Egg Token - MtG - Commander 2019: Process

At the very end of 2018, I produced one card for the Magic the Gathering set, Commander 2019. The card was the Egg Token set in the realm of Ixalan. I never worked on Ixalan, but I guess this now counts. This was my first token and something a little different from what I usually do. It is always fun to have the opportunity to work on Magic the Gathering and to see my work printed on cards all around the world. My schedule sometimes does not allow me to work on the game, but when it does, I enjoy the adventure. Here is the final painting for the Egg Token.

Egg Token

Magic the Gathering - Commander 2019

12 x 8.7- Digital 

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Art Director - Taylor Ingvarsson
 © 2019 Wizards of the Coast

There was plenty of reference to look to for what Ixalan needs to look like, though this is a rather intimate view of that world. I looked at some different animal eggs and got to work on some thumbnails. The assignment was to depict a dinosaur egg that had a slight glow to it, sitting in a nest surrounded by the thick jungles of Ixalan. It seemed straight forward enough. Here are the thumbnails I produced for the Egg.

Egg Token - Thumbnails

Digital
 © 2019 Wizards of the Coast

As it would out, I was sent the incorrect templates for the current token layout. This meant that all of my thumbnails were wrong and needed to be scrapped. That said, production liked where option "A" was headed and asked that I use it in combination with the correct template and see what happens. There were some things going on in the other thumbnails that I really preferred, but that is how things go sometimes. Never send in a thumbnail that you do not what to end up using. Here is the updated thumbnail that I submitted. 

Egg Token - Updated thumbnail

Digital
 © 2019 Wizards of the Coast

This updated thumbnail was approved and approved, and I was given the go-ahead to do my favorite step, the drawing. Due to my work on the Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia, I was unable to allow the time to create the line drawing as well as the value study. Never enough time in the day sometimes and something has to give. Now that I am not doing the value study for these cards, I realize how useful they are. Here is the final version of the drawing.

Egg Token Drawing

Magic the Gathering - Commander 2019

11 x 14 - Pencil on Paper

Original - SOLD
 © 2019 Wizards of the Coast

Please note that the plant in the lower-left corner is merely a plant. It is nothing noteworthy at all. When this card was released, there were some people insistent that this plant was, in fact, a black lotus. It is clearly not, and I am not nearly that clever when it comes to hiding Easter Eggs in my Magic work. I have hidden plenty in my Star Wars work, and I am extremely well versed with D&D, and I think I do plenty of world-building there, but with Magic, I don't try to play around. Also, this particular bit of foliage is blue in the final and not black. I needed something other than more green and something cool in color for the corner. No matter what you think you see, it is just a plant. I have spoken.

As far as the drawing goes, I was asked to make sure that the egg was not so busy with its pattern and to do something more striaghtforward so that it stands out against all the plants and nest. Here is an animated process of the painting coming together.

Egg Token - Animated process

  © 2019 Wizards of the Coast

This process includes both the original version of the cards as well as the revised final version. When I submitted the card, I had given the egg a bit more glow than production had wanted as well as removing the tiny skull. As I was working on this piece, I felt the skull was not working. It was an odd little piece of clutter. Yes, it is there for scale, but it just seemed, to me at least, that it was not working. So I added a new layer and painted over it. This is one of the good things about working digitally, that skull was still there to bring back to the forefront. Also, adjusting the glow, at the end of the day, was not a herculean effort either. There was a little painting needed, but the layer setup allowed me to get in there and worry over the affected areas directly. Here is a comparison of the original and final versions of the Egg Token.

Egg Token - Original and final comparison

  © 2019 Wizards of the Coast

To be honest, I still feel this piece is just a little off. I can't put my finger on it, but I feel like I could make it better. That is sometimes the way it is with a painting. Here again, is the final version of the Egg Token in all its eggy glory and well as the final production card that completely obscures the supposed black lotus. WHICH IT IS NOT.

Egg Token

  © 2019 Wizards of the Coast

Egg Token in handy dandy card form

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Firday! Until then...

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