The more I study composition, the more I appreciate your work. I was reading "Creative Illustration" for the first time other day and when I saw Pillage the Bog I immediately fell in love. Thank you for all the information you keep sharing, dude. When I grow up I want to be just like you
Bro all the cards you did in this set stuck out to me visually immediately. I even said out loud to myself when looking at the spoilers for OTJ "WOW." I didn't know who you were or that you had this YT channel before this vid came up on my recommended. Cool to see and hear your insight and process behind the art. Great job, brother!
Invaluable information Forrest, thank you so much for sharing! I am starting to work on a portfolio for MtG and videos like these that go over more of the behind the scenes of the industry, and what working as a professional is like are so hard to come by, please keep them coming if you are able. 🙏 The idea of making a huge document with all the MtG art you like and filtering out why is such a big brain moment too, I'll have to do it too :D Glad you mentioned graphic, "flat" compositions as well, because I am naturally drawn to them too, but always kinda felt I was "wrong" for doing so, since so much other entertainment industry art is getting crazier and crazier with the perspective and poses. The bog painting goes so incredibly hard, love it!
Hey dude, I love to draw and listen to a video while I’m drawing and just wanna let you know that. I really love your videos and it’s really encouraging to draw and I think there are some tips there that I can Use myself in, just please keep posting so I can keep listening to to your videos ❤
Really loved seeing your insights, and love the idea of saving all the images from Skryfall for inspiration. I've started doing the same and it's a loong process going through them all lol. Looking forward to your next vid!
Dude i just love your vibe, would be cool if you did another stream on twitch or another big video, i listened to all your videos and learned bunch of stuff and now sometimes i revisit them just to listen to you while im painting, dunno, for me, you sound like an older brother whos trying to help even tho he himself sometimes struggles with his own stuff and you're not ashamed to admit it in almost every video of yours which is very cool.
Inspiring, and really educational..never knew that that ‘all the cards’ software exists, what a great means to research mtg.. Some of these cards give me illustrative outside the mtg realm vibes if that makes any sense..keep up the greatness 🎉
jim steve wayne jesper kev some of my favourites , they are all acrylic painters which may say something to why you like there art too, maybe a way they handle colour and shape
Thank you for sharing your process! It is so interesting and great that you are on that moment of thinking what you want to do with your style. It is looking awesome!
I like your jurney into more stylized stuff lately :) You're including a lot of cool patterns in various elements lately; lights, clouds, explosions, water splashes, big fun of that, I think it suits you very much :)
Man i remember hanging out in your twitch chat back in like 2015 when i was really into learning to draw. I remember you were painting a guy feeding some kind of frog dragon, do you still have that image somewhere? Great to see you on youtube
Fantastic insight into the process, thanks a lot! I always wondered if mtg artists considered the final size of the image and how that affects rendering. I remember Ryan Pancoast complaining (sort of) about Storm the Seedcore and how players will miss all the details and subtleties in the small piece of cardboard. While others like Grzegorz Rutkowski paint traditionally with big strokes that read perfectly in a small size. What do you think? Has it affected your workflow?
Wayne Renolds is my favorite Magic artist, but hey your Bruse Tarl is my favorite card in OTJ, didn't even realize it was you. xD I've described the original Bruse as Braum, and I like that Bruse is like Magic's Braum :') Braum even has the big ram/oxhead shield. The cards are not gold if they are hybrid mana, instead the frames are evenly split into the colors represented. I like that you used a classic visual gag for Pillage the Bog, the horizontal sketch looks really cool.
Such a great video. Thanks for guiding us through your creative process! If I may ask a silly question: there's a required canvas size in the official art brief from WotC. Do you work in the exact required area stated by them, or do you enlarge it to achieve more detail in your work?
