More Innistrad, Dark Ascension

And here is the second batch. Now that they have been posted on Wizards site, here is the latest and greatest of my contributions. Say what you will about Magic, but they're art orders ask a lot more then most in the fantasy game business. I can say I've never before been asked to paint a bear, or a "first person" image, and yet they both fit the setting perfectly.

Innistrad art

I was lucky enough to be included in the production of all three sets of the Magic: the Gathering expansions for Innistrad, which each featured some of the most stylish design bibles I've ever seen. Which makes my job that much easier. This is just some of the work I can now show, and there will be a lot more to come as the sets get released over the coming months.

Previews from the new book

Here are some sample page spreads from the new book currently on the anvil, as it approaches completion, I'll be adding more previews as well as a look at the as yet un-designed cover. I think I'm still waiting to see how the rest of the art turns out before selecting a cover image. Regardless, this is what the inside is going to look like.

Some new work

Over the past few weeks I have split my time between a number of paying projects for regular clients, finishing my new website, working on my new art book, finishing the art that is intended to go into said art book, and getting my new print fulfillment solution completed. (you can check it out for yourself here: http://www.shop.imaginedinterprises.com/Prints_c14.htm)

So, to sum up, I've been a bit busy lately.

Anyway, I somehow managed to scrounge together enough time to complete a few fine art images I've been fiddling with over the last month, and since they are destined for no client or far off product shrouded in a field of "non disclosure" contracts (as is the unfortunate case with most of my work), I can show them to you here ;)

Building Character

So, I do a lot of art for games. That's not really a secret. As a matter of fact, it's hard to imagine you reading this for any other reason than having seen some of my game artwork from time to time.
If you've ever seen me at a convention, chances are pretty slim, but you may even have convinced me to draw a character sketch or two. It's happened plenty. It happens still. By no means is that a guarantee for the future, but usually, if I'm not feeling too hungover, I am more then happy to comply with such requests.
I bring up the topic because as a result of that particular specialization, I also have been known to actually play some of the games I create art for. This in turn requires that I create characters for the exclusive purpose of playing those games. I have also been tasked with the job of illustrating my friends characters as well, since it is difficult for me to sit for hours at a stretch and not draw the personalities caught up in some epic imaginary struggle on the table in front of me.

So, having built up a collection of such character drawings over the years, I thought I would leave a few of them up here for your amusement. I will likely post more from time to time. Cause, you know, as blog posts go, easy to do ;)

Alternate Magic card sketches

When you work on a game like Magic:the Gathering, you are dealing with a grand mythology of sweeping scope, a game with the kind of illustrious visual history that can both inspire and utterly crush the unworthy. Which is to say, basically, it has cool looking card art.

Magic's illustrative ranks include some of the biggest names in fantasy art, and sliding my own humble efforts onto the table beside theirs is an intimidating proposition. So, whenever I undertake to not embarrass myself in said company, I always spend a great deal of time doing sketching. Far more than is probably necessary to get the job done. And thumb nailing. And more sketching.
While the thumbnails are mostly a horrendous collection of crawling half efforts, better left to slither into their dark corners and never see the light of day, some of the resulting drawings eventually take on form, and become at least something I can peddle to my art director as an indication of what the final image may look like. So I thought it might be fun to show you what the alternate sketches for some of my more recent cards looked like. Did the art director make the right decision when picking which sketch I should use?...

...Yes. Every time. That's why he's the art director.

New site design is on its way

This blog has has been a long time coming. I've needed a place to post if not daily, at least sorta current new work for a while now.
You have to understand, updating my personal site is a task that is large. And it is also the great consumer, cthulhu-like in its ferocity and appetite for my time. So in an effort to streamline my artistic need to show my work, this is now the place in which I will be adding new work on as regular a basis as I my career allows.

Also, I will soon be launching my new personal site. I realize this goes slightly against the grain of my previous statements about such things. Well, lets say it has been a fun process as usual, but as it nears completion it brings the realities of further additions into a razor sharp focus. A focus that inspires alternate avenues of displaying new art.

- Jason Engle