Artist Showcase

JG, tell us a little bit about your artistic influences. Who are some of your favorite MTG artists and what do you admire about them?

My favourite Magic artist is Victor Adame Minguez. Minguez has drawn hundreds of cards for the game, including new art for iconic cards like Dark Confidant, Fury, and Goblin Welder. He's got an amazing mastery of forms, colours, and material textures, and his paintings strike a balance between believable groundedness and a distant fantasy storybook feel.

Outside of Magic, I deeply admire Tonci Zonjic; his linework is so elegant and efficient it seems effortless! I also love Naoki Urasawa. Monster, Pluto, 20th Century Boys... He's the master of long-winding, thriller mystery manga!

You've been involved with some incredible projects. What type of commissions do you like to do the most?

I draw a lot of fantasy and sci-fi. I'd say I really enjoy drawing mechanical parts, so I end up drawing a lot of robots or painting metal armour. A while ago, I got to draw some Transformers for a comic cover, which was super fun!

I also often get commissions from people who play the games I've worked on, like getting asked to draw a player's mech and their pilot from LANCER. I always enjoy tabletop game commissions, though I draw for other people far, far more often than I get to play!

Needless to say we all love the tokens, especially their old-school few. What was the inspiration behind this series?

I was already raring to go when I was first approached with the idea. Many Pauper community organisers worldwide have done an amazing job giving back to the players and building community identity, and I think Melbourne's Pauper scene deserves the same.

We didn't lay out any strict art direction to work with, but thankfully we were often in agreement. We wanted the tokens to feel “Aussie” and have a level of quirkiness/fun that would encourage players to use them over the stock ones, but we also felt that the art had to be in line with Magic's rich fantasy style. It would be easy to draw a silly “joke” token instead, but I wanted players to feel cool and professional using them!

This art direction isn't set in stone, though. I'm sure I'll get to try out different themes and ideas if more tokens get made in the future (I would love to draw some anime / cute ones)! There's a cute koala token I drew that we set aside... maybe next time...

The tokens

Last, but of course not least, what pauper decks do you like playing the most?

My favourite part about Pauper is how many different matchups you have to learn how to navigate. One of the best feelings for me is when you feel satisfied, not because you're winning the whole time, but because you know how to pilot your deck into a specific matchup — what cards are important to fight over, what your gameplan should be, that sort of thing.

I gravitate towards midrange decks because your role shifts the most and you get to try many different gameplans. I love Elves, especially its newer midrange-y versions. Recently, I've also been grinding Caw-Gates, which is a really punishing deck! I enjoy thinking hard about the deck and it's really helped me grow as a player!