Great video once again! Tons of useful information. Would you recommend learning art by studying MTG cards? Or is that too unspecific / too wild / too much? You mentioned Tyler Jacobson and I looked up his artbook and now I'm wondering if that's something I can buy and study to get better. They say draw what you love / learn what you want to draw later on but I don't know yet if copying other peoples artworks is the best way to learn for beginners. It's a masters study and people do those but do they start off with that? Did you? Also, have you considered doing a video on how to achieve a more painterly look digitally? That's something you mentioned quite a few times in this video. That you wanted it to feel more traditional. I wonder if you've now learned how to make it more traditional. That's a big contrast I always see between League splash art which is as digital as they come and MTG cards which often have a traditional feel to them with textured brushwork.
I do, I'm actually just used to it at this point. I couldn't afford a tablet with a screen when I started and just became accustomed to this. I actually think the way I paint on it helps me paint quicker too because I'm not having to move across a large cintiq screen all the time. I only use half of my tablet too since the other half is dedicated to my second monitor so I paint on a very small section of my tablet.
It varies quite a bit, but card illustrations tend to range from 12-20 hours for me on average from start to finish. That's just my personal average though, there are other artists who are quicker and others who are slower.
I'd love to hear a video on why MTG (And many other major Fantasy games) have went from really dark realistic styles of art, to basically disney-fied art styles. I'd love to see your take on the Older style of fantasy art.
Agreed! I‘m really surprised by how hyper-stylized the art in this set looks. I‘m honestly not a fan. It‘s starting to look like any other fantasy thing out there.
The briefing estipulates the image size, 3334 x 2449. It seems pretty small. Do you paint using a file with that size or do you create a bigger one and send them a reduced final image? (Keeping the original aspect ration, of course).
I hate to be the anatomy nerd but you have an anatomy error on the skeleton in card #4. You flipped the connection of the ulna and radius to the hand. I'm amazed that this card got published like that. I guess that even art directors at Magic don't really care as long as the picture works as a whole. That is very good news actually. I guess you don't have to be an anatomy expert to work for Magic
Ok, I'm just a nobody and my skill is definitely lower than yours so you can freely tell me to get lost but when I looked at those illustrations of yours especially after you described the supposed theme and story behind them I don't feel like they line up? What I mean is, imo, the gesture and composition of all of the cards except for the bull dude and cowgirl in the beginning don't support the supposed theme of the card. The bog seems much more busy and less peaceful than the spiky swamp 'cause of the sharp outlines, the pose of the rising dude is weird, like he's suffered a wound not that he's feeling the agony of life. The pianist looks too round despite the spikes so unlike the overall composition that, I think, is supposed to convey the mayhem and energy the pianist feels like the least energetic part of it. And the scorpion doesn't really look trapped, more like a newborn in an egg, there is no struggle. I'm not meaning this in terms of "your paintings suck" 'cause they are already accepted and you probably got paid for them so it doesn't matter. I just try to understand for myself as a beginner artist why this overall awesome art of yours in terms of execution and brushwork and colors doesn't feel right for me.
Really clever visual storytelling that the soda and Reeces Pieces are in the next shot
The more I study composition, the more I appreciate your work. I was reading "Creative Illustration" for the first time other day and when I saw Pillage the Bog I immediately fell in love.
Thank you for all the information you keep sharing, dude. When I grow up I want to be just like you
Great breakdown, it rare to find someone going in depth into the higher level thought process behind designing an illustration
Bro all the cards you did in this set stuck out to me visually immediately. I even said out loud to myself when looking at the spoilers for OTJ "WOW." I didn't know who you were or that you had this YT channel before this vid came up on my recommended. Cool to see and hear your insight and process behind the art. Great job, brother!
pillage the bog is INCREDIBLE. one of the few new pieces of mtg art that made me audibly gasp. keep exploring this space!
Played some games with a friend of yours recently, he showed me a rad sketch you did on a card for them. Keep up the good work!
