FanArt_ink.Trail

MTGinktober blazes toward Day 22, "Trail," starring Jaya Ballard, Task Mage and Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh, aka Proto-Chandra and Kid Chandra! Chandra's on the run, on the open road, unknowingly on a trail blazed by the black-clad Ballard, bygone eras before!

This was a nightmare to draw! I missed my alarm clock, so I had to race to get this drawn, hence its relative simplicity. But in order to give an otherwise straightforward image of a firey-fingered femme fatale some flair, I thought I'd pull the old portal trick and play with the common knowledge that Chandra is basically Jaya but for the fellow young people. The nightmare portion of the program came from when I was already at my pencils deadline and needed to move to inks, but I noticed the arms were way too big--you can see remnants of where I kept bringing in the arms and elbows with each frantic revision. Once I got the arms to a reasonably passable position, I then noticed the hands were also out of proportion. Since the hands were so complex, I had to try my best to preserve them, otherwise I'd never make final deadline. So just before inks, I took them in just slightly while keeping their general positioning and while inking, I favored the inner side of the linework.

Back to the composition, to help sell the parallels these two Planeswalkers possess, I wanted to arrange them such that their placement indicated that Chandra was following in Jaya's footsteps, on a trail the elder pyromancer blazed, as it were. The story in my head here is that Chandra's on the run from the law, so she's hobo'ing it up across the multiverse, fresh off her spark igniting. She thinks she's going on this grand adventure learning of her powers and the peoples of the myriad planes, but really, she's retracing the exact journey of discovery Jaya took when her spark first ignited untold eons prior.

Fun Facts: One thing I discovered in Japan that bugs me to no end is how they randomly screw up easy pronunciation stuff that could be solved in a simple email. They call Jaya "Yaya" in the Japanese translation. It's not because Japanese doesn't have that phoneme--they famously say "sanks" for "thanks," for instance since Japanese has no "th" construction, or they often say "right" for "light" since the Rs and Ls are entirely interchangeable in Japanese--rather, they call her Yaya just freaking cuz. Fix it.

Same thing with Reid Duke's name. They call him "Raid-o" since somebody apparently translated his name by looking at its spelling and plugging in the corresponding Japanese phonemes on a first-come basis, and didn't bother to listen to how it's actually pronounced, and everybody from that point on just went with it. They should be using the more accurate "Reed-o," but why bother to show respect for not just a legendary player, but also a human being?

This goes both ways, though. I hate when people call Shota Yasooka, "SHOWW-tuh (rhymes with POW!-tuh) yuh-SOO-ka." Again, show some respect and extend the minimal effort to get in the ballpark of SHOH-tah yah-so-OH-kah. Or even Yuuya Watanabe--come on, what is with this ridiculous fast-forward "wahTAHNAY-BAY" they do? It's literally, just as you read it, no tricks: wah-tah-nah-beh.

Easter Eggs: As I often do when I draw fire, I bury in the flames the Fire Nation symbol from Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Fire Energy symbol from the Pokemon TCG, and of course the Red Mana symbol from Magic: The Gathering, a popular trading card game I enjoy. But there's also a heart. And the Plane kid Chandra's on is of course Kamigawa, which features those fantastic Jim Nelson swamps.

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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.Buddy

MTGinktober pals around with Day 25, "Buddy," starring Chandra, Fire Artisan and Zirda, the Dawnwaker!

This was one I felt could have been really great, but man, I woke up pretty late after being simply conked out from the previous two days of marathon phone banking on minimal sleep, so time was quite severely limited.  But the idea was to take on Chandra's "Go get 'em, buddies!" line from Arena, so I looked for some notable fiery elementals to accompany her, without rehashing last year's Chandra piece too much.

So a notable, recent fire-based elemental, which actually would work with her in a deck was Zirda, who hasn't seen much play, but is such a cool (and thankfully relatively simple) illustration anyway, so it was a happy inclusion.

Fun Facts: Again, trying to avoid getting to close to our previous Chandra-based MTGinkober entry, this interpretation is kind of a mix Fire Artisan and Chandra, Flame's Catalyst, with Oath of Chandra anchoring most details, as usual. 

Easter Eggs: I hid my signature in the floating mountain on the left, and the grounded mountain on the right is taken from Zirda's illustration, so this is a mix of Zendikar and Ikoria.

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FanArt_ink.Inferno

MTGinktober fires up Day 25, "Inferno," starring Chandra, Awakened Inferno!

Man, my hand was hurting quite a bit, but fortunately this one wasn't too intense, but we're definitely in the feeling it.  Anyway, I was set on a different star altogether--since I believe Wrenn, not Chandra torches herself, but at the very last minute--like after I drew the base and everything and was ready to go into costuming, I swapped out all my Wrenn research for the Chandra file I still had from a previous research session I kept after she got cut at the last minute again.  We always draw Chandra every year, so I was pretty sure I could use it later, and boom!

Fun Facts:  I wanted Chandra self-destructing as this is probably going to be the last time I draw her for MTGinktober, after this champ clocks in her sixteenth MTGinktober appearance.  She's been a real trooper since pulling double-duty in the very first year, and I'm glad to have gotten one more piece of her for the road.  Plus I finally got to draw the Bloodfire Colossus/Solar Blast pose.

Easter Eggs:  The background is based on Furnace Layer, a plane for the ol' checklist.  It's funny, I often hide Fire Nation logos and stuff in flamey backgrounds, but since Avatar's coming to Magic, it didn't feel fair, particularly since I have a No Universes Beyond policy at MTGinktober.  And I kinda chose Awakened Inferno for the prompt (though a sentimental pick, since she's in a couple of my decks), but I generally merge various Chandras, mainly Wes Burt's Oath of Chandra and Grzegorz Rutkowski's Flames Catalyst , but a new element is Hope's Beacon's tears.

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FanArt_ink.Ash

MTGinktober smolders into Day 13, "Ash," starring Chandra, Acolyte of Flame and one of her Fire Elementals!

I'm really loving this card, especially flashing back Shocks, Triumphs, and Clarion Calls. But even more excellent is my ultra combo: slapping down Divine Visitation before elementaling--it's so hard to interact with cuz the tokens aren't susceptible to anything but instant removal, and often, if you can land Chandra early against control and plink away with 1/1s, the 4/4s finish the job surely enough while the opponent's choking on counters and irrelevant interaction. Even if they have answers, they are trading cards for tokens that will just red-zone next turn anew. Such a sweet feeling.

Obviously this piece is a Pokemon spoof, with student Chandra playing the role of Ash Ketchum, while her fire elemental looks suspiciously Pikachuish. I briefly considered drawing the charred Chandra promo, but that didn't feel like something I wanted to do, though I do notice we've slowly but surely been drawing each of the plethora of Chandra depictions available, so I'm sure we'll check that off the list eventually.

Fun Facts: I totally forgot to draw her hair in the pencils, so I hurriedly sketched it in after my first draw of ink ran out in my G-Pen, so no big deal. I don't think I've ever had to make such a major fix after starting inks. This illustration marks Chandra's fifth MTGinktober appearance, which I'm pretty sure is the record. I just enjoy drawing her, I guess cuz she's not too complex, but still challenging to get right.

Easter Eggs: The background, including the rock formations' shape language are based on the rocks from her Acolyte of Flame version. But since I flipped the image in my references to get her uniform right, I mistakenly placed the mountain-carved building on the wrong side. Ah well, maybe it's just the angle. The hat is based on Ash's OG hat--it's official.

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FanArt_ink.Expedition

MTGinktober goes on a trip for Day 24, "Expedition," starring Chandra, Flame's Catalyst and Mira and Tau of Ondu!

It's yet another of this year's relentless "people traveling" prompts, so mize illustrate some explorers being inept at achieving their goals, thus I went with these guys from one of Magic's "Journey to the Eye, Part I" webcomic, illustrated by Nic Klein, so all of these costumes are from that, including Chandra with this really cool cape.  I did use the Grzegorz Rutkowski art to anchor, though.  I like how Chandra's just trying to get a good guide, but keeps getting chumps, so here she's following their "expertise," while losing her patience with them.

