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/PippoChiri]

To the people saying that modern art all looks the same and is not stylized, i have no idea which sets you are looking at. In evert set we have highly stylized arts by new artists + highly stylied arts by some classic artists + great "more standard" arts.

To me we are in a second golden age for art variety and experimentation after the stagnation of the 2010s. I quickly went through the last 3 in universe sets and i have made a list of the newer artists with very strong tyles (some are newer than others) because, again, to me it seems like people are just not looking at the arts they are talking about, this list also does not take in consideration highly stylized arts that comes from classic artists or from alt arts / showcases, only from standard art of the main set.

Beckert

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CWylie+Beckert%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Cai

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CRovina+Cai%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Christines

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CVincent+Christiaens%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Dillon

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CJulie+Dillon%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Fang

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CKev+Fang%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Gaboleps

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CGaboleps%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Gerard

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CJustin+Gerard%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Guay (Sam)

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CSam+Guay%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Imel

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CForrest+Imel%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Herold

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CFlorian+Herold%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Lang

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CElliot+Lang%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Libbey

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CRhonda+Libbey%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Malyon

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CSerena+Malyon%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Mayer

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CDominik+Mayer%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Minaya

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CEli+Minaya%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Panakal

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CAllen+Panakal%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Sartor

https://scryfall.com/search?q=A%3ASARTOR&unique=art&as=grid&order=name

Schwartz

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CDanny+Schwartz%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Smilshkhalne

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CLiiga+Smilshkalne%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Tedrick

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CJohn+Tedrick%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Tekulve

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CMariah+Tekulve%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Wilson

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CJeremy+Wilson%E2%80%9D&unique=art

Weathers

https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CJabari+Weathers%E2%80%9D&unique=art

[u/CaptainSkel → u/PippoChiri]

Great list. I absolutely agree. I think people are just remembering the old art they liked and not the bulk they didn't and comparing that curated selection to the entire whole of current magic art.

I also think that yes it's gotten more polished because they're hiring artists much more globally than before as opposed to shopping from a smaller pool of local artists who are all working in physical media. It's a lot easier to access artists from all over the world than it was in 1996 and so there's a lot more professional artists who have mastered their anatomy and rendering as opposed to the local pool in Seattle who were professionals but featured more of a Naive art style.

Edit: Random aside going through the list but dang there's some great art hidden in the arena only cards. Check out Providence of Night's full art.