Workshop: Painting Magic card art

MILIVOJ C´ERAN paints a character from Magic: The Gathering making a dramatic entrance

Milivoj Ceran paints an MTG character making a dramatic entrance.

For this short workshop I’ll be explaining how I painted card art for Magic: The Gathering. The character is called Archway Angel, which is from the Magic set Ravnica Allegiance that was released at the start of 2019. Dawn Murin, a senior art director at Wizards of the Coast, gave me guidance over where to take the image.

Angels are majestic, dramatic characters. Because this particular card set is based in the city of Ravnica that’s full of Gothic architecture, I designed the armour for the angel accordingly, giving the plate armour a Gothic look with a fantasy twist. My goal was also to contrast the majestic angel with the weathered, ageing architecture, by adding a lot of texture to the stone walls. Milivoj’s worked for Wizards of the Coast, Blizzard, Sideshow Collectibles and Paizo Publishing. Visit www.mceran-art.com.

1 Establishing the perspective

Getting the perspective correct from the get-go is crucial if the painting is going to be effective. To help me achieve this I establish the upper and lower perspective points, which lie beyond the frame. Extra sheets of paper and long rulers are a must for this step, as is real-life plate armour for reference!

2 Masking the important parts

After I’ve stretched the paper on the wooden board and finished the tight drawing, I mask all the areas that I want to stay white (the sword, leaves, and a few highlights and rim lights in the angel’s hair and wings) using my masking medium (liquid latex). This will protect these areas from my colours.

4 Adding texture and rays

I apply my first washes and texture to the city’s walls. To prevent any deviation from my carefully constructed drawing I enhance the lines and bricks with brown acrylic lines using a fine brush, before applying the washes. I use the wet-inwet approach to paint more light rays and darker cast shadows from the angel.

3 Applying the first layer of colour

I wet the whole surface with my widest brush (10cm) and work using a wet-in-wet watercolour technique, establishing the main colours and the direction of light. The focal point is the angel’s head, where the light is coming from. I also work on the background silhouettes, the angel’s face and hair, and her armour.

5 Removing the masking agent

I remove the masking agent, rubbing it away with my fingers and an eraser. The white that’s revealed is actually the paper surface. This covering enables me to paint freely with a lot of wet-in-wet and wide brushes, without worrying about ruining the light (white) areas.

6 Painting the white areas

At this stage the artwork looks weird – as if someone’s cut out those white areas in Photoshop – but I’m perfectly happy with this. It enables me to paint these key areas in the same wet-in-wet watercolour manner, by adding diluted layers and texture with acrylic colours to a clean white surface.

8 The devil lies in the details

I use my smallest brush to add details to the artwork. I paint decorative elements on the angel’s armour. They probably won’t be visible at the printed card size, but add to the painting’s “epic” feel.

7 Artist at work!

This is me working in my studio. The angle of my table can be adjusted, which helps when working on large artworks because I don’t have to bend over the painting for long periods of time. Here I work on the leaves using a small brush.

9 Final adjustments with the airbrush

Finally, I add darker shadows using my airbrush. To strengthen the glowing effect of the angel’s head and sword, everything else in the composition needs to be darkened. This ensures the lighter areas will stand out more.