February 7, 2012

Fear the card art


Just released today is the new set of  the Warcraft card game "Crown of Heavens" which I made some art for: a goblin, vial and a half sheep/frog.  
Initially when I saw the vial in the assignment I was worried that maybe I was going to start getting cards of lesser importance.  Fear is always present as a freelancer, as you often don't communicate much with your clients and are always worried how your work is received.  My advice is to just to do a great job on whatever assignment you are given, and don't worry about being typecast or labelled by your art director.  A great piece of art whatever the subject just instills confidence and puts you on good terms with your art director.  Subsequently after doing this job, my fears have been completely alleviated, as I actually have been getting better assignments with more important and complex art descriptions.




To understand how to render the liquid, I'm looking at orange juice...


I'm sure I will sell a boatload of print of this guy... ;)


Also recently released are 2 cards for Magic the Gathering's new set "Dark Ascension".  
These are the second cards I've done, and it seems like they are fairly important and getting alot of exposure.  This is a "red eye" female shaman who turns into a wolf on a double-sided card.
 I'm really pumped to do more and I hope the AD keeps calling! (there's that fear again)



10 comments:

  1. Nice work!!! Love your use of backlighting. =)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome post, man! I love the new stuff, great stuff across the board :) What did you use for reference for the background of the bottle card illo?

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Eric: it was a particular room that I was supposed to use from the game, so I made a quick 3-d model of the shapes for perspective and then painted from that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful stuff man! The Magic work fits right into the world of Innistrad.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wonderful work, all so clear - I'm a sucker for expressions, so the goblin's my favourite.

    How long do you spend on each of these (sketch and final) ?

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Sam... for sketch: maybe a day leisurely exploring ideas ( I usually do a bunch and sometimes partially develop a few if I'm not sure which is best, a day for the final drawing and up to 3 for the final art... so maybe 5 days in all, but not working too hard... not long hours... these are fairly simple.

      Delete
  7. Hey Mike,
    These are all fantastic, but I particularly like the Goblin at the top and the werewolf lady.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great work Mike! Amazing light on all of 'em, I keep going back to the goblin, love the expression.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great post Mike! I appreciate you sharing that personal bit about being worried you're getting cards of lesser importance. Glad it wasn't the case, but it's nice to know that other artists worry about the same things haha.

    ReplyDelete