Card art

[BrushNoir]

Hey all,

I hope I post this in the right section, else you can move it. I'm at a point where I'm trying to find a direction which I want to go with my art journey. I'd like to get more into tcg art like magic, hearthstone, legend of the cryptids etc. But I was wondering how I should approach this. I want to give myself projects to practise it, but not sure how and what. Perhaps any of you could point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance!

[John]

Hi BrushNoir,

You could do Magic the Gathering art descriptions sent by their Art Directors to illustrators. It's all over the net.

Here's an example:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/arc...2014-10-20

The art description states:
Clan: Sultai
Color: Blue spell
Location: Any Sultai location, such as a gloomy temple interior
Action: This spell allows a Sultai mage to look into a pool of water and see the past—and perhaps the future. Show a Sultai noblewoman peering down into a bowl of glowing blue-tinted water. As we look over her shoulder, we can see that the bowl is actually a zombie's head with the top sawed off. We see just a hint of a UB dragon's silhouette emerging from a storm in the surface of the water.
Focus: The Sultai mage, and the bowl of glowing water
Mood: Fascinated. She knows knowledge is power, and this is the ultimate form of knowledge.


You could simulate the experience by doing your take on existing illustrations and set a deadline for yourself.

[BrushNoir]

Oh nice! That's a good one. Thanks for that! I'm planning to give myself deadlines too.

[Piotr Jasielski]

that's a good idea john.

Also maybe try to study some of the illustrations you like. If you aim at mtg, storyteling might be a good skill to learn. If LoC then boobs and boobs and dynamic poses.

[Eyliana]

I have been following the stream of Suzanne Helmigh on twitch and she is currently working on portfolio pieces to get a job at mtg. She got like 5 briefs to work out. One of them was on how to handle a situation with more than one person in there, I don't think she mentioned the other four. But this is one of the other pieces: https://cdn3.artstation.com/p/assets/ima...1460487974

Of both the stream can be found on her twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/suzanne_Helmigh/profile). I don't think she started already at the remaining three pieces.

I don't know the other cardgames much, but I think it is important that you can display what the spell does. And sometimes it easy, but sometimes the concepts are much more abstract like this spell: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/D...eid=386502

So maybe you would want to pay attention to that as well.

[BrushNoir]

@Piotr Yeah, I will include that aswell in my upcoming studies!
@Eyliana That's a good one also. I've seen she has some nice articles aswell.

Thanks all! Much appreciate it.

[meat]

There are studios that specialize in doing art for card games. Some like Blizzard do their own, but some hire these specialized studio to do their card game. I know of one at PAX East, but didn't have time to check out their booth or talk to them. They're called Dire Wolf, in Denver, Colorado, which is an awesome city right next to the Rockies and cheaper to live in.

[BrushNoir]

@meat nice one, I didn't know them. Nice to add to the list to check out/study from.

[Eyliana]

Stumpled upon this; http://project-discovery.com/blog/2016/6...ign=buffer

Maybe it can provide some extra insight :)

[BrushNoir]

@Eyliana I've seen that indeed, great post, thanks!

[felipemalini]

BrushNoir their goal is pretty much the same as mine, I really want to work on similar illustrations to "Legend of the Criptyds".

How are you organizing for this?
I'm really lost as to how to study, because I have an addiction, if I work in painting an art can only copying, I can not create my own lighting and colors, which implies the time to work on an art that.