FanArt_ink.ExtinctAutumn

MTGinktober dies off and falls on Day 24, "Extinct Autumn," starring Phage the Untouchable and Braids, Cabal Minion!

Man, I ended up waking up late so we just had to blast through this one a little more haphazardly than I had hoped for, as a sequel to our first fall fashion piece, though fortunately I had spent the early hours wrangling fashion references.  In any case, I was happy with Phage's outfit, at least, but kinda ran out of time to work on Braids's costume.  

Fun Facts:  This is both characters' first MTGinktober appearances.  I was always on the fence about drawing Braids since there's so little to go off of, and she's kinda creepy looking, and Phage is also a little tricky in the regular costuming department, but things lined up well enough here.  The conceit here is that they are both dead characters that kill people, so it's like they are extinct and agents of such.

Easter Eggs: The background is loosely from Autumnal Gloom, one of my favorite cards when it comes to atmosphere.

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FanArt_ink.LeakWizard

MTGinktober drips and spells Day 23, "Leak Wizard," starring Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar and Emry, Lurker of the Loch!

I've been wanting to draw Asmo for a while, and with a vaguely food-related prompt plus the surprising fact that she's a Wizard, we were finally in a position to do so.  I also like putting characters in more playful situations, so it was great to have her goofing on Emry for the shot.

Fun Facts: This is Emry's second MTGinktober appearance, though we almost had her star in this year's Loop prompt, for all the shenanigannary she's often involved with.

Easter Eggs: The soda is based on the Coca-Cola logo of course, but it says Nicol Bolas.  The background comes from one of my all-time favorite combo pieces, Famished Paladin, since I would think he of all people would be hungry for a picnic.

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FanArt_ink.OpenAngel

MTGinktober reveals and floats Day 22, "Open Angel," starring Exalted Angel!

I just couldn't sleep so I knew I was going into this one pretty tired and on severely limited time, so rather than a neat little scene of an Angel waiting for Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar to open her curbside eatery, we went with a dramatically more straightforward concept of a morph shell popping a real OG out.

Fun Facts: While I tend to try to give less famous legends time to shine, it's always neat when I can draw a non-legendary altogether, and this is one of the few that contains no legends at all, in fact--I had considered plopping Ixidor somewhere, but there just wasn't time.  Anyway, I loved getting back to some hatching on the armor thingy.  And I just got some new ink supplies in, so I'm eager to give those a spin as MTGinktober winds down.

Easter Eggs: The morph shell here is based on one of the very worst cards in all of Magic, Break Open.  Also, while we try to run a buttoned-up show around here, we relaxed that a bit here given the prompt.

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FanArt_ink.FuzzyWoods

MTGinktober sheds the firs populating Day 21, "Fuzzy Woods," starring Esika, God of the Tree and the Cat tokens from Esika's Chariot!

Oh, man, such a joy to do this one, a salute to one of my art heroes from way back.  I was so pleased to recall that Esika has that fuzzy trim as a part of her costume, so that made this concept a slam dunk since Algenpfleger has plenty of foresty arts to choose from for the background.  To supplement the jolly good fellow, we went with a more chipper than usual pose, even though I'm not one for random peace signs and such.

Fun Facts: While all featured cards are making their MTGinktober debuts here (almost entirely Standard cards, oddly enough), this is at long last our second Algenjam, the first of which was in 2016, our own debut year, where it's pretty much all fan art to everyone's favorite algae farmer.

Easter Eggs: Here's where it gets fun.  Our woods is comprised of spears from his Jumpstart Forest as well as trees found in Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest, Lair of the Hydra, Windswept Heath (ZNR Expedition, of course), Thalia's Lieutenant, and Skemfar Elderhall. 

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FanArt_ink.SproutStitch

MTGinktober grows and patches up Day 20, "Sprout Stitch," starring Melira, Sylvok Outcast and Woodfall Primus!

This was another tough one because I had two close, leading concepts, the second of which was Tymna and Tana hanging out, but ultimately this one won out since I had a the inkling of a cool composition from the other day.

Fun Facts: This is Melira's second MTGinktober appearance, again along with a giant co-star.  The composition here changed from what I had originally envisioned from the previous prompt, but all three combo pieces remain.  I'm also trying to balance detail and getting away from hatching so much, but the tree textures and the Treefolk shooting up from the ground invited some of that.

Easter Eggs: The background comes from Phyrexian Altar (Yigit Koroglu version), thus completing the combo with the two creatures as a sac outlet.

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FanArt_ink.LoopFear

MTGinktober infinites and intimidates Day 19, "Loop Fear," starring Saheeli Rai and Felidar Guardian!

There were a couple directions I was thinking for this one, like Saheeli doing a playful cat claw gesture with Felidar Guardian, or even a Melira jam that ultimately felt too similar composition-wise to a piece from a few days ago, but a DBZ spoof won the day.

Fun Facts: This is Saheeli's second MTGinktober appearance, both times have been with a cuddly counterpart, though this one more so. This is also our second DBZ spoof.  Notice I almost forgot Felidar Guardian's jewelry and pattern.

Easter Eggs: This was inspired by DBZ of course.  Our dyamic duo is doing the fusion dance, which creates a loop with their limbs, and I based Felidar Guardian's face on Korin, and Saheeli is based on Bulma and the background comes from Saheeli, the Gifted.  Researching this piece was a joy, as it reconnected me with one of the reasons I started in comics...that early inspiration was/is so dear.

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FanArt_ink.Moon(II)Skeleton

MTGinktober rises and rises again to Day 18, "Moon (II) Skeleton," starring Gutterbones and Kami of the Crescent Moon!

Our second shot at Moon, and I'm a sucker for self-destruction.  I could have done a Sailor Moon spoof with Liliana and various skeletons clawing at her, but no, I have to do an Abbott and Costello riff.  I dunno.  I guess I hate dumbing stuff down for vast appeal...but then again, why am I participating in Inktober if not to entertain people?  I don't see this month as self-improvement, more as an annual test of my abilities and knowledge, so it's not something deeply personal, I do this to entertain others, so why self-sabotage? 

Fun Facts:  I never thought I'd draw these two creatures, as I don't enjoy drawing ugly/freaky characters, certainly not anything with horns, but the fat-guy/skinny-guy comedy duo lined up perfectly with these prompt words, so these two odd bedfellows make their MTGinktober debut reenacting Who's on First.  I did initially want to go with Laurel and Hardy, who had funnier poses, but I've always been a bigger fan of Abbott and Costello and this routine in particular, and the costumes clinched it.

Easter Eggs:  The mountain design in the background comes from the Secret Lair version of KCM.  The St. Louis Wolves twist references St. Traft and Innistrad's wolf/werewolf population.  The bat says "Ludevic Slugger," like Louisville Sluggers.

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FanArt_ink.CollideTime

MTGinktober jams history into Day 17, "Collide Time," starring Hanna, Ship's Navigator and Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero!

I knew I wanted to reference My Chemical Romance with this one from the word "Collide" and making this such a throw-back all around, both Magic-wise and musically, would tie it into the temporal theme.  But this was absolutely such a joy to do, I loved mimicking Gerard Way's chunky style using just my ink set, and it felt like a little love letter to a band that I've held dear for many, many years, and to an artist I admire so much. 

Fun Facts: Oddly enough, Gerrard has only ever appeared as a part of musical references, the last one with Gorillaz.  Hanna's also only ever appeared with an external reference, too, that one being One Piece.  I'm committed to keeping these black and white, otherwise I would splashed in some red marker for the blood, but for the final, I chickened out and just left the background splatter.  I also try to limit digital editing, but the gag was too good not to help out a little, by clearing up some of the tighter lettering spots.

Easter Eggs: A bunch of neat ones--the fake band here is Mercadian Romance, since it looks and sounds like My Chemical Romance (though in retrospect, I shoulda combined the R of both words), and then the album name goes from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge to Three Cheers for Squee's Revenge, referencing another Weatherlight member (initially, I was thinking Three Cheers for Sweet Rofellos).  Finally, the infamous Parental Advisory warning label gets a Planeswalker treatment.

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FanArt_ink.CompassCurse

 MTGinktober navigates and besmirches Day 16, "Compass Curse," starring Kari Zev, Skyship Raider and Thaumatic Compass!

 A little tricky, but I landed on a character surrounded by the various cursed items in Magic.  I briefly considered knocking out a long-standing request I've had for Arvad the Cursed, but I frankly don't want to draw tough guys right now.  Anyway, this new nib I'm using hasn't been terribly cooperative, but I wonder if it's just cuz my ink is chunky with age, making ink flow tougher--getting super fine details is harder with this temperamental nib.  I hate that I have to spell everything out in the pencils, otherwise I lose track of what to do at inks...see the ropes, for instance.

 Fun Facts: This is Kari Zev's second MTGinktober appearance, the first of which I was really excited about, but it is one of my worst performing pieces of all time, a result which has always disappointed me.  I definitely feel like I blew it on this piece, too...I just couldn't figure out an expression, but at least the right hand looked nice. 

 Easter Eggs: The Unluckiest Planeswalker makes his debut via Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor's doll, and strewn about are Cursed Mirror, Cursed Scroll, and Cursed Totem.

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FanArt_ink.HelmetWerewolf

MTGinktober armors up and wolfs down Day 15, "Helmet Werewolf," starring Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Ulrich, Uncontested Alpha!

This was one that coulda gone a couple directions, first of which was going to be Arlinn and Thalia hanging out in a casual moment.  Ultimately I felt it was too much of a cheat to draw a human-form werewolf, so then it became a task of finding a werewolf that looked distinct enough.  Ulrich made the cut, and then we just found a cool helmet for soldier Thalia, who I based on Algenpflegger's Secret Lair revamps.

Fun Facts: This is only Thalia's second MTGinktober appearance, surprisingly enough, and not surprisingly this is Ulrich's first, as I don't enjoy drawing beefy lads.  This is also our first time busting out the white ink this year, which I have always found really difficult to work with (it's been really gummy since day one, and even worse so now, plus it's really weak on black, anyway--I splotched some in the upper left corner and you can barely tell after a simple tissue dab.

 Easter Eggs: As is tradition, with every Algenphanart, we include the swooshy B (ß), this one at left in the grass near Ulrich's right hand.  The helmet is Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician's, whose proper owner has made a couple appearances off the the strength of that very helmet design.

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FanArt_ink.TickCoven

  MTGinktober counts down and gathers collectively into Day 14, "Tick Coven," starring Sigarda, Champion of Light and Kwain, Itinerant Meddler!

Back to the tricky prompts, but while I was considering using Kwain as a Rabbit analog to a Winnie the Pooh spoof for Stuck, we finally have a home for him here. 

Fun Facts: These two were just printed this year, this Sigarda being only weeks old.  More importantly, this is the first piece with scary splotches--on the wing and thankfully only below the face, blobs of ink plooped out, so we ended up needing to use heavier blacks to mask those...I've been using a new nib since Sour, and it's been rougher than I was hoping for--there was even a paper tear, with a layer of paper lifting a bit off the page just near Kwain's chin on the clock, something that's never happened before.  I wonder if it's the paper or the ink that's not cooperating; it's felt grindy. 

Easter Eggs: One of the clocks I studied for reference said Quartz, so I just changed it to Quandrix.

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FanArt_ink.RoofThirteen

MTGinktober hits the ceiling and lucks out into Day 13, "Roof Thirteen," starring Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh; Domri, Anarch of Bolas; and Nissa, Vastwood Seer! 

This was finally a relatively easy one--I knew I wanted to draw the younger planeswalkers hanging out on a rooftop, as that's a trope of being a youth, at least in Japanese culture.  The only tough part was having the energy to really do the concept justice, as it involved a lot of detail work, particularly on the architecture.  Ultimately I didn't have time to use a ruler, but hopefully it worked out.  

Fun Facts: Overall, this is Chandra's seventh(!) MTGinktober illustration, but more specifically, it's Dora-chan's third jam, which surely must be a record.  Surprisingly, Nissa has only appeared twice before, though never as her young version before.  Interestingly, Nissa's MTGinktober debut was right after Domri's, who is a personal favorite of mine, and has previously appeared four times. 

Easter Eggs: The background is Rooftop Storm, though no storm, just the buildings.

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FanArt_ink.StuckFestival

MTGinktober waits and rocks Day 12 "Stuck Festival," starring Gideon, Champion of Justice and Xenagos, the Reveler!

This was yet another tricky one, and the close, second-place concept was like a math-oriented quiz-bowl sorta set up hosted by a nerdier character with Garruk being stuck on the problem, while the other people were acing it.  But since we don't have a ton of real estate to draw on (and we're again pressed for time), we went with a simple two-character set-up here of being stuck in line for a festival.

Fun Facts:  I hate Gideon, but only for reasons that he looks so gross, and every depiction of him seems to be differing and conflicting with all the others.  In any case, this is Gideon's first proper MTGinktober appearance, after a guest-starring role last year.  

 Easter Eggs:  While I will never embrace or endorse D&D in Magic by drawing anything from AFR, I went with Lolth over Liliana for the Lilith Fair reference. because it just sounded so much closer and goofier, and ultimately stupider.

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