Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

  
Creating artwork for a promotional version of a character is an interesting challenge of balance.  You need the work to stay true to the original, but offer some new insight, story, or perspective.  It's also really intimidating to be following artwork that is already incredible, such as the original by Jana Schirmer and Johannes Voss.

As shown in the sketches, a few of the approaches considered were to show her in front of, or in, a vibrant, thriving city of Thraben.  Or perhaps commanding her armies, or admiring a statue of Avacyn.  While you only get one piece in the end, between me, the art directors, and the concept teams, a whole lot of ideas are explored.  In the end, we settled on one with subtlety.  Instead of a more typical Magic high-action, or epic hero shot, we see this fearsome commander in a moment of humility, saluting another mighty guardian, Avacyn.

And that part is pretty subtle, no?  Avacyn is portrayed here almost entirely as a light source.  And while you'll never-never-never-ever-ever see it on the card, Avacyn is there, a tiny little reflection of her in Thalia's eyes.  I am relentlessly detail obsessed, if you hadn't already noticed.  (Such as the basket hilt design, which if you haven't caught it, is a heron of Innistrad.)

For Magic the Gathering. Copyright Wizards of the Coast. Art directed by Jeremy Jarvis.