Kastral the Windcrested, Glarb-Calmity's Augur, and GenCon 2023 (pt 1)
It's been quite some time since I've posted, but I'm back with a process post!
I received an email last spring asking if I might be interested in painting art for an upcoming Magic the Gathering card set. Sounded like fun, so I of course said yes! And it was very fun!
Kastral the Windcrested, and Glarb, Calmity's Augur were both revealed during the online Bloomburrow event, July 9.
Creating these cards proved a balancing act. I was painting cards while at the same time going for GenCon!
I submitted the following thumbnails of Kastral and Glarb to the Art Director, Aliana Rood, for consideration just before flying from LA to Indianapolis for the convention. I received approval to pursue thumb #1 for Kastral.
And #3 was selected for Glarb.
I was now at GenCon, working my table during the day while refining the drawings in the evenings.
First up, I drew Kastral.
I completed the drawing working in Procreate on my iPad.
Painting would be difficult in the hotel room, so I dove into the drawing of Glarb.
Before we had left LA, I took some reference photos, selecting this one to use for Glarb's pose.
The drawing of Glarb consumed the rest of my evenings in the hotel, I finished it up sitting in the hotel lobby while waiting to go to the airport to fly home.
The schedule was tight, but I was feeling pretty good about what I'd accomplished during the course of the convention. Having finished the painting before heading to the airport meant I could relax a little on the flight home. But storms had popped up all across the eastern seaboard (our connection was in Atlanta) and our flight was canceled!
My wife and I had to find a hotel room for the night and rebook our flights for the following evening.
I hated to lose the time. Hoping to get as much done while away from home as I could, I'd anticipated the possibility that I might paint the color studies while in Indianapolis and had brought gouache and watercolor paints with me (I prefer to use traditional media when exploring color). I'd also printed the thumbnails onto hot press watercolor paper, which I'd taped to a masonite panel.
I spent the extra day we were stranded In Indianapolis painting color studies in the hotel room.
I completed the color studies and we were able to catch a flight home the next day.
As soon as we arrived home, I scanned the color studies, comped in the finished drawings and sent them off to Aliana at Wizards for her review and approval.
