FanArt_ink.Exhausted

MTGinktober plops down into Day 7, "Exhausted," starring Chandra Nalaar mustering all her remaining energy to hang out with a Goldenglow Moth.

I was so tired drawing this one--even after passing out and going into a mini-coma yesterday--it felt fitting to have this prompt on the docket in the few scant hours I had to work on it.

Fun Facts: I based this Chandra on a blend of references, but my main starting point was Westley Burt's Oath of Chandra. This is Chandra's fourth MTGinktober appearance in three years! It doesn't feel too frequent cuz her debut was as Kid Chandra in 2016 and her second was as a grown-up later in that same year, though that illo came out pretty poorly. These kinda feel like distinct characters, so I don't feel too much saturation, plus her third appearance was last year in 2017, again as a kid, but only as a guest star in a more Jaya-centric piece. Her previous solo was also in a sleep-deprivation-themed illustration, but I do like giving such an energetic character these quieter jams.

Easter Eggs: I originally wanted to have a couple butterflies guiding Chandra to sleep, but at almost the very last moment before inking, I thought to make it specifically a Goldenglow Moth. A moth isn't a butterfly, but it sure seems dreamy all the same.

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FanArt_ink.Drooling

MTGinktober drips into Day 6, "Drooling," starring Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief getting her drool on (her chin and finger).

This one kinda bummed me out not because I actually kinda dislike the cliche of how Vampires are always so ungracefully drenched in blood, but because it's so relatively simple. However, it did accomplish two things: one, it was a lot of contrast with minimal hatching, and two, it was a considerable change of pace. Since I'm running low on ink this year, I have used this--as well as the fact that I'm desperate to discover what it means to simplify--as motivation to use more contrast-heavy, less hatch-crutched compositions. And while I'd prefer to make full illustrations for each image, it was nice to switch it up and do one clear shot of a character.

The benefit of going with Drana's original card is that she has a pretty simple costume and a lot of large black portions, from her hair to her armor, so that meant we could just go to town with this year's leading contender for supporting cast MVP, this one brushpen that I picked up on a frisky whim at the mall some time ago.

Fun Facts: This illustration marks Drana's second MTGinktober appearance, though her first was an ensemble performance. And speaking of Domri--well, if this piece seems minimalistic, that's because I have been so exhausted lately so I didn't think to set my alarm, after which I inadvertently slept most of the day away--just conked out--so I had to scramble to research and compose an illustration in just a couple hours. Originally, super early in the morning before I went to sleep, I had done an early concept thumb of Chandra and likely Domri drooling at a campfire barbeque--Domri would be drooling over the meat, Chandra over the fire. That drawing just wasn't working out so I abandoned it for just a regular old glamor shot (extra painful because I had budgeted today for a "prominent character" piece--Chandra). Only up until the last minute did we cast Drana since she seemed like the most fitting Vampire for this pose, and again, she had a super simple costume.

Easter Eggs: None really, again this one was quite to-the-point, no time for clever compositions. I suppose the inner ring in the eye is a technique I picked up somewhere back in the day as a simple way to add intrigue to eyes.

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FanArt_ink.Chicken

MTGinktober weasels out of avoiding Day 5, "Chicken," starring Norin the Wary being encouraged by Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice to take on an intimidating, shadow-dark Grim Strider that's actually just a Beeble.

Obviously I could have gone with a shot of one of the chickenfolk from Unglued, but that just felt too easy. I know I'm probably shooting myself in the foot by insisting on trying to avoid these easy go-tos, but, well...it always feels sell-outy when doing fan art, but doing obscure stuff is a compromise that helps me make the medicine go down.

And besides, it felt like a reasonable, appealing scene to draw: a famous, non-Coward coward being pushed into battle by a attack-encouraging creature against a member of just about the goofiest tribe in Magic because he's literally afraid of a shadow.

Fun Facts: I had a tough time figuring out the angle on this one. I've been wanting to do more z-axis stuff, but nothing with a fancier perspective was really reading in the sketch phase, since we need to see Norin as well as what he's looking at on top of what he's actually facing, as well as his enabler's face, so I just went with the bluntest option--a flat out XY-axis reliant, left-to-right reading, like a comic strip gag.

Easter Eggs: The goofy guys from Incite are in the background. How is that a modern Magic card? That looks like some pre-Fifth Edition stuff, yo. Anyway, the Beeble is in the Fear pose.

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FanArt_ink.Spell

MTGinktober signs up for Day 4, "Spell," starring Rubinia Soulsinger, who is all too eager to rub a spelling error in Nicol Bolas's patheitc face.

The obvious move was to do some mage or shaman kind of character busting a magical move, but in my typical self-sabotaging tendency, I wanted to see if I could do something with actual spelling in Magic rather than mystical spelling. Enter the infamous typo from Wit's End, where the big bad, Nicol Bolas, tries to taunt some nameless Planeswalker and totally punts it, which is extra painful because he happens to be lecturing his opponent on arrogance and pride. I then thought of Rubinia for the starring role because of how her updated art shows her as apparently some type of magical signer--but her name actually indicates she's a singer. So the newer Cynthia Sheppard art featuring a document and quilled up Soulsinger might have been a reference to how often her name's misspoken or misspelled, but regardless, it felt like great casting for a spell-centric role.

Fun Facts: I based my interpretation of Rubinia on both the newer art version and the original Rob Alexander take, particularly the leafy background on the right side of the image--the left side's waterfall and trees came from the Cynthia Sheppard remix.

Easter Eggs: While the word "patheitc" is an obvious reference to M13's Wit's End, meanwhile the shadow of Nicol Bolas looming over a central figure is a toss to the original Cruel Ultimatum, which now makes two references I've done to that art.

This idea actually came together relatively at the last minute--after my initial research phase concluded--and originally I was going to do a jam of all the Spellhearts that are floating around out there, likely headlined by Adeliz, the Cinder Wind, but maybe we'll get to implement that concept somewhere else down the line. That said, as you can see from the thumbnail, rather than a shadow, Rubinia was originally going to be sitting or standing on Nicol Bolas's head. But upon gathering references, it didn't look like his head structure would lend itself well to that in this composition.

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FanArt_ink.Roasted

MTGinktober talks smack for Day 3, "Roasted," starring Koth of the Hammer thinking of some sick burns on site at the Great Furnace!

Since it's a bit of a roast, first up is a little poke at Magic's impending doom once Artifact lands. I jest of course, but how crazy would it be if Richard Garfield himself puts Magic out of business? How bittersweet would that be? You eclipse your greatest achievement--indeed, one of humanity's greatest--with an even greater achievement. In any case, I'm pretty excited to see where Artifact goes and how it changes the TCG world, but I don't actually see myself playing it since I generally can't really game at the moment. At the very least, I hope Artifact can be a venue for MTG pros to get some of the rewards they've worked so hard for, but have largely been cut away from since MTG can't (won't?) really pay out like Hearthstone and other eSports. It should be good for everyone, I'm sure, fans inlcuded. The broken artifact block killing Magic, by the way, is a reference to how they always have some incredible disaster every single time they do an artifact-themed block, notably with Mirrodin's nigh unprecedented mass bannings, including Great Furnace and the other artifact lands, not to mention Kaladesh and the Urza stuff. To keep all references internal, I coulda went with "Can't kill Magic with another broken artifact block if you get rid of blocks."

Next is a little riff on getting out of responsibility due to technicalities: you don't need to save Mirrodin because it's actually New Phyrexia now, so were good on that.

And lastly is a dig at myself, as it's quite poor form to do a roast and not knock yourself on the chin, too. To be perfectly honest, I always do feel a little cheap drawing fan art of any sort--so take that, me, you lousy fan-art-drawing sham. What's it feel like only ever being able to get people to look at your art when it's of stuff they already know and have seen better renditions of by people actually paid to draw those characters? Wait, don't answer that, I'm too busy looking at your several years' worth of mediocre Inktober galleries, which I'm sure don't at all represent monumental wastes of your materials, time, and health. Although, are you sure your Inktobers are inspired by Magic and not China? Cuz all I see is black and white and panda-ring in every picture. Anyway, enjoy all those little Internet points you get this month, I'm sure they'll feel great come December when nobody gives a carp about your needy, unremarkable, and stagnant art. At least by then you can look back at all the relatively meager likes and engagement after a couple months fuzz your memory and see them anew as a little Christmas present to yourself, cuz judging from recent history, I'm pretty sure that's the best thing you're getting this year, you socially inept hermit.

ZING!

Fun Facts: I've wanted to draw Koth as the thinking guy for a while, and this prompt lined up quite well, especially since he's a red Planeswalker and the meme form allows for all kinds of sweet boo-urns, though I did consider a "roast me" style post of a few Planeswalkers. Unfortunately for that idea, the sketchbook I'm working in is kinda small, so it'd be a tough squeeze to get everything on one page.

Easter Eggs: Apparently the thinking black guy meme is called "Roll Safe"--I remember seeing the clip that sourced the image at some point, but never caught the name.

Anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about using post-production to insert text on this image, cuz it definitely does feel a little cheaty...I kinda want to do a nicer version for people to use themselves...

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FanArt_ink.Tranquil

MTGinktober just thinks happy thoughts for Day 2, "Tranquil," starring Narset, Enlightened Master as she drifts to her happy place while Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker offers some words of encourage about today's deadline!

I initially wanted to draw a calm shot of a field-traversing character like Selvala (who we drew in 2016 for "Tree") at peace in a field, but ultimately went with a little gag about being unvexed by the world's stresses, in salute to how Magic can get you through some stuff.

Fun Facts: The things that apparently bring Narset inner quiet are also what work for me: Magic: The Gathering, Music, and Phelddagrifs--well, two out of three. Pets count, I guess...so...meh, close enough.

Easter Eggs: This illustration started in my head as a "Not Quite My Tempo" of Sarkhan yelling at Narset, though I've never seen Whiplash, or even the scene before writing this post, just heard of the famous line and still frame. The cards Narset is thinking of are Counterspell (Fifth Edition, my favorite version) and both versions of the Tarkir's own Tranquil Cove. I went with Counterspell as it's a card that gives me calm because when I have a counter in hand, I feel so much less stressed about the play I'm about to make. I thought about swapping in a chibi mantis for the pink hip-hop-opotamus to stay on Jeskai colors with the kawaii familiar, but drawing a chubby hippo won out--plus they're both core Azorius, so that's good enough and group hugs are the picture of tranquility, anyway. She's also sitting on the tree from Quiet Contemplation.

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FanArt_ink.Poisonous

I'm excited to hop back on the MTGinktober pony! Let the games begin! Seeping into Day 1, we have "Poisonous," starring Melira, Sylvok Outcast and Blightsteel Colossus!

We drew the then-freshly printed Hapatra, Vizier of Poisonsfor last year's "Poison," so I definitely wanted steer clear of that "straight-up poison" space, thus the challenge was to figure out who to cast for this new, essentially identical prompt that didn't scream, "I AM POISON-RELATED!!"

Well then, how about the epitome of the poisonous "infect" ability, the one-shot killer Blightsteel Colossus, plus the antithesis of that effect, Melira, who is immune? Yes, we've drawn Melira before, but not for an MTGinktober, so it felt extra ok to give her the green light.

Fun Facts: This year, I'm running low on ink and my tools are fading with age, to boot, so I'm trying to utilize negative space more. In the old days, I might've gone to town on rendering ol' Blighty, though hopefully there's enough contrast between his darker form and her lighter. But regardless, it feels good to be back on traditional after all this time focusing on digital.

Easter Eggs: I'm not sure if this counts, but I tried using a white pen for Blightsteel's darksteel twinkle, but it doesn't really show in the final scan or photo...if that doesn't count, it looks like the little vents in his torso kinda form the Phyrexian symbol...and if that doesn't count, then I don't know what to tell ya. Oh! I totally FORGOT her arm costuming after inking and had to ink on top of a finished illustration! So that's why we fudged around with dark trim in the final! How's that for sneaky?

All right, just 30 more days, let's make some magic.

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FanArt_pgtp.HighVotage

Only 36 pikadays until it's time to pika-#PokemonGoToThePolls on Tuespika, Pikavember 6, 20pika18, so here is Central Kalos Dex #036, Pikachu!

There were a couple cool candidates for day 36, but we had to go with da OG. Yeah, it's super cliche, and I draw Pikachu way too often whenever I do draw Pokemon, but I just love drawing Pikachu.

It's a relatively simple design that still has plenty of space for interesting takes and a flexible enough figure to do all kinds of compositions, especially when you introduce electric effects.

This was our first PGTP done during Inktober, and this is definitely the just-right level of complexity and in-depth work we're looking for--not too overdone, but not sparse, either.

The big takeaway here was making less feel like more so that the illustration has enough going on to stay interesting for more than a passing glance, so I used the stroke function to outline some of the lightning for a quick, stylized boost.

I also relied completely on cel shading and keeping as many of the gradations on just one layer per core color, rather than three per color (light, mid, and dark), and the only subtle modulation came from an overlayed zoom layer.

So this illustration flew by in a few hours, and I was able to tack it onto the evening after finishing the day's Inktober and it didn't exhaust me and I was ready to hop back to MTGinktober Day 2, so all-around win.

I had started sketching this idea the previous week in prep for Inktober, but if I can replicate that and get a little prep work done after each Inktober wraps, then hitting two posts every Monday this month doesn't sound impossible.

And what's not impossible is making sure both to register if you haven't already and to elect to be a voter on Tuesday, November 6, 2018.

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FanArt_pgtp.PurrloinedGetHer

Meow, only 42 days until it's time to #PokemonGoToThePolls on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, so here is Mountain Kalos Dex #042, Purrloin!

This is the first Pokemon I've drawn that I have no connection to--this guy is from a generation I've never encountered!

But given the selection of various regions' Dex entry 42s, this one looked the most exciting, and I'm a sucker for purple.

Plus this guy seemed to be associated with city life, according to my research, so it was an excellent opportunity to draw an urban background, something I've been itching to do.

The background here is somewhat a loose study of a photo I took in Shinagawa while on business, and of course, at the only business one can have in Shinagawa: immigration stuff.

This piece seems to have settled me on where we want these pieces to go--after all this time, it seems going lines on the figure and just kind of live-inking the background is where it's at.

I just need to make sure not to get carried away on the background. The sky was the indulgence of the drawing, which extended to the windows, since they were kinda sky-like, too, but basically everything else was SAUB. So I must insist on not going overboard on the background, because that counteracts the helpful simplicity of Pokemon figures, since they thankfully don't require that much time to get right.

Anyway, Shinagawa's quite a bittersweet, beautiful place. It doesn't hurt when you have to go there, but the immigration building is super beat-up, and all the city's glamor fades once you roach it out into the middle of nowhere, because of course they place that ogre of a building as far out from convenience and humanity as possible.

Though to be sure, just walking around the city is fantastically enchanting. Man, I spent an incredible Christmas Day running around there...twice.

But don't let them give you the runaround and purloin your rights! Make sure both to register if you haven't already and elect to be a voter on Tuesday, November 6, 2018.

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