r/magicTCG • u/ZaraAlfonso Zara Alfonso | Official MTG Artist • 5h ago
Art Showcase - Official Artwork It’s my birthday today & I wanted to share my favourite oil paintings I've made for Magic The Gathering!
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u/ZaraAlfonso Zara Alfonso | Official MTG Artist 5h ago edited 2h ago
Today is my birthday, and I have a tradition every year of sharing some of my favoutire paintings I've made!
Dualcaster Mage for Secrets of Strixhaven Special Guests, Vivien Reid for Foundations, Spirit Token for Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Shortbow for Bloomburrow, Winternight Stories for Tarkir: Dragonstorm, and Wispdrinker Vampire for Murders at Karlov Manor.
I'm super excited for some of the pieces I'll have coming out in 2027, and I'm looking forward to being able to share them all!
Edit: Since some people have asked, I have signed prints & artist proofs available here: https://zaraalfonso.com/store/
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u/InvariantMoon Duck Season 4h ago
The Acorn arrowhead for Shortbow is absolutely adorable, I love it!
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u/BongpriestMagosErrl Duck Season 5h ago
I run that Dualcaster Mage in foil in my Etali deck haha, it always gets compliments. Happy birthday!
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u/mustafa0319 Slopchugger 4h ago
Literally same! I wish you a hand full of nothing but mana makers and token creators in your next game 🦖
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u/GilGreaterThanEmiya Dandadan 5h ago
I literally just got that version of [[Vivien Reid]] I love the art. Happy birthday!!
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u/Netsugake Dân 4h ago edited 4h ago
YOU MADE THAT FIRST ONE! omg I got star struck opening it randomly
Edit: It's [[Dualcaster Mage]] from Strix Haven 2, to whoever asked
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u/swarmlord88 Dandadan 5h ago
What is the first art from?
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u/ZaraAlfonso Zara Alfonso | Official MTG Artist 5h ago
Dualcaster Mage for Secrets of Strixhaven Special Guests
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u/ProposalAvailable956 Dân 5h ago
Adore your dualcaster. You took a pet card of mine and gave it real gravitas.
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u/Impressive-Crew-5622 COMPLEAT 5h ago
Happy birthday! Lovely work, the Dualcaster Mage is especially good!
I can't place the last two arts to cards. The Orc looks like they're from Strixhaven, and the vampire from Ravnica. But, beyond that I'm stumped!
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u/ZaraAlfonso Zara Alfonso | Official MTG Artist 4h ago
Thank you! The orc is Winternight Stories from Tarkir: Dragonstorm, and yes the vampire is from Ravnica, she's Wispdrinker Vampire from Murders at Karlov Manor!
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u/One_Ad5235 Wabbit Season 5h ago
Omg you did one of my fave arts from Bloomburrow. Kudos and Happy birthday!!! 🎂
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u/Terrariant Unperson 5h ago
Lol wild because I have been obsessed with making custom MTG cards and my very first thought was “damn that would make a sick card” and it does
What card is the first art on?
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u/ZaraAlfonso Zara Alfonso | Official MTG Artist 4h ago
Thank you! The first one is Dualcaster Mage from Secrets of Strixhaven Special Guests
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u/NapkinApocalypse Griselbrand 5h ago
Thanks for coming out to Ottawa Zara, it was nice talking to ya for a bit. Happy birthday!
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u/UnhappyRequirement43 Dan 4h ago
You’re art is awesome! Was nice to get a signature on my dual caster mage at the last F2F event
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u/MelissaMiranti Sisay 4h ago
Your art is so swirly and ethereal in a way that makes my eyes get lost in it. It's great.
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u/Sad-Trip4838 Dan 4h ago
I've always been curious, do you paint these on canvas? Then send prints to WotC. If you do, do you sell the originals? Happy birthday as well.
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u/ZaraAlfonso Zara Alfonso | Official MTG Artist 4h ago
I paint with oil on Ampersand Gessobord, then I photograph it and send the high res image to Wizards. I do have fine art prints available on my website, if that's what you mean: https://zaraalfonso.com/store/
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u/sterling_sojourner Dandadan 4h ago
I love the art! More than a few of these are ones I had always appreciated the art of without knowing it was your art.
Which card is presented in the third art?
