Bashed by Bloomburrow's bunnies
Plus, my interview with contributing artist David Petersen of Mouse Guard fame
I spent nearly 10 hours drafting Bloomburrow — Magic: the Gathering’s upcoming cozy, furry set — and I lost more games than I won. My drafter’s pride may never recover.
But I did learn a few things, like —
Rabbits multiply quickly! Plentiful tricks and pump effects make them very hard to block.
Come to think of it, blocking isn’t a great plan most of the time in the set. Magic has gotten really aggressive, and I’d venture that’s largely to the game’s detriment.
Just about nobody goes all-in on Squirrels/Forage, but I’m curious to see if it can work.
And my busy day of travel probably scrambled my competitive brain!
I wrote more about my experience with the new expansion on WBUR.org:
Taking place in a cozy valley bustling with anthropomorphic “animalfolk,” it’s calculated to appeal to generations raised on Peter Rabbit, Narnia, or Redwall. Cards depict gentle, heart-warming scenes: Critters salivate over pies, take romantic boat rides or store acorns in overflowing pantries. Gamemaker Wizards of the Coast even tapped David Petersen, creator of the Eisner Award-winning Mouse Guard graphic novels, to illustrate key cards.
Then you sit down to play and the bloodbath begins. Inviting and exquisite as its world may be, the set’s gameplay is wicked fast and leaves little room for error. […] I’ve never felt so hot on a Magic product’s art and so lukewarm on its mix of mechanics.
I did get the chance to ask David Petersen about his contributions to the set, however. While I only included three of the questions in the above article, here’s all of them as a special treat to you, dear reader:
1. You've spoken about the difficulty of adapting your more cartoon-esque style to art director Zack Stella's insistence on following real animal anatomy more closely. How did that change your work, from sketch to final image?
There is a stylization to the way I draw, specifically mice, for Mouse Guard that wouldn’t work for Bloomburrow Mousefolk. I, like Zack Stella and my art director Aliana Rood, wanted the anatomy for Mable to look more realistic to an actual mouse—that meant drawing the correct amount of fingers and toes, more accurate ears, and even some facial anatomy was different. The struggle was in my muscle memory to not do what I normally do out of habit and draw a Mouse Guard character with Mabel’s Cragflame sword. I adapted to the job fairly easily after the Mabel card and I didn’t have habits for the other animals I had to shake off.
2. Magic cards are just a few inches tall. How did you adapt your art to make it readable at card size? What details did you incorporate for folks to see in versions of the art displayed at bigger sizes?
When I was working in pencil, I just worked with what was a comfortable size, but when they were approved and it was time to resize them to do the final art, I did play with different scalings. My work is so line-centric that rather than painterly shapes that scale down for print easier, I had a real worry the lines would mush together and become unreadable with too much size reduction. So, I tried a Goldilocks approach to find some middle ground––not so small that I couldn’t ink comfortably, but not so big that the final printing would be muddy.
3. Talk to us more about your process. What physical and/or digital techniques did you use for these pieces?
I start with a pencil on copy paper, and if I need to make adjustments or try a new idea out, I lay another sheet on top and use a lightpad––like a physical version of Photoshop layers. I just like the feeling of pencil on paper. Then I scan those, assemble them, make further adjustments if needed and block in some color before sending a rough in for approvals. When approved, I print out that digital composite, tape it to the back of a sheet of bristol board and ink the whole thing traditionally on a lightpad. I like traditional inking and then still have an original piece of art to sell or display. Then the entire thing is scanned and colored digitally. So, I swap back and forth between traditional and digital to do the work.
4. "Cozy" is a huge buzzword these days. There's a huge thirst for cozy games, cozy books, cozy shows... While Mouse Guard started long before this craze, how do you see your work fitting into this trend?
Sure, I think while there are exciting or adventurous or dark moments in Mouse Guard, it certainly has its share of cozy as well. But I think Beatrix Potter and Tolkien described with the Hobbits — this has been a fantasy life goal for a long time and I’m just happy to be part of the ongoing tradition.
5. You've discussed animal stories like Redwall as top influences. Which were top of mind for you when working on Bloomburrow? Are there any more obscure titles that have also inspired your work more generally?
While I know various editions of Wind in the Willows and Aesop’s Fables along with Brambley Hedge, the Narnia books, Coyote Goes Walking, and Crow and Weasel are all on my mental and physical bookshelves. For Bloomburrow I was really focused on referencing real-world animal photos and the amazing world guide reference that Wizards of the Coast put together for us all.
6. I read that you played Magic in the 1990s. If you could create Bloomburrow animalfolk versions of any Magic cards or characters, what would you go for? Urza? Serra Angel? Shivan Dragon? Would they be mice or another animal?
HA! Well my first thought was to alter the Shambling Strider, but I guess that’s already the wildfire wolf…could be fun to do Karn as a set of silver tableware (serving platters, cutlery, candelabras, pitchers) assembled into a golem by a raccoon. But, I’d love any chance to draw more Bloomburrow animals for Magic: The Gathering.
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How Kamala Harris' district attorney and attorney general experience shaped her politics
Also, I didn’t work directly on this, but I have to point to this huge news in the industry: SAG-AFTRA video game workers on strike. See also this piece I produced last year with union rep and actor Sarah Elmaleh.