Fun Facts:  This is Chandra's second (or third) MTGinktober appearance this year, and her surely-record fifteenth over-all!  I was just glad to give her more of a starring, rather than incidental role for this one, as she's playing the part of Death the Kid, who is trying to get her useless guides to not be terrible at their jobs (they die almost instantly in the comic).  This is our first instance of drawing webcomic characters, though I wouldn't count that as something from the "Expressions of Magic" list.

Easter Eggs:  The background is made up of Expedition arts for Kor Haven, and Canopy Vista.  My signature is cleverly hidden just under Chandra's left arm.  Note I almost forgot  Chandra's Regulator tube thing, that goes to her other hand, but I live-inked it in at the last minute--thankfully I kept bouncing between comic pages to get the costumes down.

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FanArt_ink.Fire

MTGinktober burns out Day 31, "Fire," starring Chandra, the Firebrand, Fanatical Firebrand, and Velican Dragon!

All right, that's the ballgame.  This year felt special, and after a nervous first couple illustrations as I got my traditional-art legs again, I feel like I really got back into the swing of traditional art--I've had a difficult relationship with art lately, but this year has helped me fall back in love with it, I'd say thanks to Clip Studio Paint, and now this Inktober run.  I'll definitely be sad to move on from these daily Magic drawings--the relentless grind requiring everything of you is the closest thing to Yale I've felt since graduation, I realized, which may be why I love this marathon so much--but a deep depression always follows Inktober, I've found, as I shift back into my usual uselessness, but since we got so many new subscribers this year, maybe people will stick around--I usually only pick up a couple, but Amalia alone got me a boatload.  We'll see.  But in any case, I'm definitely in need of some rest, my body's pretty beaten up, so I'll try to take it easy for a bit. 

 Indeed, MTGinktober 2023 is in the books, and with such a deceptively tricky final prompt for the road.  It's simple, but you don't want to just draw just something mundane for the finale, so I thought of drawing one of my all-time favorite characters, Chandra, but in Jaya's costume for the gag.  Complement with a little ragtag crew, one of which is also a firebrand (totally intentional!), and we're good to go.

Fun Facts:  I love drawing Chandra so much, I've lost count of how many times she's hit MTGinktober, but this might be her record twelfth appearance--one of the only characters to have made multiple appearances in a single year twice now--maybe with Liliana, since their kid versions kinda act as separate chars.  And I've finally accomplished my goal of drawing a Dreamcast card via Velican Dragon, though I read the name as "Velucan."  And though we didn't technically draw Jaya Ballard here, we did take her Secret Lair outfit, but used Oath of Chandra as our anchor.  

Easter Eggs:  The background's from Approach My Molten Realm, which is another "Magic expression"--an Archenemy Scheme--I've wanted to make sure I got.  After hitting a Dreamcast card, that leaves only a couple left as of now--I'm thinking a release event card like Battle the Horde, and so on--hope to complete the checklist by next year--ooh, do I have to draw a checklist card?  I mean, we actually drew stickers.

 All right, lastly, as is tradition, my usual closing offer--I'm happy to do a couple of requests if there was any character or card anyone was hoping to see that didn't make the cut.  Though if you're here, you know we have some 200 images in the archive, just click any October since 2016 and peruse as you will.  All right, thanks so much for tuning in, I really appreciate it, and hope to see you next year.

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FanArt_ink.CrispyDog

MTGinktober singes and hounds Day 28, "Crispy Dog," starring Chandra, Flame's Catalyst and Igneous Cur!

My gosh, so crazy exhausted, so I had to go really simple on this one, but it's a Chandra day, so it's a bummer not to be able to go all out for her.

Fun Facts: Chandra probably has the most MTGinktober appearances out of anyone, because I really like drawing her, and since she has multiple incarnations, she's also good for multiple appearances per year as Dora-chan, even, though this specific rendition is mostly based on Grzegorz Rutkowski's take.

Easter Eggs: The background comes from Chandra's Magmutt.  And she's eating an American Dog, my favorite style of corn dog, which you can find in most convenience stores in Japan, but I love 7-11's--super thick and crispy on the outside.

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FanArt_ink.Heist

 MTGinktober gathers a ragtag crew for Day 22, "Heist," starring Dack Fayden; Vazi, Keen Negotiator; Stangg; and Chandra, Acolyte of Flame!

Man, just cannot get to sleep, but fortunately plenty of time to plan my shot rather than count sheep.  I knew I wanted to do something Bebop, the tough part was casting it.  Do we do another Weatherlight Crew spoof again?  That's clearly Gerrard, Hanna, Karn, and Squee, and would probably be more appealing. But I wanted to match the source looks as closely as possible, so I went with these guys--plus Dack's even a thief, Vazri has suspenders she can slip to match the shot, Stangg's bald/bearded, and lil' Chandra actually kinda looks like Radical Edward in profile.

Fun Facts:  For a brief moment, before I had thought to use Chandra, who now makes her second MTGinktober appearance this year alone, seventh overall, if my count is correct--I was going to use Ib Halfheart, and hadn't gotten too far before we gave him the ax--love drawing his helmet, but he's made a two and a half appearances already, so he's not missing out too much.

 I have never actually seen all of Cowboy Bebop, I don't think--I'd only ever catch it when I couldn't sleep.  And then one night the Yale Animu Club had a screening and I saw an episode there.  But surely I've seen most of the series, and have certainly always been a huge fan of its sheer style.  And, yeah they're bounty hunters rather than heisters(?), but I feel like this is close enough, and no way I'm missing my chance at Bebop parody--there's another spoof I've been hoping for, too, but we'll see if we get a chance at that.

 Easter Eggs:  This was a challenge to sign because I didn't want to mess up the gag, so I just used my name for the "Bandai Visual" part (and Wizards, LLC replaces "Sunrise, Inc.") and put the date in Stangg's beard as Roman numerals so they could blend in better--a little self-conscious making my name so prominent in a piece, but as long as it's diagetic, there's precedent.  This text is based on the oldest version I could find--newer versions have modified text and font.

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FanArt_ink.Scallop

 MTGinktober shells out for Day 4, "Scallop," starring Chandra, Dressed to Kill (Ekaterina Burmak version) and Charix, the Raging Isle (Kekai Kotaki version)!

 Another one where it felt like we were making solid progress, but then the metal decorations and the complicated chair just tanked all my lead time.

 Fun Facts:  Chandra is definitely our MVP, she's gotta be my most-drawn character, and regularly makes multiple appearances per year, as was the case last run. 

 Easter Eggs: The chair is from Dark Confidant (Scott M. Fischer version) and I took advantage of the weird statue head to hide my signature in his beard.  Also this illustration features scallops as in the shellfish as well as the fashion style via Chandra's shoulder frill things.

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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.Guidebook

MTGinktober kindly directs your attention to Day 15, "Guidebook," starring Chandra, Acolyte of Flame; チャンドラ・ナラー; Shichifukujin Dragon; and Deb Thomas!

We coulda done yet another "People Traveling" piece, as that seems to be Jake's meta-theme this year, but this was just too ridiculous of an idea not to do.  It started with a desire to get Deb Thomas in an MTGinktober illustration in a believable way, and today we finally have that opportunity, not to mention another Magic Expression or two down--this has an actual Magic Manga representation plus two members of the elusive Celebration series. 

Fun Facts:  Ok, Chandra is one of the MTGinktober sluggers, so she's appeared perhaps the most of all characters, and this one will count as a double-header, so I have her total appearances at fourteen including five as Dora-chan, and now we have actual チャンドラ.  This is obviously Deb Thomas's  debut, though you can add it to the heap of fan art she must be inundated with, not to mention Shichifukujin Dragon, for that matter.

Easter Eggs:  The museum where these nerds are learning about an inexplicably Chandra-looking former CFO has placards with actual writing, however I purposefully made them illegible, but there's some little gags there, aside from my signature, which is more like gag-me-with-spoon.  The guidebook is "Obscure Red Cards," though.

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