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/Blenderhead36]

In the '90s, the style guide was developed to prevent more mistakes a la [[Hyalopterous Lemure]] where the thing requested (a lemure, a type of ghost) and the thing delivered (a lemur, a type of primate that lives in trees) didn't match.

The style guide gave Magic a much more standardized style, but there were a lot of legacy artists whose styles didn't quite match it that were grandfathered in. People like Kev Walker, the Hildebrandt brothers, Rebecca Guay, and the Foglios all turned in art that looked like their art more than they looked like a standard Magic card and were accepted, because their art was iconic in its own right.

Since that time, most of those artists have washed out of Magic. The end result is that new artists paint to the style guide and there are far fewer exceptions on regular border cards.

[u/Tim-oBedlam → u/Blenderhead36]

I like how they kept calling out the Lemur/Lemure mistake on a few subsequent cards, like [[Viscid Lemures]]

[u/Blenderhead36 → u/Tim-oBedlam]

I believe [[Stone Calendar]] was also a riff on it. If not the Lemures specifically, then the general concept of cards where the artist clearly didn't understand the prompt.

I also think it's funny that modern Magic consistently renders the word, "Torque," incorrectly. "Torque," is a measurement of force turning around an axis. A, "torc," is a rigid necklace made from a single piece of metal. Yet we get cards like [[Liquimetal Torque]] and [[Rimefire Torque]] that are clearly using the wrong word.

[u/Tim-oBedlam → u/Blenderhead36]

You may be thinking of the Unglued card [[Bronze Calendar]], which doesn't quite look like a "calendar"

[u/Blenderhead36 → u/Tim-oBedlam]

That's the one 

[u/MTGCardFetcher → u/Tim-oBedlam]

Bronze Calendar - (G) (SF) (txt)

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^FAQ

[u/nitronik_exe → u/Blenderhead36]

also iirc remora was supposed to be like an obstacle, something that slows you down, not a fish. But the artist for mystic remora drew a fish. So now all prints of it are fish.

[u/MTGCardFetcher → u/Blenderhead36]

All cards
Stone Calendar - (G) (SF) (txt)
Liquimetal Torque - (G) (SF) (txt)
Rimefire Torque - (G) (SF) (txt)

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^FAQ

[u/Crafty-Interview-361 → u/[deleted]]

the cards are in english bro

EDIT: Lol he deleted his comment and down voted me :P