Just posting some higher-res pieces of Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge (Cynthia Sheppard) & Oloro, Ageless Ascetic (Eric Deschamps) for your enjoyments!

Hopefully I can find the other three commanders in the coming week or so.

Bless you dear TheArtofMTG~!



Always neat-o to have these. They look both amazing. (Oloro's body be bangin' DAAAAHAYUM...)

I like Oloro both better and worse in larger aspect.
Even in the smaller version I could tell his throne had waterfalls, and that was awesome. The fact that he is literally decorated with hundreds of little weapons is great.
HOWEVER... his head desperately needed more details. Bald, it looks really bland.
Still, it's pretty rockin'.

Which I can't say about Jeleva. From a technical standpoint, it's very very good. It looks great too... the problem is, her clothing doesn't have the consistency of other Innistradi vampires. There's nothing about her that feels inherently Nephalian. Even her eyes don't give that impression, because even though her sclera are black, the detail doesn't have enough contrast with the weird make up she's wearing...
Disappointing.

Ahead of time I'll go ahead and say I think Marith is boring, Derevi is overly busy, and Prossh is awesome.
I will say that I dig the fact Derevi is consistent with the Aerie Mystics.

... thanks, Barinellos ...

... I don't know how to take this.
I mean, it's part of my training to be critical...

As usual I'm pretty much in agreement with Barinellos.

To play devil's advocate, though, I think maybe Oloro can get away with have a pretty bland face because his freaking waterfall throne kinda is more significant to the overall mood of the piece, and more likely to register at card size anyway.

In a way, I wonder if that's part of the key to successful Giant art--making them almost a part of the environment, making the character and the character's landscape reflect each other. I mean at the most literal level you have the Lorwynmoor giants that often looked like they were part of the landscape, but Ororo is a good example of the same concept done more subtly.

I think, regardless of what criticisms are raised, they do not reflect badly on you, Art (or was it David? I'm not good with names). You bring a much-appreciated service -free of charge- to us here, and add a needed tough of "Art" to the "Art, Flavor, & Storylines" forum.

So please, by all means, continue to grant us these delectable delights for our visual consumption. We will give thanks, though we may not always say so.

I also hope we may eventually become a place for Magic artists to come to again (though I say so vicariously; Pete Venters had been about the only artist to come down while during my time on the mothership).

Pete regularly visits Salvation and Igor Kieryluk hangs around there... actually a LOT.

I agree that Oloro looks kind of bland. The setting is really quite nice, but I kind of wish Oloro himself had a more impactful and memorable design. It'd be cool if Oloro himself looked a little more weathered.

Jeleva's is my personal favorite art out of all the new commanders. As for her attire, her dress is admittedly less intricate than the average Innistradi vamp's, lacking any visible embroidery or adornment, but her headwear more than makes up for it. I guess she's too busy scourging Nephalia to worry about lace and frills? Anyway, to me, at least, she looks more than sufficiently Innistradi.

I think another problem I have with Jeleva is that the lighting makes no sense. The moon is large and clear behind her, but we don't have a standard ambient light, we have directional light coming in from in FRONT of her to the left. It just doesn't make any sense.
I have mixed feelings regarding the broad work too, but only because it makes it so much more obvious how rough the work is when you put it right up next to her face.

a throne seems excessive for an ascetic

...Well that's a very good point.

Huh.

Now I'm really wondering who came up with that name.

In fairness, for all we know he may NEED that throne. It might not be an affectation or decadence at all!
I will say that I am somewhat pleased that you could theoretically play both this and Vish Kal in the same deck.
It makes me want to make an Esper colored POWER SEAT deck. THRONES EVERYWHERE!

play all the thrones

Edit: sStupid gatherer and it's broken links

One might even say it's a....
Game of Thrones.

You might even call it... A GAME OF oh hell Barinellos beat me to it nevermind.

EDIT: Nice use of Instant CSI.

Apparently the tech guys are working on a way to get Instant CSI embedded in the site somehow... which is awesome.

game of thrones

Damn right it is. Though I think we're likely to abuse the hell out of it down here. I mean, we are given to making horrible puns on a higher than average basis.

to be fair, his "Waterfall throne" is a broken monument of solid stone, moss-covered and standing alone in the wilderness, exposed to the elements. As awesome as it may look to us little people, it's not a comfortable seat nor of any great value, as befits the place where one who has forsaken earthly pleasures 'holds court' or whatever he does.

I think it's a bit much to criticize the "realistic" nature of lighting in fantasy art. If that was always the case, every fantasy piece with a moon in the background, where the moon is the major light source, would have the subject mostly in shadow. As someone who has done lighting for scenes, I can tell you there really is no such thing as completely "realistic" lighting. Most natural lighting scenarios are pretty boring, and usually useless for artistic purposes.

I don't believe Jeleva is wearing make-up (other than lipstick). I believe what you see is actually a veil covering her upper face. I also don't see how her costuming doesn't fit with Innistrad's vampires.

I'm not sure what would make a character "inherently Nephalian." Nephalia is just a large, coastal region of Innistrad that, at least to my knowledge, doesn't necessarily have any stylistic identity of its own. Its inhabitants and port towns, however, do.

If Jeleva lives in the Nephalia region, then she is most likely of the Stromkirk line of vamps. From what I remember of the Stromkirk designs (high collars, flowing gowns, intricate headwear), she seems to fit the bill to me.

I don't know, just my two-cents. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!