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If you'll excuse the pun, MTG Bloomburrow is the perfect example of how wild folks can get for cute, anthropomorphic animals going on adventures. Much like Redwall before it, this new Magic: The Gathering set is all about mice, squirrels, and other woodland folk trying to protect their home from sundry ne'er-do-wells… all with a helping of found family and delicious-sounding feasts.
Even though MTG Bloomburrow shakes things up with the game's patented brand of sorcery, it's still reminiscent of Mouse Guard et al in a nostalgic, fuzzy sort of way. With that in mind, it's fitting for Mouse Guard's creator David Petersen to draw a card for the set in his iconic style. I managed to catch up with him over email to chat about his process, the challenges of collaborating on a franchise like Magic, and how it feels to work on one of the best card games.
David Petersen (DP): Thank you! It started with the brief from [MTG] art director Aliana Rood and the world guide for Bloomburrow the team provided. I drew Mabel on copy paper with a pencil, and then on another sheet of paper and on top of a lightpad, I worked on making adjustments and adding her costuming. It’s like a physical-world version of using Layers in Photoshop, but I like the feel of pencil on paper. Then I scanned the various pencil drawings of her, her clothes and accessories, and the setting, and assemble them in Photoshop (making adjustments with proportions and rotations) and lay in some color blocking. That is sent off to the art director for approval. When it is approved, I print out the layout and tape it to the back of a sheet of bristol and ink it traditionally on a lightpad so I have a physical piece of art for sale or display. That is then scanned in and colored digitally.
GR+: Let's talk about Bloomburrow as a whole for a minute. What appeals to you about this new world, and are there any ideas you wish you'd come up with yourself for Mouse Guard?
DP: I love talking animal stories, especially when, like in Bloomburrow, the animals are more like their real-life species and less like humans with animal features. I was blown away by the worldbuilding and artwork already produced for it. The 10 base animalfolk being dual color to help codify their strengths and personas was a really great idea. But a key difference is there’s no magic in Mouse Guard. My book’s mice are more akin to being a Boy Scout or one of [J.R.R.] Tolkien’s rangers. The only supernatural occurrences in my books are ghosts, so there’s little crossover there. But I do really admire how the lizards were handled to seem like such a foreign culture to most of the others without falling into real-world regional tropes.
GR+: What requirements, if any, were there when designing this artwork?
DP: There were some technical requirements for size and resolution, and then the brief explained the goals of the illustration and I was provided with some reference for Mabel, who’d already been designed. But, I was given plenty of room to be creative and do my take on the illustration without feeling boxed in.
GR+: As this was a chance to put your own spin on Bloomburrow, was there anything you wanted to really emphasize or push in a new direction for Mabel?
DP: Oh, no. When I’m brought on to a job where there is an established character, I do my best to honor everything in that character’s design as-is and only put enough of my own spin to the linework and texture and color that I’m true to myself as an artist. I may have played with the proportion of the daisy flowers on her clothes, but not by much.
GR+: Obviously there are similarities between this card and your early work on Mouse Guard, but it feels as if your style has evolved over the years. Does this illustration include or represent any learnings you've made over the course of your career so far?
DP: I’d hope that my work has evolved and grown over the years – one of the worst things an artist can do is stagnate. With Mabel there was a conscious decision to draw her differently than Mouse Guard mice (the paws have 5 fingers instead of 3, the ears are different, and the eyes are bigger), but I hope I brought all the illustrative experience of what communicates ideas through images to Bloomburrow that I’ve learned doing Mouse Guard and other comic covers and that I bring the growth from doing Bloomburrow back to Mouse Guard just in terms of illustration quality.
GR+: What challenges did this artwork present?
DP: My work is so line-centric that rather than painterly shapes that scale down for print easier, I had a real worry the lines would mush together and become unreadable with too much reduction down to card size. So, I tried a Goldilocks approach to find some middle ground for the original art––not so small that I couldn’t draw and ink comfortably, but not so big that the final printing would be muddy.
GR+: If you were able to illustrate any other character, species, or scene from Bloomburrow, what would it be?
DP: I’d have really loved to do some birds. Birds are pretty fun to draw and my wife has a real kinship with birds, so I know it would have been special for her too. It would have been neat to get to do some lizard cards too – breaking expectations of the Mouse Guard Guy drawing something furry. To be honest though, I would be happy to have drawn multiples of each animal type. It was a great gig.
GR+: Now that you've worked on MTG, is it something you'd like to tackle again? Are there any MTG Planes you find particularly inspiring?
DP: I haven’t played MTG since the nineties, so I’m not well-versed in the various planes to tell you something specific, but I love drawing fantasy creatures and monsters and animals, so I’d love to do work for Wizards of the Coast again.
GR+: Finally, what's your favorite aspect of this card art? Is there anything you're particularly proud of?
DP: For Mabel, I really like the cozy setting she’s in and how I translated the Cragflame sword into my style of linework and color.
You can currently get your hands on Bloomburrow boosters and decks at Amazon, but beware – prices are all over the place. It's worth checking in with the likes of Miniature Market in the US and Magic Madhouse in the UK instead for a better deal.
