I run a Magic: The Gathering blog, with deck reviews, playtips etc. I plan on going to a Grand Prix in November so I decided that it would be cool to promote it with a nice branded playmat.
The idea was to go with my favourite planeswalkers from the game (namely Chandra- the fire lady, Nissa - a nature loving elf, Liliana - a goth necromancer and Elspeth - a trained soldier) in a cartoony modernized style.
I started out by drawing each of the characters. From left to right above:
Chandra: I wanted to give her a rebel/punk style, but with a bit of a nerd feel. The tattoos on her arms are actually Pia and Kieran - in the game an evil government killed them as they were leading a rebel movement. She's actually 'fireing off' a Basic Land Mountain card.
Nissa: I went all in with an exaggerated modern hippie: a rasta hat, gloral shirt and a big GOVegan slogan on her tshirt.
Elspeth: In the game she's a kind of a honorable knight/soldier. So in this modernized design I made her a kick boxing fighter. The hoodie is also a signature style for her originally so I kept it, just made it Adidas brand:)
Lilliana: I wanted to make her a bit of a crossover between Esther de Groot from Scary Go Round/Giant Days and my girlfriend (who's actually cosplaying Lilliana). Turned out great I think:)
I didn't sketch on iPad this time. I went with a regular pencil and a piece of paper. Fun fact. Chandra originally looked different. I wasn't happy with the design in the first version (see below) so I redesigned her from scratch.
I liked the new version so much I used this image for my fanpage header. and here's a finished design of the playmat:
