Magic Art Through Time

Demonic Tutor is arguably one of Magic’s most powerful spells.  If you want to play you have to turn to Vintage or EDH, despite that it isn’t on the reserve list I can pretty much guarantee It’s never coming back.  An entire type of effect, searching your library for a specific card or tutoring, has been named after it. Diabolic Tutor a spell printed later with the same effect costs twice as much mana.  The question is, has Demonic Tutor consistently been given the art it deserves?

Original art by Douglas Schuler:

Is this art fitting on sitting on one of the greatest cards of all time?  Wel regardless of the answer to that question it certainly has become iconic because of it I mean just take a look at this:

Judge foil art by Daarken:

This is a homage if I’ve ever seen one.  It’s also art I like more than the original though it has “Daarken Lighting” something that isn’t bad really, it just confuses me.  It also more aptly captures the idea of a tutor.  Schuler’s demon is certainly prepared to impart some eldritch knowledge, but Darrken’s demon is already in the act.  I think Schuler’s art is good in the sense that he gave us something interesting to focus on, something that could be iconic in the demon.  However the rest of the card is sort of boring and seems a little out of place at times.  Daarken gave us a scene that evokes Schuler’s original art while also displaying actual action and place.  What else could this iconic card possibly need?  Flavor of course.

Divine Vs. Demonic art by Scot Chou:

Original art by Anson Maddocks:

Here we have our second ante card but our first of something else we’ll see a lot of.  Yes this is our first card from Iconic MTG artist Quinton Hoover.

Original art by Quinton Hoover:

And finally we reach the end of the Dark Rituals.

Mercadian Masques art by Rebecca Guay:

Here we see what I would call the definitive version of this art.  It has a ritual, it’s truly dark and creepy looking, and the art is real good. Placing the people doing the ritual in the center of the card in a tight triangle has a similar effect to the hand in the last piece.  They are clearly important, but we are more able to focus on other things, like the giant cloud eye and the fact that they exist in some sort of void.  I’m no expert on media, but I believe this is in watercolor which of course shows off beautiful deep color variation in the hands of Rebecca Guay.  Guay is one of the most beloved MTG artists and it really isn’t hard to tell why.  She will definitely come up again.

Judge Foil art by Mark Hyzer:

Tempest art by Ken Meyer, Jr.:

So again I’m not really getting the impression that this is a ritual.  This art is great though.  Light and shadow playing on a face is in a void is a cool idea and its executed pretty well here.  Also the choice to use blue instead of gray really gives this piece depth and allows the artist to really accentuate the features of the person in this piece

Urza’s Saga art by Tom Fleming:

Mirage art by John Coulthart:

Full disclosure: this is the art on my play set of this card. Here like the last art we see a ritual being performed, in fact again by three men.  But here we also have a great use of light, color and shading.  I adore the lights and forms coming out of the smoke as well as the ceremonial garb worn by this pieces subjects.  Unlike the breastplate in the last piece it makes sense.  Lastly I want to give special attention to the light feeding in from behind in this piece. I feel like the contrast it creates behind the lead figure is important to the appeal of this card.  It accents him in the center of the card and gives a powerful focus.

Fifth Edition art by Clint Langley:

9 of these to get through so I’m instituting a new policy I’m going to start breaking multiple card posts up into groups of two or three at my discretion.

Original art by Sandra Everingham:

This certainly looks like some sort of evil wizard casting a spell.  I’m a big fan of this art, though I feel like later versions capture the idea of a ritual much better.  This again is I feel a piece that evokes Dungeons and Dragons more than Magic the Gathering, though that’s fair because at the time MTG wasn’t really anything yet. The use of shadow is great in this one and like some other pieces this art has a very thick heavy feel that is gone from current MTG.

Ice Age art by Justin Hampton:

Original art by Jesper Myrfors:

Here’s a fun one: A card banned in every format including vintage.  Yes that’s right out first ante card.  Also arguably one of the most powerful Magic cards ever printed.

