of interpretations of the Myr in the upcoming set of cards, but here's what I came up with for the My Token:

Plague Stinger

Here it is. The full art of Plague Stinger. Click through for a larger view. I'm proud of this one ...

Myr Token

I found the following image on the Magic: The Gathering site. It's a diagram illustrating a certain card mechanic:



With a little rotation and a crop ...



It appears to be one of the new token cards for Scars of Mirrodin! When a Houston GP attendee back in February asked if I knew what a Myr looked like and if I could draw one, I smiled to myself. Little did he know that I had recently painted this image.

Time for a new set already?

Well, look what I found today ... One of the first cards spoiled from the Scars of Mirrodin set of Magic: The Gathering:

This was a really fun one to paint. If I can't paint a humanlike creature, an Insect Horror is pretty good. For those interested players, I will be attending the Boston Scars of Mirrodin Regional Pre-Release at the end of the month. Details to come ...

Zuran Orb

As promised, the full art of Zuran Orb. Click the image for a bigger view ...



Also, I'm selling a signed copy of the box set of FTV: Relics, complete with an extra signed Zuran Orb. Check out ebay ...

Alternate art

This is how Escaped Null appeared in its final version:

And this is how it might have appeared. I was thinking a misty forest color scheme; light blue and black, with the null emitting a ghostly vapor from its mouth. You can click the image for a slightly better look ...

From the Vault: Relics

From the Vault is a popular collector's item for Magic players; reprints of old, popular cards that may or may not still be legal in play. All are printed on special foil backgrounds, and some of these cards come with new art. This year, the set is called From the Vault: Relics.

Here's my contribution:


... and for reference, the original card:


The original art (posted soon, promise!) for Zuran Orb is available for sale ... just shoot me an email.