the Art of Reality Fracture

 It's been a year.

Taking a beat to really enjoy the greatness on display in Reality Fracture.

I think I'm going to remove the "top 10" from the title of this blog series. Yes, I am in some sense trying to parse, consciously or unconsciously, what appeals to me or grabs my attention. But it's not really my intention to make a value judgement on quality. Past a certain point, all the art in the set is quite exceptional and worthy of celebration and appreciation.

Anyway, this time around, these pieces in particularly spoke to me.

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10. Campus Crier

Johan Grenier

Couple things: love the paint handling here, the focal control of subduing the foreground characters to pop the crier, the self insert in the bottom right corner, and the portraiture in general.

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9. Geist of Saint Thalia

Ryan Pancoast

Ryan did quite a few more "high profile" cards for this set (Jace, Witherbloom) but it was this piece that spoke to me. Kind of blows my mind what he pulls off here with total control of value and temperature especially, allowing us to experience the Geist on first read and then discovering an absurdly intricate and intimately candle-lit background.

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8. Grim Repriser

Wayne Reynolds

Wayne is so crazy for this one. I know Magic strives for a more serious tone most of the time, but frankly I have so much more fun with cards and depictions like this one. Thanks for showing us that the limit can always be pushed

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7. Garruk Veiled Butcher & Curse Breaker

Victor Adame Minguez

The complexity and subtlety of detail in Victor's paintings never ceases to boggle my mind. Balancing this many elements in such an abstract space seems like it would be quite the challenge.

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6. Way of the Wildspeaker // Way of the Deathbringer

Joshua Raphael

Continuing on the Garruk train: Joshua actually made a whole series of images about this confrontation, and it was hard to pick my favorite. In fact, I highly recommend checking out his Art Station to enjoy the other ones, which I believe were used as a box cover and marketing image. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I am quite tickled by this effective mix of painterly & graphic styles that, together, pack a potent visual punch.

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5. Deserted Beach

Sarah Finnigan

The sheer quality and attentiveness Sarah is able to consistently bring to her work is sobering and humbling to say the least. This painting in particular brings together an incredible blend of worldbuilding, surrealism, liminality, and vellichor (look it up) that add tremendous depth to the setting. The echoing circular rhythm emanating from the center, subtly invoking the Fatehold crest, are almost hypnotic. I find myself sinking into this painting unlike almost any other in this set.

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4. Mind Meanderer

Jason Mowry

Jason's cards were a real standout to me this set, with their unmistakable style lending some much needed weirdness to the Echoverse. The Mind Meanderer in particular is the type of surreal inhabitant of the Echoplex that helps Hexhaven feel more interesting and mysterious, much like the spirits did in Avatar Last Airbender or Spirited Away. Doesn't hurt that the design looks like if Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw (my two favorite Lorwyn elementals) had a baby.

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3. Ingris Stingerquill

Chase Stone

A recurring theme in my favorites from Reality Fracture is the pieces that really leaned in to the surreal nature of Jace's Echoplex. Between the backwards wing design, rock concert spotlight lighting, silver/chrome organ headdress, and gravity-defying student choir framing Ingris, this piece is straight up disorienting in the best way. Chase has such a cinematic eye, and I'm always delighted to see him bring that sensibility to the worlds of Magic.

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2. Ajani Resolute // Ajani Unrelenting

Tyler Jacobson

I tried not to like this painting as much as I do, but it didn't work. There are so many things in this painting that on paper just shouldn't work. The bright saturated almost neon reds of the armor and repeating fire rhythms of Bloodmane's blades, or the strange shapes of Goldmane's loincloth...or even the fact that the image contains every color of the rainbow. But Tyler makes it work. Not only that, it looks downright amazing. The simplicity and design of the background is also nothing short of masterful. A good reminder to throw out all the rules, it's always just a skill issue.

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1. Something Worth Saving

PINDURSKI

Maybe it's a sign of the times, but an image that perfectly captures the feeling of looking through a window into a Nostalgic past just stopped me dead in my tracks. This painting reminded me perhaps the most important thing about painting or art in general: art is a mirror onto which we superimpose our own emotions and context, allowing us to process and alchemize our lived experience. Maybe, just maybe, next time I sit down to paint, I can quiet down that part of my brain that strives for an arbitrary "greatness" and get back to the work of just connecting with other people. 

GALLERY

Joshua Raphael

Danny Schwartz

Eli Minaya

Joshua Raphael

Matt Stewart

Jodie Muir

Aurore Folny

Grady Frederick

Cristi Balanescu

Martina Fackova

Kaitlyn McCulley

Zack Stella

Florian Herold

Wylie Beckert

Miles Johnston

Olivier Bernard

Ilse Gort

Serena Malyon

Aaron Miller

Lie Setiawan

Johan Grenier

Top 10: the art of Secrets of Strixhaven

 I recently returned from an art retreat on an island in Menorca, where I met one of my favorite artists from my formative years: Phil Hale. He outlined a process, or a practice, to get himself inspired first thing in the studio, wherein he would look through a stack of images he had collected at a rapid clip and allowing himself to respond to them: “Yes, no, yes, yes, no, no, no, YES!” and so on. Turning off the conscious, judging brain and letting the unconscious brain light up instinctively, intuitively, and subjectively without further explanation.

Good art can always be “justified” after the fact (bad art, too).

 As Yuko Shimizu said on the island, “you walk into a room in a museum and you know which pieces you like immediately.” Another reminder in favor of intuition. I suspect I have been doing some version of this sorting, which is more akin to a gravitational dance, for some time now, especially with this “Top 10” series, which is anything but objective. 

I find it heartening that, much as I had set out to do all those years ago, I now have a living diary of my tastes to refer to. Every time I sit to do this exercise, I reconnect with myself, and to that process of “YES” I love so much.

Anyway, here are my YES’s from Strixhaven, enjoy.

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11. Determined Iteration

Chris Rallis

“Have I finally done it? Have I finally freed myself from failure?”

Not only does this line go kind of hard, but I’m very impressed by Chris’s continuous ability to elevate this game’s art and make it feel so lived in and real. While much of the Prismari art this set is over the top and colorful with magical waves of paint sloshing in every direction (clearly from the art direction), this piece is quieter and more somber, capturing the solitude, quiet concentration, and yes, determined iteration that often accompanies the life of the artist. I find it resonates with me more than some of the others and it helps “ground” Strixhaven a bit for me in a way I appreciate.

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10. Inspired Skypainter

April Prime

Lizard Wizards get me every time…The derpy paint-glob Prismari in the background... The Ruff-palette neckpiece combo is just the cherry on top. I love this.

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9. Proctor’s Gaze

Danny Schwartz

I don’t imagine my love of Danny’s style requires much explanation, he knocked it out of the park with this one.

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8. Blech, Loafing Pest

Ilse Gort

Ilse’s work is so solid. She is definitely in that small but elite pantheon of masters, along with Sarah Finnigan, who make acrylics look like oils. The soft turning of form and controlled gradients are super impressive to me. While I love the simple complementary palette of her original, I will say the additional accent of purple on the card does, (for once), add a nice extra level of interest, and was handled super well so as not to be distracting or over-the-top.

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7. Joined Researchers

Ryan Pancoast

Ryan is just really, really good at painting.

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6. Tome Blast

Filipe Pagliuso

This is maybe the purest YES of the set for me; impactful, satisfying, and unpretentious.

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5. Lorehold, the Historian

Joshua Raphael

This is just such a sexy looking card. Like if a Bentley and a Ferrari had a baby that was also a dragon. The presence, silhouette, gesture, and superior harmony of art and cardframe leave a very powerful impression.

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4. Silverquill, the Disputant

Mark Zug

Few in the game can marry Zug’s sheer skill with such a singular point of view. While I struggle to put my finger on it, I always know that a Zug will surprise and delight me. Simply put, no other artist would have approached this painting in quite the same way. While I would have been irresistibly tempted to play up the black & white contrast of the Elder Dragon’s Rorschach patterning, Mark opted for a quieter moment indoors, in the shadows, while the campus glows in the afternoon sun. This lends Shadrix a sentience and a deeper dimension that draws me to this painting again and again.

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3. Prismari, the Inspiration

Wayne Reynolds

As delightful as it is unexpected, seeing Galazeth brandishing a paintbrush was not on my bingo card. I suspect only Wayne could have really pulled this off. 

One of my favorite things about this painting is getting a glimpse at the second-to-last step, and the minor but telling corrections that Wayne went through the trouble of making despite the painting already looking amazing: notice the purple daub of paint on Prismari’s palette going from somewhat obfuscated tangent to a clearer gesture with great overlap; or the redesign of the perfectly serviceable string instrument in the background to have a more fantastical, Prismari-coded shape language. 

It is always reaffirming to see master artists working through these last adjustments in the eternal struggle for greatness. The self-respect and commitment to quality from Reynolds is absolutely humbling.

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2. Witherbloom, the Balancer

Kev Walker & Chris Rahn

The coolest card in the set illustrated, very differently, by my two all-time favorite Magic illustrators. It’s hard not to feel like this is some cheeky gift from the Universe. How delectable. I’m reminded of when Chris and Tyler both tackled Tiamat, a veritable clash of titans.

 As always, Kev’s is grittier, more comic book, and stylistically pushed, with airs of a fearsome and ancient witch. Particularly delightful are the esoteric crystals floating in front of her, representing the five colors of mana. Balancer indeed. Chris’s is dignified, monumental, painstakingly beautiful, with a gorgeous dance of color not only in the sunset hues behind her head but the play of iridescent blues in her wings, reminiscent of a wisened raven atop the colossal skeleton of a beast yet more old and mysterious than the Elder Dragons themselves.

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1. Studious First-Year, Ambitious Augmenter, Artistic Process, Lumaret’s Favor

Mariah Tekulve

While the Elder Dragon Headmasters of Strixhaven undoubtedly stole the show in many ways, it was the quieter, more charming, expressive and sincere work of Mariah Tekulve that really brought Strixhaven home for me. Her style maps perfectly onto the “magical school” vibe, especially Studious First-Year. I find the storybook-like aesthetic cues very compelling and effective for the trading card format, and I will be looking to integrate some of these conventions in my own work moving forward. Always nice when someone’s work makes you feel something new, and want to explore that for yourself as well!

BONUS:

[[I couldn’t remember off the top of my head how many times Mr. Walker and Rahn’s efforts had crossed paths on the same card, assuming that such a phenomenon had likely happened a fair amount given both of their status as the most prolific artists in the game. Naturally, I did some digging, and found five such instances. They say comparison is the thief of joy, but perhaps you will agree this is a clear exception to that rule.]]

Though, of course, the definition of overlap could easily be expanded to include named characters, such as Chandra and Tezzeret, shared cycles, such as the elemental and Eldrazi titans, or innumerable dragons, angels, and demons.