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!
Doing that concept time in Seattle sounds like a creative blast. Being able to bounce ideas off of a bunch of othere artists like that must be inspirational and a lot of fun...color me jealous.
ReplyDeleteReally nice, Steve. Strong shapes and really cool ideas.
ReplyDeleteBlasty-blast! Can't lie, I'm envious...great sketches my man :)
ReplyDeleteawesome concepts, you should try and convince wizards to release the style guides as books. Id buy em all.
ReplyDeleteI don't doubt an "art of Magic" book has been talked about. Don't know if they'd include any concept work though. There's so many awesome Magic illustrations, how could they possibly have room to include concept work?
ReplyDeletei tend to prefer the conceptual stuff, its where the illustrations come from!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a little Hellboy 2 on the brain, but still really cool. Speaking of sketches, I picked up the art of Hellboy 2 from Dark Horse just to see all the Mignola, et al design work. If you haven't seen that book, chek it out. I think I can still get it super cheap if you want one.
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