South American Gryphon Repaint

Rewind to 2011.

I thought, “what if there were a South American Gryphon?” I created this painting:

Jump to 2018.

Magic the Gathering’s Rivals of Ixalan 2018 release looks like it’s pulling heavily from South American imagery. There’s a beautifully painted Resplendent Griffin by Sam Rowan. Magic the Gathering is one of my target clients so I saw this as an opportunity to dissect a painting done for them and compare it directly to something I created.

Things I discovered by comparing the 2 images.

• In the 2018 Resplendent Griffin, the creature is on full display, and the art has an immersive sense of place. There’s  a magical, wider world beyond the confines of the picture frame.
• A great expanse of space is created by placing the creature in the foreground and designing it into the depth of the picture. The environment has minimal foreground, minimal middle ground, a highly designed and interesting background, and a very distant extreme background.
• The creature has a clear and interesting silhouette. There’s ample information of the back end to show that it’s a griffin.
• The lighting is very dramatic, directional. It describes the forms and carries emotion.
• The creature retains some of our real world information but is pushed into the otherworldy, fantasy realm by the colors, leg design, and feathers on the tail.
• The pose is not necessarily confrontational but it isn’t passive either. There’s room for interpretation.

What I decided about my 2011 South American Gryphon.

• It is more of a portrait of the creature.
• The pose is confrontational.
• While I like the hint of leopard showing behind the wing, and it shows pretty well as an 8″x10″ print, it gets a little lost at the size of card art.
• There’s a hint of the place and environment shown with the little bit of visible carvings, and greenery in the background. The greenery could be more specific with its textures and silhouette.
• The lighting is very matter of fact and while it does describe the form, it could work harder for visual storytelling.

I would also like to add that several tools for thinking about visual storytelling that I picked up from Oatley Academy’s Magic Box helped in my dissection and comparison of the two pieces.

What I decided to do in the remake.

• Give more information about the place by adding more temple, and adding more environment, designing into the distance.
• Get specific with the tree shapes and vegetation to make them look more South American.
• Keep the general pose but change the wings and expand the picture size so more of the leopard part shows.
• Push the design of the gryphon further. I wanted my South American Gryphon to earn its spot on top of that temple so I decided to make it look more royal. (A parrot owner shared with me that as parrots age they get more colorful).
• Change the lighting and take advantage of the nature of feathers when they’re backlit.

And here’s the remake.