Lorwyn Concepts 1

As per my promise, I'm going to post a series of my pencil drawings from when I worked on the concept design push for what would become Magic: the Gathering's "Lorwyn" block (which includes Morningtide, Eventide, and Shadowmoor, as well).

These drawings are from all the way back 2006. Wow - has it been six years already? Anyway, the artist team I was on included Omar Rayyan, Warren Mahy, and Jeremy Jarvis. Good times all around but there were plenty of obstacles we had to either hammer out or at least pound on for a while to see if there was anything there.

The first sampling I am posting is a cute little concept for a blue faerie or elemental - and the Lorwyn version of a goblin (boggarts). I think we actually went less pig and more mutated goat/bat with the look of the boggarts. But these gross pig dudes were fun to tinker with. Definitely tapping some Mike Mignola with this design.

Conceptualizationism II

Here's another old concept drawing that didn't go anywhere. I believe it was an attempt to see if elves might have a spot in a gothic horror setting. The idea was eventually laid to rest I think because of game mechanics or something in the development but I think there could have been a visual way to incorporate elves into a setting with werewolves, vampires, and zombies (not that this particular drawing is it though!).

Conceptualizationism

Where have I been for the last two weeks? Been out at Wizards of the Coast in Renton, Washington working with five other artists drawing up concept designs for a Magic:the Gathering set that probably won't come out until Spring of 2013. This is my third Magic concept push and my fourth concept push out at Wizards (I worked on Eberron back in 2003 I think it was?). Even though the very basics are always the same (designing races/creatures/landscapes that fit into a Magic game) the angles and challenges are different and interesting. And it's always a great time.

I got to work with a crop of excellent artists in Richard Whitters, Pete Morbacher, Eric Deschamps, Adam Paquette, and the venerable Todd Lockwood and we teamed up to pummel the concept board with all sorts of designs. Designs of which I DEFINITELY can't talk about lest I get flayed and fed to mandrills. Someday, I'll get to post the images though and I can't wait because I think they're really fun drawings.

Alas, someday very soon I'll post some "lost" Lorwyn concept drawings that didn't quite cut the mustard as far as what was needed - but are still some decent drawings. These drawings are from almost 6 years ago.

But since we're talking concept drawings here, I'm posting a couple stray concepts that didn't hit the right note for the LAST Magic push I did - the one that would become "Innistrad". I forget what these were aimed at - they were early on and we ended up heading in a different direction. At least they get a second look here on my blog!