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!

Variant Planeswalkers on eBay!!!

Now's your chance to bid and win the auction for the original artwork used for the SDCC Magic:TG Planeswalker cards.  That's right, win ALL FIVE Planeswalkers in one feel swoop.  Ya got 7 days from 3:15pm on August 1st. Go get 'em!

SDCC PLANESWALKERS

SDCC Planeswalkers

Garruk 

So here they are in all their black-n-white glory: the Magic:the Gathering M14 Planeswalker promo card illustrations.  Wow, such a long title - but, as I have heard on the internet vine, deservedly so.  At least for now, those little cards are VERY highly coveted. The project however, didn't start out as illustrations for exclusive promo cards that you could only get at the San Diego Comic Con.

Jace

I was originally commissioned to do these planeswalker images as multi-use graphics that would go on t-shirts and a few other sundry M:tG products not directly part of the game itself. Much to my delight and excitement, a little while after I had completed these illustrations, Wizards decided to use these very same pieces on the aforementioned SDCC exclusives - a pretty damn big deal.  Planeswalker cards are popular in the Magic community - let alone extremely rare exclusives like this was to be.  And yes, I was compensated for the switch in primary use of the images (a nice little surprise bonus just before Christmas last year!)

Lilliana

About the illustrations themselves well, not only was it a switch in technique for me from full-color painting that I'm used to these days to a straight up black-n-white, but it was also a different way of approaching the black-n-white imagery as well.  My art director (and long-time friend) Matt Cavotta pushed me to drop reliance on lines to define form and shape and trust in a harsh, singular light source and shadow to make the image work.  This took some time for it to click as I had filled my freelance schedule for years and years on black and white pen-n-ink work - almost all of it defined by the linework of the drawing.  It was very easy to slip back into my old habits and take a more "comic book style" approach using lines and stylized shading, etc.  But Matt kept nudging me in the right direction until finally I saw exactly what he wanted. After that moment, it became really fun to do these.

Ajani

The images that are shown here (and used on the final cards) are technically mixed-media.  They started out as mars black acrylic on bristol paper but through a lot of back and forth with Matt, we ended up cleaning up parts and portions of each one to make them stronger images.  Most of it was "simplifying" - that is, just dropping unnecessary details in favor of larger areas of positive shapes or negative space.  Lilliana and Garruk required a little bit more attention to make the lighting situation work better though.  All of this, of course, was much easier to do digitally than if I was masochistic enough to rework them traditionally.  In the end, I'd say they are probably 90% traditional and 10% digital.

Chandra

So, speaking of the originals of which there has been quite a bit of interest, I will indeed be putting them up for auction.  I'm hoping to do so by August 1st.  All five will be auctioned together - and yes, I'll have pictures of the actual (untouched by digital retooling) illustrations on the eBay auction.  So get your bidding pants on next week!

P.A.C.T. Support!

Hey people!  Pardon me but I'm kinda slow hopping in with my word-of-mouth support on this important project called P.A.C.T. (Professional Artist-Client Toolkit).  This is an idea conjured up by a group of talented, business-savvy, and (most importantly) intelligent artists working out there in the world - concerned with making it a better and more fair landscape for us artists to work in.  The idea is to have a database website for illustrators to reference when out there trying to make a living.

The site will be a resource destination for  illustrators with sample contracts, educational resources, and a list of companies reviewed in the member's area. As a member, there will be a ratings tool to rate companies based on contract terms, rate of pay, timeliness of payment, and ease of working with client.

If you are an illustrator at any stage of your career, this is a project worthy of your interest and support.
Right now, the support most needed is contributing funds - funds needed in the next four days to reach the set goal.

 Heck, enough of my interpretation of the project and all it's about, go to the Indiegogo page for P.A.C.T., check out the video of the venerable Todd Lockwood breaking it down for you - and then read up on everything they're trying to do there.  Also, check out all the goodies you can get depending on how much money you contribute.

If you're foolishly interested in only Steve Prescott product - well, one of the perks includes a copy of my book AGGREGATE. Hop on over, check it out, and give it its due attention!

GP PROVIDENCE!

June 7th and 8th (that's this coming weekend y'all!), fellow fantasy art doodler Dan Scott and I will be making an appearance at the Magic: The Gathering Grand Prix in Providence, Rhode Island. Both of us will be signing all day Saturday (10:00 to 8:00) and most of the day Sunday.

The official playmat for the show features the above Summer-themed illustration by that guy I am.  The first 250 teams to register on-site on Friday will get one.  That makes this sucker a pretty nifty limited edition playmat!

Dan and I will be armed to the teeth with sharpies - ready to sign anything you put in front of us: cards, playmats, binders, cleavage, etc.  We'll also be selling artist proofs and prints (and maybe even a couple original Magic paintings!).  Hope to see you there!

For more information on the event go to:  PROVIDENCE GP 2013

SIDE PROJECT: Birthday Invites

I often get asked if I do any artwork outside of fantasy or gaming.  Or fantasy gaming.  The answer is YES.  Unless you're asking if I ever get PAID for any of my work outside of fantasy gaming.  Then the answer is almost always NO. But I do indulge in plenty of creative projects beyond my "work".  One ongoing project is illustrating my daughter's birthday party invitations. 

Every year since my daughter was about to turn two, I have crafted a simple, kid-friendly illustration for each of her party invitations.  This year she's turning eight!

Don't know why I didn't do a first birthday piece to start it all off.  But I did do a baby shower illustration if I can find where that one is.  Luckily, the rest of these are in a folder on my computer so I had easy access to drag 'em out and share them. Pardon the aesthetically wretched copyright tag on each one (the internet is full of pathetic douchebags that like to steal artwork and use it for their own gain). I have also extracted the text for most of these, too - nobody needs to know when to show up to a party that happened four years ago - and nobody needs to know my phone number either.  I spend too much time as it is not answering my phone.

So have a look.  And then have some cake. All images ©copyrightsteveprescott 2006-2013.

There are five 5's in the birthday 5 piece.  Likewise, there are eight 8's in the octopus one. Find 'em all and then give yourself a pat on the back!

Old World of Warcraft Shtuff

I spend a lot of time posting about Magic:The Gathering but not too much about the other TCG I do work for: World of Warcraft.  Obviously, it doesn't have the fervent fanbase that M:tG has and the design and sensibilities are very specific, but I have a lot of fun when working on a WoW piece. The first five or six illustrations I did for WoW were lackluster - I think it took some warming up to their crazy, ham-fisted style.  But once I figured out where my boundaries were and when I could stretch those or not, it started to click.

I'll spare you from seeing some of those first pieces when I was getting my legs under me and jump ahead a few jobs to what you see here.  Not only do these mark when I started to have a better approach and enthusiasm for Warcraft art, they also came at a time when my painting style started to get a little bolder and painterly.  Whether one was the result of the other or not, I'm not sure.

There are a handful of recurring visual-cues for Warcraft art.  First, dudes are built like juicing narcissistic bodybuilders and females are lithe and sexy.  Second, armor and weapons must be insanely huge and impractical.  And thirdly, lots of shit glows.  Take, for instance, the piece at the top of the draenei sorcerer and the Moonkin one below.  Expect there to be multiple light-sources and/or multiple glowing items in each WoW illustration.  Rare is the piece that has NO glowing anything in it. Heck, even that archer guy below has nocked a glowing arrow!  Why is it glowing?  Just turn your brain off and look at the pretty pictures.

Accounting for all the glowing shit and crackling energy and what-not can sometimes be a bitch.  But I often welcome the challenge and try not to put too much emphasis on the complications of those little details.  As with any job, I have to try and make whatever is asked of me look awesome somehow.  A dude in huge armor using a bow and arrow? Wha? Well, ok - here ya go.

I get asked all the time what medium I work in.  If I don't feel like explaining myself, I say acrylic - because, for finished full-color artwork, it is true 99.9% of the time.  Unless it's for World of Warcraft.  the truth is, almost all of my Warcraft art has a degree of digital touch ups.  Some more extensive than others.

Most of the time, there are fixes and reworks asked of me after the final art has been turned in. It is unusual if anything major is asked - usually it's quite small.  For such things, I just bring it up in photoshop and fix it in a few minutes.  All three of the images above have some minor digital tweaking here and there - making the glow a tad glowier, punching up the contrast just a smidge, etc.  Still, they are predominantly acrylic paintings.  I could still show and sell the original paintings - they are finished pieces by themselves.

But have I ever done a digital piece before?  No - not 100% digital.  But this one here comes the closest.  This piece is probably 75% digital.  The dude in the foreground retains some painted elements that I tweaked and worked over - everything else is digital.  Why did I do this? Well, this piece was going nowhere fast and I had exactly NO enthusiasm to traditionally paint it that day.  I decided to just scan in what I had and muck around with it digitally and see what happens.  It's effective and looks nice shrunk down - but it's not a very memorable or good illustration. I did however want to show it as an example of an extremely rare foray into professional digital work on my part. Photoshop was very helpful in getting me through that piece, but it's not a dish I want to eat very often.