Monday, October 9, 2017

FanArt_ink.Shy


MTGinktober toddles toward Day 7, "Shy," starring Magic's number one cutie-patootie power couple Gilder Bairn and Little Girl--if only one of them would work up the nerve to talk to the other!


Fun Facts: I set this in an Shadowmoor-style forest because my original idea was to put it in like a middle school hallway, but that didn't really feel Magicy enough. Since I wanted to really sell there being some external pressure on them beyond just their natural timidity towards each other (see Barney's bucket-fidgeting digits and Shirly scrunching her dress), I wanted a school dance-style poster in the wide space between them, which I modeled after the famous Enchantment Under the Sea Dance poster from Back to the Future.


Easter Eggs: To bring the poster back to Magic, I made it reference Friday Night Magic as an "Enchanted Evening," so it's vaguely a romantically-themed FNM event. I only thought afterward during my traditional post-piece-posting teethbrushing that I could have gone with "Enchantment Under the CMC" or "Enchantment Under the CC," though on balance perhaps the potential confusion (Converted Mana Cost and Casting Cost) would risk the gag. The mushrooms on the tree were a reference to my old Nissa piece, since I had a feeling that this piece would also be a breakthrough entry.


This was perhaps the most fun piece to make so far this MTGinktober--from the concepting to the research to the drawing to the inking, even to seeing the reaction online, just wire-to-wire thrills. And it's been my most successful piece on Twitter to date! And it featured the debut of my fudepen this year! I'll leave it to others to determine which of these three news items is the most exciting.

Not normal,

Reuxben

No comments: