“You have to become a scholar for a while, just like you’re doing a thesis,” he said. He filled up a bookshelf with tomes, concordances, and maps in order to craft a world that felt true to both Tolkien’s texts and the multi-planar world of Magic. Already a fan of The Lord of the Rings, Cartagena said he spent around a full year studying the original books closely, hoping to become an expert. Instead, they worked directly with the source material - Tolkien’s original texts - and used them to draft unique concept art. In addition to the incredible art, which you can view below, we chatted about how art is made, approaching one of the world’s most iconic fantasy franchises, and how values of diversity informed his hopes for the upcoming set.Īpproaching Lord of the Rings with fresh eyesĬartagena told Polygon his team of artists started very purposefully from scratch and weren’t inspired by any specific film, adaptation, or previous illustrations. Polygon spoke with Cartagena recently in an exclusive interview at MagicCon in Minneapolis. This time around, Cartagena and his team are going all in, and The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is coming to Magic as a full product line with hundreds of new cards and all original art this June. In the recent past, many other big series have come to Magic through its budding Universes Beyond initiative, but not at this level of detail. As senior art director at Wizards of the Coast, he was tapped to bring one of the most popular fantasy franchises to one of the world’s most popular card games: Magic: The Gathering. More than a few career changes and decades later, he’s now responsible for one of the largest crossovers in tabletop gaming history, and Lord of the Rings is once again at the center of that project. “I’m not gonna say it was great, because it wasn’t.” Cartagena’s warm chuckle filled an empty conference room as he recalled those early stumbles. His peers were supportive, but even the art looked off. As he told me, everything about it was off: The days for the months were mislabeled and so was each weekday. Self-promotion and commercial posts are fine as long as it's relevant and not spam.At age 17, Ovidio Cartagena started his art career with The Lord of the Rings by creating a bad fan calendar. When you post pictures of signed cards, please include the card name and the artist's name in the title - this makes it easier for other people to find your post. Before contacting an artist, see if they have an agent who organizes signings. Many artists do signatures exclusively through some organized group service (these are often located on Facebook). If you want to contact an artist, do the research yourself to find them. While some artists are kind enough to respond to email or mail inquiries regarding card signatures, do not post their non-public information here (that means addresses, emails, etc). No posting direct contact info for artists unless it is to their official website. If you do contact an artist to get cards signed, be polite with your request. They are professionals and have larger portfolios and interests than just MTG. A place to show off sweet signed cards, and share information about how to get cards signed.
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