Thread by @rhineville

Lorehold Command
#MTGStrixhaven AD Taylor Ingvarsson
First of only 4 illos I did for Strixhaven, which I wish I could have contributed more to if it wasn't for the fact I was easing myself into work after grief. Probably my fav new setting, open to so much narrative! Thread ->

Brief. This is the type of illustration that's both "easy" and difficult: the hero shot. Easy since there's nothing overly complicated happening that needs the utmost clarity to read, but hard to make more "interesting" aside from folks standing around looking cool!

The thumbnails for this one were quick and messy, mainly because group shots are already complicated enough. Simple posing, maybe some basic values, and that's it for me :)

A bazooka is cool... but what about a belt-fed machine gun where ancient cuneiform characters are the ammo, "popping off" from the page when spent? :P

A was my preference here because I love warm lighting on dark backgrounds, but B, the selected option, was still fun.

you don't need much to shoot your own reference, and it helps so much. plus you get to look goofy on social media:

What the tight sketch looked like before the rough colours and rendering:

GIF! I actually left out some of the very last steps, which is filling in for a larger frame that i forgot this piece applied to! it happens. You can see their feet in the extended frame and makes them look a bit awkward, standing around... sometimes it's better to show less!

Close-ups: tried to give each character their own type of magic, from big honkin' language gun, to wing-page magic, to topographical wizardry, to raising a huge ancient ruined statue.

Thanks for reading!

A few addendums because folks love the minigun!
- I know that it's be hard to hold for long and there should be a shoulder strap going to the far end, but it was too hard to figure out (at the time, slightly rushed) how to keep it out of the way of the paper/scroll as it moved

- I also realize that if it's moving as if belt-fed, the "spent" burnt characters should be further down along the roll, and the fresh ones up higher. No real reason I did this, just a mistake!

- Lastly, the magic streaks used to be straight, but it was deemed to be a little too close to actually just being a depiction of a gun. the cuneiform characters now woosh around a bit.