MTGinktober confides into Day 16, "Fat," starring Bobs one and all--that's OG DC, Cyberpunk DC, Duskmantle Seer, Pain Seer, and Ruin Raider! That's a lot of confidence, man.
I have to admit, this was a tough one...I like drawing aesthetically pleasing stuff, and try to avoid everything else, so when I saw this prompt, I was, ah, man, what do I draw??? But! I happened to have discovered "Fyrstarter" by Aesop Rock while researching lyrics to accompany my "Screech" post on Twitter (I like to post song lyrics with my art on Twitter because I don't have anything constructive to say, so this limits my ability to louse up my art with needless personal opinions--and during Inktober, the added challenge is that it has to have the prompt in the selection, or as close a conjugation as possible). I remembered the song had a reference to fat, and that it thanks a seedy fellow named "Bob," which is the nickname for Dark Confidant and its ilk, a series of cards that may very well help you out in a pinch just as easily as they'll stab you right in the front.
The original Ron Spears art from Ravnica has our boy advising a chubby Orzhov-looking guy, but upon studying the art closer, I found he's not necessarily anything but some kind of unguilded aristocratic citizen. This is probably because Bob himself isn't aligned to any guild himself. Anyway, the concept of re-interpreting this art came to mind, but with a twist--what if we included the two confidants--the old Bob, and the controversial reprint art by Scott M. Fischer? I was eager to reinterpret the latter art because people tend to hate on it, which I feel is quite unwarranted. I understand why, on the principle that Invitational art is special and shouldn't be overhauled out of respect to the Invitational winner.
But Scott M. Fischer is one of the legends of Magic art, this art happens to be excellent, and I myself like his take on the card, especially if you divorce the art from the story behind its creation. But then rather than just two Bobs, what if I redrew every Bob in the game? There are actually only three more, with all other variations straying too far mechanically to be included. So it was a high creature count, but I was eager to give their designs a go.
Fun Facts: I liked the Scott M. Fischer duder as the second-in-command, the young hotshot, with the original Bob being the head councilor, who is young in his own right. The brutish orc Ruin Raider, which I wasn't excited to draw (again, aesthetically pleasing assignments, please), served as the strong silent type, so I put her(?) in the back as the sorta bodyguard of the group. Pain Seer, my favorite of the crew because I actually own a bunch of those through my drafting heyday during Theros block, and who collectively only ever drew me no more than five cards in its entire Standard existence because it died so instantly, was who I was looking forward to drawing the most. But unfortunately, we were getting tight on time, so I had to resort to basically simply redrawing the original card art. He'd be the quiet lurker with only extremely foul, vicious, and torturous input.
Duskmantle Seer, the other one I wasn't terribly excited to draw, despite it being a Kev Walker, is sorta like the angsty, insidiously belligerent advisor with a Napoleon complex--in contrast to the physically cruel advice from Pain Seer, Duskmantle Seer just advocates for the most psychologically painful method. Ironically, I was hyped to draw the chunko guy they all advise and really give him a gross, creepy quality. Funnily, he'd probably insta-die if he had all these guys active in one turn, but assuming he was just tearing through an unreal amount of land clumped together, I was tickled to give him that finger-sucking "Hmmmm" of a fellow bloated on a buffet of thoughts and opinions to pick through, like a greasy chicken bone being sucked for every last ounce of birdmeat.
Easter Eggs: I wasn't sure where to hide my signature, so I stashed it in the blobbo's hair. Note the bracelet thing almost went on the wrong wrist because I forgot I flipped my reference! Caught it during inks, though!
Not normal,
Reuxben
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