Hare_KuniConcepts_Pointers

More sketches they passed on for what would become the Kuniyoshi piece.

This one was fun, just like they are sorta competing with each other for the viewer's attention like Shonen rivals or something.

4/20/16

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Hare_WorldTraveler

An old, abandoned concept. Woulda been neat.

4/5/16

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Hare_KuniConcepts_Ukiyoe

This was the sketch they went with for the Kuniyoshi piece.

I knew it would pigeonhole me but, hey, man, what are you gonna do, ya know?

4/4/16

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Hare_KuniConcepts

A trio of concepts we didn't use for the Kuniyoshi piece.

I really liked the kinda stereotypical shonen anime arrangement on the left. It was to have Mario Bros.-style clouds, even.

The middle was neat, but it would have been grueling to get everything lined up perfectly, so I'm actually happy they didn't go with that one!

The last one was just pure goofy shonen; made so many sketches for this, just wanted to mess around.

3/21/16

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Hare_Sunshine_Ponder

One of the rejected sketches for Sunshine.

I liked it. Contemplative. Quiet. Slightly intimidating.

3/20/16

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Fun_SaitokyoMTG

This was my most recent piece made specifically for Tsuitta---.

After fellow Magic shop and location-game-acronym TokyoMTG announced their new line of sweaters, he mused online about wanting a sweater of his very own from TokyoMTG--TokyoMTG being an MTG shop located somewhere in Japan, but not sure where. Maybe TokyoMTG is in Miyazaki, somewhere? Osaka? TokyoMTG should be more specific.

Anyway, using some GP coverage photo, which is © Wizards of the Coast LLC xkcd abcfamily, I whipped this up for the occasion. I was tickled to find some people in the US react to it as if it were real!

In any case, it's funny cuz despite wearing TokyoMTG's gear, he famously runs a famous JP shop with another famous name. His name. Nobody ever realizes Hareruya's named after himself, not just sunny skies.

Note this image is satire. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Hareruya Inc., TokyoMTG MegaCorp., Wizards LLC, Centaurs ESRB, Lucasfilm LTD, Ask Jeeves, or yo mama dot Obama dot comma.

Wake up, sheeple.

2/18/16

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Hare_Tee.OuttaSait

A failed project design. Look on the bright side and stare into the sun. But don't blink.

Never blink.

...

Yeah, Jamie Hewlett for days.

Another design I liked here.

2/17/16

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Hare_Tok.Kuniyoshi

One of my earlier assignments was for a Hareruya player card set. I mighta gotten pigeonholed by the ukiyoe style in this...

Again, studied a bunch of ukiyoe pieces for this, especially for the outrageous posing and hands. Kenji is famous for the peace-sign thing, and Saito for hats, so I wanted to include those. I had to include their uniforms, but other than that, could do whatever, so I tried to give them old-fashioned vibes otherwise, particularly on the footwear, which was quite fun. I saw facial hair rendered as grey-blue in my research, but it looked really bad in this modern interpretation, so we painted it black.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa riff is probably played out by now, but it felt kinda expected, if I'm doing a this style. The subtler element I'm probably more proud of is the sun, which I wanted to be prominent since that's the shop's mascot. And then the little hanko red-ink stamp I designed went through a couple iterations; I wanted it to be generally illegible, since I don't like screaming my name on stuff--just dumping the url on my posted work irks me, so I try to minimize even that.

Fun things that came from this were first, actually seeing these guys reenact the pose, and then later, giving Christian Calcano a good chortle with these when he randomly stopped by Hareruya some time around a GP. No, I don't whip out work whenever I meet people, but he asked to play Magic with me and tokens just tend to come up as you play and talk. He was playing Abzan and I was playing mono-stupid-rookie-mistakes.

I've played a few pros by now, and he's the only one that didn't sorta command an intimidating presence--it didn't feel like he was a "murderer," as I call them: he really puts you at ease when you play, despite painting bricks with your face. Only other guy like that is probably Saito himself. You're like haha, guess I had no chance after all! Other pros I can think of, it's more like you're there but not really in the game. One guy though...misery...

Anyway, as far as I know this was a pretty limited printing, though whomever did get to see it enjoyed it, but the only way to get these was via a random lottery pack thing, where you buy a random, custom-made, all-rare pack that may also include a tag redeemable for these or other fabulous prizes.

1/31/16

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Hare_Tok.Sunshine

This was one of three commissions I received to design Hareruya player cards. This is the head honcho himself, Tomoharu Saito. You can win this series of player cards from their lucky pack dealio by scoring a B (or higher, I imagine).

Here's what the background looks like. I always think its neat to see the stuff all out of context. I really had fun with the front branch, oddly enough. The trees were tedious but fun, too.

Easter Eggs: My favorite mana symbol in the clouds.

And here are our pencils. The brief was to reference his old Stompy days, so we were to reference the old Might of Oaks of that era. I even worked the squirrel in there.

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Hare_DeckSpeaker

I created #SaitoWayfinder many centuries ago after being asked to come up with a fun hook for a then-upcoming deck-building feature the Boss wanted to do. I made a list of ideas we could use, which involved poring over every card in Standard at the time (full RTR-M14-Theros).

Neat ideas included:
#OrdealOfSaito
#SaitoBoardPlan
#Tomoharugoyf
#SaitosRevelation
#BoonSaito
#GainSaito
#FanaticOfMoDecks
#LotListTroll
#DeckConfidant
#SaitosanTactics
#DictateOfSaito
#MonobrewSaito
and of course
#BreachingTomoharucamp
He chose three he liked and asked fans to pick the final name we'd use. And thus #SaitoWayfinder was summoned.

I was surprised to see the namesake Satyr Wayfinder so soon reprinted in the same Standard's M15, but once Tarkir came out, I thought we could revamp it to something relevant to the latest block--though also pleasantly surprising was that the green mulcher became a Standard staple--so I pitched #SaitoDeckspeaker. It didn't go anywhere, but I thought it was a neat idea, though of course mixing messaging isn't without its own perils.

Maybe the hashtag will outlive the card? Maybe they'll constantly reprint it, plane to plane, and we can keep the party going? Only one way to find out.

Posted for April Fools, 2015!

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Fun_SaitoBlack

So this started with some sketching practice from some cool photos based on a cool new deck name called "Saito Black," probably the coolest deck name I've heard in a while, possibly ever.

When it came to putting these together, I thought of an old interview I translated where everyone describes their dream, and it felt so One Piece. One guy wants to be the greatest player in the world, but one guy wants to be the greatest deckbuilder in the world. So cool. So, what if they were rivals? Or a team? And the world revolved around Magic, like how the world revolves around whatever the anime/manga is about?

I happened to have some rejected treasure map art on me, so we merged them and a neat little concept was born.

Live in 3/4/15.

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Fun_SB_Sai

I saw this photo on Twitter one day and knew I had to draw it. I need to practice extreme expressions, and try out some new hatching stylings, so I was excited to give this a try--it's MTG pro Tomoharu Saito!

Live from 3/4/15.

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