Invaluable information Forrest, thank you so much for sharing! I am starting to work on a portfolio for MtG and videos like these that go over more of the behind the scenes of the industry, and what working as a professional is like are so hard to come by, please keep them coming if you are able. 🙏
The idea of making a huge document with all the MtG art you like and filtering out why is such a big brain moment too, I'll have to do it too :D Glad you mentioned graphic, "flat" compositions as well, because I am naturally drawn to them too, but always kinda felt I was "wrong" for doing so, since so much other entertainment industry art is getting crazier and crazier with the perspective and poses.
The bog painting goes so incredibly hard, love it!
Pillage the bog is insane.
I support the aquisition of Reeses's Pieces
since its a dream of mine to illustrate some magic cards one day, this was right up my alley! really interesting, thanks for making this video ^^
Hey dude, I love to draw and listen to a video while I’m drawing and just wanna let you know that. I really love your videos and it’s really encouraging to draw and I think there are some tips there that I can Use myself in, just please keep posting so I can keep listening to to your videos ❤
Thanks so much for sharing the brief. It's so useful as an AD to see how other ADs format their instructions.
awesome breakdown of how you were thinking about these !
Really loved seeing your insights, and love the idea of saving all the images from Skryfall for inspiration. I've started doing the same and it's a loong process going through them all lol. Looking forward to your next vid!
Dude i just love your vibe, would be cool if you did another stream on twitch or another big video, i listened to all your videos and learned bunch of stuff and now sometimes i revisit them just to listen to you while im painting, dunno, for me, you sound like an older brother whos trying to help even tho he himself sometimes struggles with his own stuff and you're not ashamed to admit it in almost every video of yours which is very cool.
Inspiring, and really educational..never knew that that ‘all the cards’ software exists, what a great means to research mtg.. Some of these cards give me illustrative outside the mtg realm vibes if that makes any sense..keep up the greatness 🎉
awesome.
jim steve wayne jesper kev some of my favourites , they are all acrylic painters which may say something to why you like there art too, maybe a way they handle colour and shape
Thank you for sharing your process! It is so interesting and great that you are on that moment of thinking what you want to do with your style. It is looking awesome!
Thank you for this amazing video and what you are doing with the channel
Such great breakdowns! Very insightful, hope to see more. I myself want to illustrate for Mtg one day too!
Fantastic video; SO glad you put this out. Referencing your inspirational artists was such a good way to start this off.
Thank you so much for sharing your process, this was super interesting and helpful!
once again, my goat coming in with the godsend videos B)
amazing. more of these videos please
Thank you so much for your art Videos!!
I like your jurney into more stylized stuff lately :) You're including a lot of cool patterns in various elements lately; lights, clouds, explosions, water splashes, big fun of that, I think it suits you very much :)
Man i remember hanging out in your twitch chat back in like 2015 when i was really into learning to draw. I remember you were painting a guy feeding some kind of frog dragon, do you still have that image somewhere? Great to see you on youtube
Fantastic insight into the process, thanks a lot!
I always wondered if mtg artists considered the final size of the image and how that affects rendering. I remember Ryan Pancoast complaining (sort of) about Storm the Seedcore and how players will miss all the details and subtleties in the small piece of cardboard. While others like Grzegorz Rutkowski paint traditionally with big strokes that read perfectly in a small size. What do you think? Has it affected your workflow?
Wayne Renolds is my favorite Magic artist, but hey your Bruse Tarl is my favorite card in OTJ, didn't even realize it was you. xD I've described the original Bruse as Braum, and I like that Bruse is like Magic's Braum :') Braum even has the big ram/oxhead shield.
The cards are not gold if they are hybrid mana, instead the frames are evenly split into the colors represented.
I like that you used a classic visual gag for Pillage the Bog, the horizontal sketch looks really cool.
You are goated
Such a great video. Thanks for guiding us through your creative process! If I may ask a silly question: there's a required canvas size in the official art brief from WotC. Do you work in the exact required area stated by them, or do you enlarge it to achieve more detail in your work?
