Card Art Favorites

[Dr. Sylvan]

This thread has been done before, such as in 2004, but based on a browse of this forum, hasn't been revisited for a while. Basically, what are some of your favorite Magic illustrations? (For nomenclature debate, see here.) Do you have a favorite artist? I apparently don't, judging from my ten different artists in ten favorite card arts, but outside the T10, Kev Walker has a strong showing. The basic lands show a clear John Avon dominance, as I suspect they would in many players' selections.

As for favorite set, art-wise, Future Sight is in the lead by light-years. Out of several dozen expansions, it's got four of my top ten---and it's a small set! After a reasonably thorough perusal of Magic, there were 58 cards total that I considered for T10, and nine were from Future Sight.

Here are my top ten favorites besides basic lands:
Order of the White Shield (Ice Age, Ruth Thompson)
Crimson Hellkite (Mirage, Gerry Grace)
Serra's Sanctum (Urza's Saga, Ciruelo)
Conclave Equenaut (Ravnica, Terese Nielsen)
Venser's Diffusion (Future Sight, Hideaki Takemura)
Scourge of Kher Ridges (Future Sight, Daren Bader)
Edge of Autumn (Future Sight, Jean-Sebastien Rossbach)
Augur of Skulls (Future Sight, Chippy)
Forbidding Watchtower (Tenth Edition, Aleksi Briclot)
Power of Fire (Shadowmoor, Trevor Hairsine)

And favorite basic lands:
W Plains #331 (Invasion, John Avon)
U Island C (Mirage, Douglas Shuler)
B Swamp #340 (Urza's Saga, John Avon)
R Mountain B (Mirage, John Avon)
G Forest #350 (Invasion, Glen Angus)

The basic lands were harder to narrow down than the others---I love a lot of them (37, actually), but these, to me, stand out as iconic, enduring representations. The single set of basics that impressed me most was certainly Ravnica's, but the city theme locked them out of true classic status.

What are other TMDers favorites?

[andrewpate]

You and I seem to have tastes similar in some ways, divergent in others.  I do not like the ones using less shading and more block colors, like Crimson Hellkite and Order of the White Shield.  I do like, however, the ones combining abstract and realistic elements, such as Venser's Diffusion and Conclave Equenaut.

For this second reason, I really like the work of Scott M. Fischer and D. Alexander Gregory.  I do not want to commit to an exact "top 10," but I will list a few artworks that consistently stand out to me.

Pristine Angel (Darksteel, Scott M. Fischer)
Far Wanderings (Torment, Darrell Riche)
Bone Mask (Mirage, D. Alexander Gregory)
Nebuchadnezzar (Legends, Richard Kane Ferguson)
Graceful Adept (Champions of Kamigawa, Scott M. Fischer)
Despondency (Urza's Saga, D. Alexander Gregory)
Droning Bureaucrats (Guildpact, Kev Walker)
Entropic Eidolon (Dissension, Shishizaru)
Devouring Strossus (Invasion, D. Alexander Gregory)
Cartographer (Odyssey, Donato Giancola)

Cartographer is my pick for best art on card, ever.  That is one thing to which I will commit myself.  I actually looked into buying it, but it's not for sale.  In fact, Donato Giancola will take Cartographer cards in place of payment for some things; even he recognizes how good it is.

As for lands, it would take too long for me to sort through and find my favorites.  I will give a special shout out to the Plains by Stephan Martiniere, Ravnica collector number 287/306.

[Lurker101]

Here's a few of mine:

Deathmark by Jeremy Jarvis

High Tide by Anson Maddocks (probably my favorite magic artist)

Hymn to Tourach by Liz Danforth

Macabre Waltz by Jim Murray

Perish by Rebecca Guay

Squealing Devil by Matt Cavotta

Time Walk by Amy Weber

Ihsan's Shade by Christopher Rush

Delraich by Todd Lockwood

Maze of Ith by Anson Maddocks ( I really like the guy trapped in the maze)

Also the art for Progenitus is pretty cool.

[Matt]

New rule: only suggest cards that haven't been mentioned yet. We don't need everyone to tell us why Progenitus is awesome.



Expunge, the way the picture divides the negative space up is really appealing to my eye. Also the bright blue and yellow colors on a black card looks nice. Plus the subtle notion that the art makes an 'X,' like the artist is crossing out the angel to be deleted.

Also: the hell you people aren't linking to pics.

[Dr. Sylvan]

Links added to my earlier post.

You and I seem to have tastes similar in some ways, divergent in others.  I do not like the ones using less shading and more block colors, like Crimson Hellkite and Order of the White Shield.  I do like, however, the ones combining abstract and realistic elements, such as Venser's Diffusion and Conclave Equenaut.

The biggest thing I look for is the sense of wonder. When I'm looking at the card, the image has the ability either, with unappealing art, to render the effect a bland, mechanical purpose, or, with cool art, to make me think the spell represented by the card is awe-inspiring. Off the cards, it's the wonder that would make me want to look at a particular image more than once. I have noticed that I most often prefer highly-defined images. For instance, there are hundreds of Magic cards with wizards intended to be casting a spell, but I like Index and Rewind better than any of the rest.

[Matt]

I totally agree with the 'wonder' thing. Edge of Autumn has it, in spades. It's also why I like Negator so much; sure, he's obviously kind of a Giger ripoff, but it's the church-y background that gets me, reminds me of that cutscene in Starcraft where the zealot is ambushed in late-afternoon light by some hydralisks. I can totally see this creature as one sent out by Phyrexia to sow terror through the planes, breaking into white-aligned places like Serra's Realm, hiding in shadows and slashing, stabbing with bladed fingers, stalking the halls, silent as a machine built for the purpose, only the squish of oil in valves or the hiss of steam. Bodies turn up, decapitated. A killer fear grows like a cancer.

[chrissss]

So many awesome cards out there.

Though you chose some nices ones Sylvan, your land choice is almost the same as mine.

cards that spring to mind

Avatar of Woe http://magiccards.info/scans/en/pr/56.jpg
Terror ( 10th edition art)  http://magiccards.info/scans/en/10e/182.jp
Stalking Tiger http://magiccards.info/scans/en/10e/299.jpg
Child of Alara http://magiccards.info/scans/en/cfx/101.jpg
Most Ravnica block dual lands.
Moonlace

Progenitus ( as seen above, amazing art, it just radiates power)
Time Walk

then there is one altered card I think is absolutely amazing ( you have to have played Silent Hill 2 to know why though)

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y237/eendekop/Magic%20cards/?action=view&current=1cca_1.jpg