Who’d have thought that one day I would be painting for the game I used to watch my brother play when I was a kid?

I was pretty little, and I didn’t really understand the rules or what the point of the game was. But I have very fond memories of sitting on our basement floor while he and his friends laid cards out against one another. Besides just wanting to hang with my cool older sibling, I was purely in it for admiring the pretty pictures on the cards.
I didn’t get into playing the game myself until much much later. Thanks for being a big turd bro, you were a terrible teacher who didn't know when to go easy on your little sister. I did not find the game fun playing against him.
But I do now! (Thank you hubby for being a much more patient teacher)
I think painting for them is even more fun.

I have seen some commentary online that implies some individuals don’t feel like this character looks like an elf. Her hair is super curly so it’s hard to see her ears. Trust me, they’re there, and they’re pointed. If there’s some other reason someone doesn't think she’s an elf, I suggest those people reassess their assumptions about the phenotypic diversity of elves.
Like any assignment, this one started with text and me doing some inspiration and reference collecting before diving into thumbnails and sketches.

After the above sketch was selected and approved from those I submitted I dove into my usual reference making. I borrowed some welding gloves from my roommate, put together the rest of the costume with the aid of my model, and had a really fun photoshoot.
Reference for the railing she’s leaning on and the tanks of aether provided some interesting challenges. They presented a really good opportunity for me to build up my 3D modeling skills in Blender.
Once I had all my reference frankensteined together based on my sketch I did a tight layout drawing. I printed this drawing out a very light grey onto good paper. That paper was then mounted onto my wood panel using acrylic matte medium. Once mounted, I went in with graphite pencils to darken lines as needed, and added some shading. In some areas the pencil can do a lot of work and act as part of the underpainting. But in other areas, like her skin, I don't worry about getting the values and midtones with the pencil. Instead it's all about indicating form and I only shade the shadows lightly.

I will admit, I’m a little sad I did this one directly on my paint surface so I don’t have a separate drawing.
The drawing was sealed with workable fixative and a layer of ‘magic mix’: my homemade gesso of 1:1:1 matte medium, modeling paste, and water. I do that magic mix for good measure and because I don’t like the feeling of painting on fixative.

First painting task for me is always just get rid of the white of the board. To do that this time I did some very thin color washes with acrylic to indicate warm and cool areas. I also did some transparent glazes on her hair hoping the graphite underneath would do a lot of the rendering for me. It did, sort of. I ended up painting opaquely over it towards the end to get it how I wanted.
Before developing it too far, I used liquid frisket to mask off the character and foreground elements. That way I could go wild on the background without worrying about loosing my drawing or needing to get fiddly around the edges of things.

The faint yellow coloring, most visible on the tank on her back, is from the frisket.
Once I’ve got a decent base on the background I removed the frisket (always a favorite step) and did a bit more on the foreground and character in acrylics.
Then it’s on to oils!
I always find this the first pass of oils to be the most grueling part of a painting. Up to this point I’ve been keeping my values lighter than they should be because it’s much easier to glaze and darken then it is to paint opaquely and try and lighten things up. This is especially important to getting the high chroma and luminous quality I enjoy so much and am known for.

So ugly.
Must. Push. Through.
I decided to do something a little bit scary, I took a silicone scraper tool, pictured below, to the background aether tank.

While I’ve used this technique before, it's still nerve wracking to be so wild and abstract on a tight illustration. But, I really wanted to do something fun with the paint to push the ethereal feel of the aether. So I put down some darker paint and used swirling gestures to wipe it away. I then cleaned things up as needed and painted further into those swirls.
I’m glad I took the risk cause I think it worked out pretty well!

Now we’re getting somewhere.
In the above almost everything except the right side from the background curtain down to the railing has at least one pass of oils.
After that last bit got covered, I gave her face a second pass to really refine it. I added those finishing highlights and details like jewelry. Then swirled in the aether drifting up off the tip of her refueling wand. That was also scary cause stuff was still wet, so I couldn’t wipe it out if I fucked it up. But with that, she was complete!

The original painting is currently up for auction which closes on Monday, 1/27/2025 https://mtgart.auction/ElvishRefueler
Comments