I’ve been so excited for this card to come out. It can often take 10-12 months after you have done an illustration for Magic: the Gathering for the card to become public and it is always hard to be patient waiting for the new sets to come out. This card was different from most of the cards I have done for Magic. It is very calm and peaceful and the palette is a little different from my usual choice, I don’t often do a red/green pairing, but I loved the warmth of the colors together along with the gold accents and light.
I started the piece with some digital steps. First with a rough sketch done in Procreate. Just enough to get a feel for the final. Cynthia Sheppard was the AD on this set and card. Here is the sketch:
After the sketch was approved I created the background in 3D and hired a model to do a photo shoot. I used Blender (a very powerful and free 3D program) to create this scene. I felt like I needed to pull the camera back just a little bit and not crop in so tight. It helped with the framing of the actual card as well.
Here is my final digital comp that I created in Photoshop:
I drew some inspiration from some of John Singer Sargent’s paintings of the aristocracy, wanting to capture some of that high society/royal/noble air that Sargent painted so well. This painting in particular captured my eye. You can see I drew heavily on the pose Sargent used in his Countess of Lathom painting. 
And the final painting:
This probably won’t come as surprise, but also created a video of the painting from start to finish. 🙂 Here is a link to the video on Youtube:
Thank you for giving my post a read!
Howard
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WOW! THANK YOU FOR ANOTHER GEM, HOWARD,
Thank you, Valerii!
I love the lighting, and how the curtain overlaps the globe. Really makes me feel like I’m in the scene
Thanks, Peter! I appreciate your response and thanks for giving my post a read!
Your art is always so lovely. 🙂
Thank you, Alice!
Why doesn’t Mangara look African? I mean yeah, he’s black, but he looks very much the African-American style of black. Is that just because that’s what’s considered “hunky”? Even in the sketch you provided he looks more African… was this the art director meddling on behalf of what sells?
I don’t know how to answer your question. Africa is a huge continent with a diverse population.
An amazing painting – I also was a bit surprised by the color palette when I first saw the card, but it works perfectly!
I feel there’s something a bit counter-intuitive about the piece though – in your original sketch the character seems to be in a much more confined space, whereas the final painting takes place in quite a vast hall. It kind of irks me because there’s a contrast between objects you expect to surround a distinguished diplomat / ambassador (the chair, the globe, the curtain in the front) and this empty space that stretches up to that pillar.
Magic is not real, but i love this one.