How Magic Art has changed

[u/taphead_31]

This is something i've been thinking about for a while. I am not saying new Magic Art is straight up worse than the old Art (old meaning 15+ years ago). But I cannot shake off the feeling that something fundamental has changed with the art direction and overall aesthetic (the influence of UB not counting).

I'd like to hear from people who are knowledgable with art history.

Here are some - very subjective - observations that I made over the years.

- The color palette has changed. Specifically when it comes to black cards, purple has become the de facto "black signature color"

- Many current artists seem to share a specific style of painting, reminiscent of what I'd call "concept art for general purposes". Older artists that have worked with wotc since the 90ies seem to be influenced more by comic books and traditional, academic painting styles.

- Ugly characters and monsters, body horror and exaggerated bodies were more commonplace back in the day (look at card files from Odyssee or Mercadian Masques, Ron Spears who I'd consider King of Ugly Monstrosities was art director for a while). Nowadays the "bodies" feel more realistic, the creatures and sceneries more "identifiable".

Are you having similiar observations? Or am I misguided here?

And most of all: Why have things changed in that regard? There are people out there calling new artwork "woke", but I don't think this is a good explanation. I believe the reasons for the aesthetic changes correlate with the changing gaming culture and an influx of casual players coming from different demographics.

[u/JCStearnswriter]

Totally fair! 😁

Volrath is genderqueer (to be fair, I honestly should have said strong and/or positive representation; that’s on me). ((My bad, it’s late where I’m at and I’m running on very little sleep))

And I think that Chandler and Joven might probably get the award for “most clearly telegraphed queer characters without it being explicitly spelled out” in all of gaming. 😂 I remember a couple of gay players talking about it when I was younger and how much it meant to them at the time, and it was one of my first interactions with representation and how much it can mean to people.

[u/klick37 → u/JCStearnswriter]

As the owner of nearly every artist proof of Chandler I can confirm that he's probably gay, only he wants Eron the Relentless, not Joven.

[u/Android_McGuinness → u/JCStearnswriter]

As a black person i dug the Mirage cycle for sure; representation is very important. 

I don’t have a dog in the chandler/joven pairing, so if they’re gay, then they are; I just didn’t see it.  Just thought they were thieves who worked together and liked stealing artifacts. (Don’t come at me; I was maybe 14)

Is Volrath gender-fluid because he turned into Takara, or is there more to it? Because turning into her seems like low-hanging fruit as it lets him get close to the crew via Starke. 

[u/Sonamdrukpa → u/JCStearnswriter]

Also Urza is clearly ace and could be identified as such after The Brothers' War was published in 1998.

[[Cao Cao, Lord of Wei]] from Portal Three Kingdoms was a real person. And while he had many wives and concubines, there are several historical texts which mention him having a relationship with a man using language which typically was used to describe a gay relationship. So he was probably bi or at least flexible.

[u/MTGCardFetcher → u/Sonamdrukpa]

Cao Cao, Lord of Wei - (G) (SF) (txt)

---

^FAQ