#magiccardart

kozyndan Secret Lair drops for Magic the Gathering!

Magic the Gathering has released two sets of cards designed by us as Secret lair drops that are only available to order for one month - December 5th 2022-January 6th 2023.

Get them HERE!

The art director at Wizards of the Coast first emailed us about doing some cards for Magic:the Gathering @mtgsecretlair way back May 2020.  We were in limbo at the time having come to Japan the before the first lockdown in Los Angeles to finish work on our house here in Yamanashi, but coming to the realization that maybe we would be in Japan for a long time.  

We didn’t really get to work right away - at the time we thought maybe we should learn how to grow our own food in case shit got worse!  So we spent most of our days outside and away from our sketchbooks.  But eventually toward the end of summer, I finally sat down and really had a look at the cards that had been settled on and just started sketching.  This first sketch came out pretty fast and by the time 

We fleshed out this first illustration, 8 months into what was supposed to be a 2.5 month long trip to Japan, the overall theme for the whole set of cards started to take root as we settled into actually living in the Japanese countryside, here where kozy was born and raised. We’d make an homage to our immediate surroundings, to Kozy’s home prefecture Yamanashi, and to the traditions of Japanese ukiyo-e art that have always informed our work together.  Planting the world of historic Japan into the world of Magic:the Gathering (or is it vice versa?) to make “Another Story”. 

  Instead of the traditional Western-style swords and sorcery theme, we opted for vibes more reminiscent of Edo era and for the most part tried to limit ourselves more or less to coloring that could have been achieved by master of ukiyo-e printmaking techniques of the time. The connections vary from small details to quite specific overall scenes. The overcoat of the main Llanowar Elf bears the same dove and bamboo crest as the one on our kura (home storage building), and is set in a bamboo forest much like the massive grove that runs along the creek in our backyard. The Mountain card depicts a view from above the village of Hirabayashi, Yamanashi, where kozy has gone to fire her ceramic sculptures in traditional. Wood-firing kilns for the last 3 years.