Hello and welcome back to In The Frame! The format for all card art enthusiasts!
Last time, we talked about how MTG creates its card art, and learned about how publishers, like Wizards of the Coast, work together with artists to produce these phenomenal pieces for their games. But, of course, the big companies are not the only ones who are being creative! In every card game community, you have a lot of people who talk about their favourite artists, make their own custom cards, and, of course, create Fan Art! And today, we'll be taking a look at one of those fantastic pieces!
The art we're going to show you is by Guillaume Beauchêne, a french Concept Artist and Freelance Artist at Ubisoft. He created a couple of Hearthstone inspired Artworks, one of them being his Hammerloc, a unique spin of a Murloc.
Together, we'll be going through the various steps of creation for this card, and try to explain what's been done. If you're ready, let's get started!
First off, Guillaume starts with a variety of different looking Head Shots.
In this step, you can see how he experiments with the features of the head, such as the fin or teeth, to find out what kind of a character he wants. Should it be one that's gnarly looking and battle-scared? Should it be alien and wild? Or, maybe something cuter?
Next, Guillaume comes up with a wide array of hammer designs.
You can really imagine what kind of characters would use those weapons! By giving each of them certain characteristics, and pairing them up with the already created heads, he can figure out way easier what design works best going forward.
After he picked his favourites, Guillaume then proceeds to figure out how the rest of his character might look like.
His first idea was to give his little buddy some muscle, so he can properly swing that hammer! But that apparently wasn't good enough, since Guillaume decided to go for a smaller body. I assume he did so to make the head appear bigger and therefore have more focus on that.
Let's give our little friend some color!
First, Guillaume uses grayscaling to figure out the intensity, then he experiments with different color schemes.
I wonder if they're inspired by World of Warcraft's other Murloc races?
Now that we are finally done with the character design, it's time to put him into the frame.
We see how the artist tries out different scenarios for his character, so he can find the best possible one to show off its unique design.
The last thing to do is to add some color.
Guillaume decides to place this little guy in a little peaceful forest, maybe nearby a pond.
The orange scales of the Murloc contrast quite nicely with the vibrant green of the surrounding area, making him stand out.
...TA-DAA!
The final artwork in all it's glory.
He's just standing there...
MENACINGLY.
If you like Guillaumes' art, go check out his Artstation or his Instagram!
And that's it for the first Fan Art Spotlight here on In The Frame! I hope you enjoyed what you saw!
I always love to see these full breakdowns of artwork. They give you so much insight into the thought process of the artist. You get to see what their initial idea is, how they approach it, and how this idea eventually takes form in the end. And if you're lucky, you might even learn something from that!
What did you think about the art? Do you like it, or is there something you'd like to change? Tell us in the comments below!
Also, if you like to see more fan art, check out our interview with the winner of Hearthstone's 2020 Art Challenge!
Comments
Cool article! I love that the hammer looks a little alive as well. The hammer heads have eyeslits and in the middle of it, there's a piece that might be a mouth. So the hammer is present in the shape of the Murloc's head and the Murloc is present in the design of the hammer. So cool!
The coloring is very impressive, too. Using orange as the complimentary color to the green of the forest is genius!
(side note: I get that this isn't the focus of the article, but that custom card really needs a Murloc tribe)
I completely forgot to mention that, good catch!
What I like the most about this are the different hammer designs. With just a couple of characteristics, they can tell you so much about the wielder. Nr. 3 could belong to some kind of Warrior or Paladin, while Nr. 2 looks more like a wand for spellcasting classes.
Great spotlight! (Though, pity the golden version was not included in the article, given that it is present n the linked ArtStation page for Hammerloc)
Great stuff and interesting read! What would interest me is to know how much time every step approximately takes.
I feel a little sad for the other blueprints that will never come to life lol.
Glad you liked it!
It's though to guess how much time went into what step, because that can be very different from artist to artist. Some spend more time conceptualizing, some more on coloring, etc.
If I'd have to take a guess, I'd say Guillaume spend most of his time conceptualizing, simply because of the sheer amount of variations.
I wouldn't be surprised if this piece is the result of multiple days of work!
Hammerhead sharks have always been my favorite. Hammerhead murloc in some kind of menagerie/weapon warrior...
Very cool.