~MtG SECRET LAIR: ARTIST SERIES THREAD~ (i'll be adding to this thread throughout the day)
AD Tom Jenkot reached out to me last year about this. The idea: Let an artist choose 4 MtG cards they wanted to illustrate most, "carte blanche", total freedom to do what they wanted...

For an illustrator, it doesn't get better than this. Dream commission. For me, whether the cards fit together or not wasn't so much a concern; what I really wanted to do with "my" secret lair was tell as story. So let's begin the tale, starting with the first artwork...

[SWAMP SKETCH]. First, we set the scene. A knight-errant wanders under an old dead tree, surrounded by water lilies. Searching for something... Swamps are my personal favourite basic lands in the game, and this was my chance to finally illustrate one.

[SWAMP FINAL] Swamps/marshes in nature have this interesting aura about them... in myths and folklore, it's often a place where heroes are lured into traps, where they are put to the test, where they loose themselves...

[SOWER OF TEMPTATION] In the swamp, the knight-errant hears a beckoning voice... One of the Fae Folk, luring him deeper into her realm, but to what end? This sketch here was the first exploration of the concept.

Sower of Temptation was also a card that my little brother had in his deck when we played together, and I always thought it was a cool card. And the mechanics were perfect for the story. The next step was to move onto an acrylic painting. Here was the result

Detail of the wing.

While I really liked the result, once I made a mock-up of the card, I felt the composition could be tweaked to fit within the frame a little better. I also felt like it didn't feel "Blue mana" enough. So it was time to move to digital. The changes were planned with this sketch:

Another concern was making sure that when shrunk at card size, it looked good. So I made the wings smaller (a sacrifice, since I really liked the earlier wing details) It was a chance to simply composition leading lines, and all-around stuff going on. In this case, less was more.

Moving to digital also gave me a chance to zoom in and paint finer details. See comparison:

My brother Liam got on board(a truly talented writer). He came up with the flavour text on the card; the first lines of a poem that will continue onto the next ones; "Moth to my light, cease resistance. Hand over the reigns to your mind"

[DAMNATION]: We continue the story. The Faerie enters the knight-errant's mind, and becomes witness to his tormented soul. All his past evil deeds weigh onto him, torture him, his fractured mind a hellscape. We make our own hell... the exploration began with this digitial sketch:

Sketch=chaotic process. To paint like this, I have to cease to think. I'm pushing/warping pixels on a digital canvas in a way that lets me to REACT to what I see,instead of consciously planning. Once I was happy, I moved to acrylics and made this (cue awkward painting selfie)

While painting in acrylics, new ideas came to me and I wanted to make certain changes. So instead of creating a new painting, I took a photo and switched to digital, in order to create this final painting. Major inspiration: Hieronymus Bosch. This is the final digital painting.

Story-wise, the Faerie here enhances the Knight's guilt/torment, makes him face it, makes him feel the pain inflicted onto others... Both characters are depicted in the art. Liam's poem continues as the Faerie says: "All deeds once committed, repaid now in kind" (flavour text)

I also must add: "Wrath of God" and "Damnation" by Kev Walker are in my top 10 card arts ever. To create my own version of Damnation was daunting. Big act to follow. I wanted to make a sort of hommage with that black sphere... almost as if we've entered into it...

Another thing about the Damnation art. While exploring, I tried a more simplified version, as seen here. I liked the mood and roughness. The haunting image of the pale horse fighting his death-self remained center-focus, but in the end, it lacked the exuberance I was looking for.

[ENCHANTED EVENING]: The final chapter. In torment, in darkness, the Faerie offers the Knight a way out of hell: rebirth. The Knight accepts... and is transformed, living in the reflection of the world, at peace, symbolized by the glowing tree. Here was the sketch (digital)

Once again, I then turned to acrylics on canvas for the next step. I chose "Enchanted Evening" for 2 main reasons: I'm forever a fan of Rebecca Guay and love the original art, and I just really like the name of this card. Felt like a nice conclusion.

There were some aspects of the digital sketch that were lost by switching to acrylic, but I liked the colours of the painting produced, so I took a photo and brought it into Photoshop to complete it. This was the final result (digital)

Here you can see the difference between the acrylic painting and the digital finish. Liam's poem concludes with: "Tempest ends, and water stills, gently reinventing the shape of all things", which I thought went perfectly with the mechanics of Enchanted Evening.

We finish with the ambivalent nature of the Fae; offering to help, but with a twist... the Knight no longer suffers, but is no longer human... his spirit lives forever in her pond. The souls of her previous "victims" float about her like fireflies.

A few months ago, I met with the @wizards_magic team and @yrstrulyUK and we discussed how we should announce this Art Series to the world. I was hoping for something as cinematic as possible, so we began talking about animating the artwork...

Adam Aftanas https://adamaftanas.tv/  did an amazing job cutting up the illustrations and breathing life into them. The end result was the video that dropped yesterday: https://twitter.com/MTGSecretLair/status/1330995306272579585

My contribution was to provide the music/voice over. I composed an original song for this story, and worked with the incredible actress Oriana Leman for the VO, whom you might have recognized as the Faerie Queen from my KIN Fables short films...

If you liked this song, I make music under the name CLANN. Here's what that sounds like:

So I think that's pretty much it! Huge thank you to Tom Jenkot for this opportunity and for letting me run wild. Thank you to all those who were involved. I can't wait to see what else the Secret Lair Artist Series has in store! If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer!

And let me finish with my brother Liam's complete story-poem ( flavour text on the cards):

"Moth to my Light
Cease resistance
Hand over the reigns
To your mind

All deeds once committed
Repaid now in kind

Tempest ends
And water stills
Gently reinventing
The shape of all things"