Original art by Douglas Schuler:

The only interesting thing I can think to say about Bog Wraith is the fact that it was one of the first MTG cards that one of my friends ever saw and that stuck with them.  Lets dive right in because we have 4 arts to get through.

Original art by Jeff A. Menges:

Another black Menges piece that really highlights why I like his art.  Even though the wraith is painted all in gray in Black there is still clear contrast present.  Also, just look at the light coming through the opening in that wall, as well as the light in the clouds right above the fence.  The light in the sky, on the ground and hitting the wraith on the left side creates a great contrast.

Portal art by Ted Naifeh:

The largest improvement here over the last piece?  This time the wraith is actually in a bog.  While I greatly enjoy the art in the last piece this captures the idea of a Bog Wraith much more.  The details in the foreground in the background very aptly place us somewhere that makes sense.  This is very clearly a bog.  Also out wraith looks ghostly, which I’m a fan of.  Previously our wraith did not seem all that spectral but here we have quite a grim specter.

Seventh Edition art by Dave Doorman:

Again we have a bog and we have a spectral wraith, but this more monstrous wraith doesn’t really appear to me. I much preferred the cloaked specter of the previous art.  Also the brush much better captures a bog for me than the trees in this piece.

Tenth Edition art by Daarken:

Black Knight is the first of a few specifically constructed knights in Magic as long as we’re going by collector number (his counterpart White Knight also appeared in the Limited Edition release).

Original art by Jeff A. Menges:

Jeff Menges has a style of painting that I adore which i will get to in a second.  First I’m going to explain why unlike Bad Moon I won’t be complaining about the grays and blacks in this piece.  While the knight himself is painted mostly in grays the background has a detail and depth simply not found in the last piece.  Onto why I like Menges.  It’s hard exactly to quantify but I’m a big fan of his brushstrokes I guess.  If you look at the knight’s mantle you can clearly see the lighter strokes used for shading.  Unlike Myrfors on the last card he doesn’t mess about with gradients.  You can also see this in the background with the was that he has constructed the landscape.  The piece looks like an oil painting of a knight that would have been produced as a piece of portraiture.

Fifth Edition art by Adrian Smith:

I don’t really want to dwell on this art for to long.  I greatly dislike it.  While the composition of the piece is very interesting and the background goes well with the supposed ruthlessness of this knight there’s one huge problem.  The knight himself.  His proportions could best be described as grotesque.  Either his head is way out of proportion with the rest of his body or he is wearing the most ill-fitting armor of all time. This is sort of a step before MTG settling in to the sort of style it’s in now.  Alright I’m done talking about this now.

Magic 2010 art by Christopher Moeller:

Continuing through Beta (because Alpha is missing cards) our second card is Bad Moon.  Bad Moon is more of a White effect than a Black one these days, but a lot of color pie stuff was different when it was printed.

Original art by Jesper Myrfors:

Jesper Myrfors was a quite prolific artist at the beginning of the game, perhaps influenced by the fact that he was art director at the time.  I would not be counted among his fans, but I do enjoy some of his art.  I wouldn’t say I love this piece mostly because it’s so dull.  The fact that almost everything is gray certainly doesn’t help with that.  Making the moon a skull like face is interesting, but lost in the overall dullness of the card.

Fifth Edition art by Gary Leach:

Looking at the sets Chronologically and sorting the by color and alphabetically the first card we see is Animate Dead.  This card appeared in every core set up to 5th edition, but the art was only changed when it was printed in Premium Deck Series: Graveborn.

Original Art by Anson Maddocks:

Anson Maddocks was quite a prolific artist in the early days of Magic and I feel like here he perfectly captured the feel of necromancy as it appeared in fantasy games like Dungeons and Dragons.  The necromancer raising a group of skeletons captures the idea of a villainous spellcaster, which is quite a black feel.  I quite enjoy the sparse background in this piece that highlights the action of the reanimation.  In addition choosing red and black for the background and highlighting the skeletons in white adds a nice contrast to the piece that really makes it pop.

Graveborn art by Anthony Jones: