Throwing back to Theros

For this post I'm selectively throwing back all the way to like 9 months ago with some Theros illustrations.  Sure, Prognostic Sphinx and Kiora's Follower are my favorites from the Greek-themed set but I've decided to share some other Theros pieces on the merits of specific portions or aspects of the paintings that I find particularly successful.

This painting, while maybe a bit innocuous and forgettable at first glance, has some really savvy painting that I wish I could consistently conjure much more often.  The lower left hand corner shows a hydra head confronting a spear-wielding warrior in the background.  In order to push that back in space, I muted the shadows while keeping the highlights warm and sunlit. And the sky warming and then fading into the jagged mountain line helps set the atmosphere even more. The rest of the image works well for what it had to show but that corner right there I'm particularly proud of.

Another overlooked favorite from the Theros block is this hydra token. And it is yet another good example of subtle and muted color choices to play up atmosphere and depth.  I think when I first painted this piece, I thought I used a bit too much Payne's Gray which is kind of my replacement for black on my palette. It's close to that dark but has a cooler tone and seems to mix better with other paints. Anyway, I used Payne's Gray a lot in this piece to keep the colors muted and misty feeling. The result seemed to make the overall image a little too gray for my liking. But since then, I have had time to look at it with fresher eyes and now I rather like this painting a lot.  I think the grayed tones help and not hinder the image - and the painterly textures of the foliage turned out nicely, too.

Ah yes, the Gluttonous Cyclops.  Working with a kind of fish-eye perspective, I never could establish how exactly I wanted the background to look. Never-the-less, it is the cyclops that sells this piece so I had to really get that purplish-brownish-blackish African skin tone just right as well as how and where to highlight the skin.  In this instance, there was some trial and error but overall, I'm pretty proud of how the skin colors and textures came out. I also like the smashed little shepherd's house in the background!

Finally, Fleetfeather Sandals. Part of the sweeping art direction for this setting was that, as opposed to Innistrad which was swathed in murky darkness and creepy, obscuring fogs, Theros was to be brightly bathed in Mediterranean sunshine. Colors were to be bright, skies nearly devoid of clouds, shadows to be sharp-edged as they are when cast by the sun. That said, no other Theros painting of mine shows that better than this piece and I'm pretty pleased by that. Again, at first glance this is a pair of legs from the knees down and some shoes with owl wings. Seems simple enough. But I really focused my energy on establishing that sunny lighting and playing up the natural colors that come from brilliant sunshine. Yellow grasses, the red in the rocks, the blue of the sky, the reddish-brown of the tanned legs in shadow, the purple of the shaded areas.  Also, I used a palette knife to get a good texture on the foreground rock.

THEROS ART

Soon the first set in the Theros block will be released - so it's time to release a post about it on my blog here. Theros is Magic: the Gathering's Ancient Greece-inspired set for which Todd Lockwood, Eric Deschamps, Adam Paquette, Pete Morbacher, Richard Whitters, and I worked on the concept design phase.  I have a a nice chunk of cards coming out in Theros and the subsequent sets so here are the first in line along with the pencil roughs for each.

Above is probably my favorite out of all of them: "Prognostic Sphinx". Being a fan of planetariums and  the old representational drawings of constellations, this was a treat to work on. 

Below is an artifact card called: "Fleetfeather Sandals".  I don't often do artifact cards but I enjoyed this one.  The set specifically calls for bright colors and sun-drenched scenes so it forced me to play with bright sunlight and sharp shadows. I used a palette knife to texture that rock she's standing on there.

Next we have "Nessian Courser" - a centaur patrolling the forests of Theros. Pretty straight forward here. You'll notice I changed the tree behind the horse-dude from drawing to painting.  That's because at the time I had painted a lot of gnarly, crooked trees and I wanted to break out of that a little.  Yeah, in hindsight maybe the gnarly tree would have been a little more dynamic but I switched to a tree more representative of the set at least.

Lastly, we have another one I'm pretty pleased with: "Warrior's Lesson". You can read a little bit about some of my concept design tasks in one of the previous posts here but one of my jobs was to develop the looks of the humans in the three regions of Theros.  In regard to this card, I had to come up with a "green" tribe of Amazons and give them appropriate armor and design elements. I gave them bold, leather armor with thick straps and a sweeping forward crest on their helmets which ended with loose leather straps dangling down the neck and back.  I was quite pleased I got to focus some finished detail on the outfits of these ferocious ladies of the forest.

You'll notice the switch in arm position of the lead warrior.  I fussed with that for hours trying to find a position for her sword arm that fit the frame best. Some days there is a lot of erasing. Ugh.

Speaking of Theros, I'll be making a card-signing appearance for the Theros Prerelease Saturday September 21st at a store called "Fog of Dusk" on Bethel road right here in Columbus, Ohio.  I'll be there from 3:00 to at least 7:00 (8:00 at the latest). I'll be selling artist proofs, prints, and playmats. For anyone that likes to spend money, I'll also bring a few original paintings and maybe even a set or two of some special black-on-black planeswalker cards I've heard so much about. See you there!

Theros Concepts

I was tooling around the internet looking to see what artwork has been spoiled from Magic: The Gathering's upcoming Theros set today.  I didn't find any of my cards just yet, but I did find a couple pictures of some of the concept designs I did.

I'm not sure what has or has not been mentioned in Theros articles, nor do I know what all has made it from concept to final product as far as ideas, so I feel I probably shouldn't speak of any details just yet. Never-the-less, perhaps I can be infuriatingly vague in order to keep this post from being mostly empty! Mind you, I have no idea what conceptual ideas made it to the final version of the world as far as the story and what-not so this information is just what I was thinking at the time - and may have little to no bearing on what is actually included in this set.

So, for these particular drawings, I was looking to develop the look and feel of warriors from three distinct regions in the Theros world.  As with the concept designs I did for Lorwyn and Innistrad, it was important to have visual cues and shapes that make spotting and differentiating these Greeky peoples easier - but keeping it all feeling like it's from the same world.

They are all humans, so costuming was the key here.  Warriors on the left wear/use polished, gleaming bronze, with white and cool-colors.  Their crested helms are horse hair. In the middle are warriors that wear dark bronze, angular designs, and use reds and other deep, warm colors.  Their crested helms are bronze. On the left, the warriors wear woven leathers in browns and greens. Their helms have leather crests.  

There are other more subtle variations here and obviously this covers just atypical warriors and not magic users or regular civilians, etc. But the themes and visual cues are what I was trying to establish.  You'll have to see the set when it comes out to see how much of this came through in the end!

Speaking of Theros, I'll be appearing for a handful of hours at the Theros prerelease Saturday September 21st at a shop called "Fog of Dusk" right here in Columbus, Ohio! I'll be signing cards and selling tantalizing Magic:TG artwork in various forms from 3:00 to 8:00. Come one, come all!