Great video once again! Tons of useful information.
Would you recommend learning art by studying MTG cards? Or is that too unspecific / too wild / too much? You mentioned Tyler Jacobson and I looked up his artbook and now I'm wondering if that's something I can buy and study to get better. They say draw what you love / learn what you want to draw later on but I don't know yet if copying other peoples artworks is the best way to learn for beginners. It's a masters study and people do those but do they start off with that? Did you?
Also, have you considered doing a video on how to achieve a more painterly look digitally? That's something you mentioned quite a few times in this video. That you wanted it to feel more traditional. I wonder if you've now learned how to make it more traditional. That's a big contrast I always see between League splash art which is as digital as they come and MTG cards which often have a traditional feel to them with textured brushwork.
Hey Forrest, really helpful video! What program do you use when you show all the reference magic cards?
I think it might be Pureref!
It is pureref!
Hi Forrest. Do you do all your work on a screenless tablet? If so, why do you prefer it?
I do, I'm actually just used to it at this point. I couldn't afford a tablet with a screen when I started and just became accustomed to this. I actually think the way I paint on it helps me paint quicker too because I'm not having to move across a large cintiq screen all the time. I only use half of my tablet too since the other half is dedicated to my second monitor so I paint on a very small section of my tablet.
great work! quick question how did you get these like noisy/ rough texture
Hi tim ✌️
Hey great video! I was wondering how long does it roughly take to complete a card? Or does it just vary a lot depending on the complexity?
It varies quite a bit, but card illustrations tend to range from 12-20 hours for me on average from start to finish. That's just my personal average though, there are other artists who are quicker and others who are slower.
@@ForrestImel Thanks for the reply! Oh wow it does vary quite a bit then. But for how much detail you put in I'd say that pretty quick haha
In a previous video (it was the pumpkin one) you said you'd have to do a whole video about chroma when painting. Could you still do that?
That one is definitely on the list :)
Man i love your videos. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
i wanted to ask you how to start character design what we need to learn or searsh about
I'd love to hear a video on why MTG (And many other major Fantasy games) have went from really dark realistic styles of art, to basically disney-fied art styles. I'd love to see your take on the Older style of fantasy art.
Agreed!
I‘m really surprised by how hyper-stylized the art in this set looks. I‘m honestly not a fan. It‘s starting to look like any other fantasy thing out there.
A soda and some reeses would go hard as hell
The briefing estipulates the image size, 3334 x 2449. It seems pretty small. Do you paint using a file with that size or do you create a bigger one and send them a reduced final image? (Keeping the original aspect ration, of course).
also what chair do you have lol?
I hate to be the anatomy nerd but you have an anatomy error on the skeleton in card #4. You flipped the connection of the ulna and radius to the hand. I'm amazed that this card got published like that. I guess that even art directors at Magic don't really care as long as the picture works as a whole. That is very good news actually. I guess you don't have to be an anatomy expert to work for Magic
Ok, I'm just a nobody and my skill is definitely lower than yours so you can freely tell me to get lost but when I looked at those illustrations of yours especially after you described the supposed theme and story behind them I don't feel like they line up?
What I mean is, imo, the gesture and composition of all of the cards except for the bull dude and cowgirl in the beginning don't support the supposed theme of the card. The bog seems much more busy and less peaceful than the spiky swamp 'cause of the sharp outlines, the pose of the rising dude is weird, like he's suffered a wound not that he's feeling the agony of life. The pianist looks too round despite the spikes so unlike the overall composition that, I think, is supposed to convey the mayhem and energy the pianist feels like the least energetic part of it. And the scorpion doesn't really look trapped, more like a newborn in an egg, there is no struggle.
I'm not meaning this in terms of "your paintings suck" 'cause they are already accepted and you probably got paid for them so it doesn't matter. I just try to understand for myself as a beginner artist why this overall awesome art of yours in terms of execution and brushwork and colors doesn't feel right for me.