I've always been a huge fan of Bad Moon's original artwork. Well, of Jesper Myrfors in general really. I mean, it's not super abstract, but kinda semi-surreal, I guess? You surely aren't enchanting the moon to have an evil skull face on it, but maybe it shows a hallucination the people on the battlefield are having under the influence of the enchantment? Or it somehow changes everyone's mood into gloom and fear? I think this is one of those old pieces of artwork that would probably look kinda crappy in a new card frame, just as new fotorealistic art looks much better in a new card frame.

Other (kinda) surreal or abstract art that comes to my mind would be Descendants' Path, Touch of the Eternal and Enter the Infinite. It's hardly coincidental that two of them were made by Terese Nielsen...

Yeah honestly as an anime lover and also of folk stories, a lot of the kami were rather par for the course as far as Japanese-inspired spirits are concerned. Four (five depending on how I squint) of the cards TPMan posted I respond to with a "yeah, it's a Japanese kami, so what?", and an additional three others just do not seem remotely surreal to me.

I mean, Glitterfang in particular has always really reminded me of a mini-boss in Super Metroid.

A good deal of my long term favorite art is from Tempest-Masques, particularly Tempest and Urza's. But then I also have a soft spot for the original Ice Age block, even if it was hit or miss (as was much of the pre-block sets era. Like, sometimes you walk away with Planar Gate, painting a vivid window into a truly alien, fantastical universe. Other times you suck up Arena of the Ancients. I'm not going to take a stand one way or the other on Drew Tucker (Hurr Jackal, Infernal Denizen, etc.), or Stasis except to say that maybe some of those concepts could have been executed in a way that reads better?

I'm definitely going to come out strongly in favor of Drew Tucker.

Stasis is fascinating even if I'm not sure I actually like it... it's interesting and that counts for a lot when so much art is Goblin, Screaming And Possibly On Fire

Richard Kane Ferguson's old pieces almost make me want to set aside a binder with nothing but cards illustrated by RFK. I don't think his is surreal, but its very pretty compared to what we get these days.

RKF is brilliant. Essence Flare is one of my all-time favorite M:tG pieces.

The RKF circles of protection are among my all time favorite cards ever.
Actually, when you get right down to it, I'm just a fan of most of the X of protection cards, but RFK and the COP: shadows especially.

I am curious what you all think of the TV show superjail? I was watching it last night and thought of this thread as it is weird and dream like. So I was thinking it might be a little along the lines though on a very bloody side of this.

Superjail is actually too hallucinatory for me to watch. I dissociate if I try to watch it.

I watched it for a while but it was too gross and I actually went by Alice before I watched that show and it ruined that for me.

There are elements of superjail that are individually interesting, but taken as a whole, it's so bombastic and ultimately puerile that it is really really hard to engage.

Don't get me wrong, I do love the animation of it. Even digitally the level of chaos and detail in there is just incredible.

Oh yeah it's not bad! It's just something that neurologically overloads me completely.

Terese Nielsen appears to be one of the fan-favorite artists who basically has permission to take a less literal approach to the cards when she wants to. And I suspect that, for the artists who fall into that camp, it's essentially a two-way street, and the art directors specifically assign cards to Terese Nielsen that they'd like to see in her style -- with the two cards you cited being great examples of that.

Anyway, on a more general note, I think that the median illustration these days is closer to The Look, if you will, than used to be the case. But I think that some of the really great artists are still finding ways to go beyond the literal.

Prophet of Kruphix is a great example of this, I think. I'm a huge, huge fan of Winona Nelson, and I got to see the original for this piece at Illuxcon. And, when you see it at full-size, you're immediately struck by the fact that (a) it's breathtaking and (b) the prophet doesn't actually have six arms -- what you're seeing is just a stylistic representation of her arms in motion, as she performs this ritual. From the card-sized image, I never really got that. But, when you see the painting at full-size (and it's a pretty big painting) it has this real grace to it.

for reference

Come to think about it, johannes voss, Jana Schirmer, and Slawomir Maniak all do some good work in abstract material and concrete work both.

And I still have a soft spot for chippy.

I was reading this article and Caller of the Pack seems like a nice marriage of the concrete and the abstract.

Ha ha oh man I like Mike but his approach to Magic art is pretty deeply distant from my own in a LOT of ways...

I really like the brushstrokes on that piece. There's something about visible brushstrokes that just pleases me immensely more than very polished photorealistic work, even if polished photorealistic work does "win awards."

So, I've mostly been staying out of the discussion because I don't really have a firm grasp on what qualifies as surreal, but since it popped up on my background rotation I want to ask: would Walk the Aeons be surreal on its own? I don't think I've ever looked at the card (not owning it myself) and I'm just asking for the art rather than the art in relation to the mechanics.



I know Jeremy Jarvis was mentioned earlier in this thread and I assume he does a lot of art like that? Browsing for a large version of Walk the Aeons did get me this page which seems to have a few, like Reverse the Sands. I think most of my knowledge of surrealism comes from Keeper's StIT article years ago which I barely remember at this point.

Time walk and walk the aeons both have brilliant art that tell so many stories.