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u/_Dimensional_Bleed Dân 4h ago
Happy to share birthdays with a talented artist! Definitely have some of these cards in my collection!
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u/No_Lion_2835 4h ago
Happy birthday, I hope it’s amazing and you get to do exactly what you want and have heard from everyone you’d like to hear from.
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u/megapenguinx Banned in Commander 4h ago
Happy birthday! Your dualcaster mage art is my favorite version of the card
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u/SuperSmashSean_DX Dandadan 4h ago
I love that spirit art, cool I found the artist randomly. Happy birthday friend
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u/IsleyKoU Orzhov* 4h ago
happy birthday! The spirit token is one of favorites and have a couple in my collection.
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u/trickstyle64 Wabbit Season 4h ago
Happy Birthday!! Always love your artworks. I'm still using those tokens you did couple of years ago and love them too
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u/Festivarian Sultai 4h ago
I was just admiring your dual Caster art and bought the foil for my Ob Nix build. Thank you for being a badass and happy birthday.
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u/Disco_Lamb Wabbit Season 4h ago
Merry Birthmas!!
Your Duelcaster Mage is one of my favorite artworks!
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u/Comfortable-Sock-532 Wabbit Season 4h ago
Happy birthday! I don't think I've seen an art piece that you've made that I didn't love. 😀
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u/allnonchalant Dan 4h ago
Wow these are ridiculously cool, wish I was blessed with your artistic talent. And Happy Birthday!
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u/Sir_Encerwal Honorary Deputy 🔫 4h ago
Your work is majestic, I look forward to seeing your future works.
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u/MikeyP2k 4h ago
Happy Birthday! I got a signed “slip out the back” from you and it’s become one of my favourite cards!
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u/Competitive-General7 Wabbit Season 3h ago
Such a sick dualcaster mage, was lucky enough to get one in a draft 😊
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u/Muracapy Dân 3h ago
Happy birthday! That dualcaster mage is amazing! As a red mage, I knew I had to get myself one the first time I saw it.
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u/BookJacketSmash Duck Season 2h ago
Oh dude, Winternight stories? I love that card! Great work on that
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u/Mindless-Fee-1874 Wabbit Season 2h ago
First of all, all of this art is fantastic, but that stupid little rabbit has a special place in my cold dead heart.
Happy Birthday!!!!!
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u/Faranae Simic* 2h ago
Happy birthday~! Your love of swishy flowing shapes is both very apparent, and very relatable lol. They look so satisfying to work with, and you control the eye/composition very well with them. They're so pretty.
(I've "ooh!"d over that particular Vivien card in the past and I had no idea she was done in oils! I love it even more now!)
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u/ConfidentInsecurity Dan 2h ago
One of the best to ever do it! Thank you so much for your contributions and happy birthday!!
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u/DioSantana11 Duck Season 2h ago
Wow. And to think i said nobody oil paints anymore for Magic! Terrific. Best of luck in your career
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u/scrungusgungus 2h ago
Happy birthday! I pulled your dualcaster recently, fantastic art, really stood out to me!
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u/A4R0NM10 2h ago
Happy Birthday! Love your art, just wanted to say Short Bow is one of my fav' arts ever - the type of card I've put in decks just for the art!
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u/ghoulhoon Dan 2h ago
2nd picture is one of my favorite artworks from the cards I own! The other ones are awesome as well
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u/SconeforgeMystic Urza's Saga 2h ago
Happy Birthday!
That Dualcaster Mage immediately replaced all the other ones in my cubes. Just stunning, and also a wonderful homage to Matt Stewart’s original!
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u/Amber_Thanatos Dan 1h ago
The art work on these cards have honestly been some of my favorite in the last few years.
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u/sthenial Dan 58m ago
I just pulled dualcaster yesterday! Couldn't stop staring at how beautiful it was 😭
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u/5KYN3T_SVT Wabbit Season 47m ago
I actually just ordered a [[wispdrinker vampire]] and specifically chose your art. Cool to see you active here. Keep up the awesome work.
P.s. Happy Bday
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u/Professional-One2033 Simic* 5m ago
Happy birthday! But you’re supposed to be the one receiving gifts silly! These are gorgeous
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u/zaphodbeeblemox Dân 4h ago
I just bought my first easel, canvas, oil and paints a few weeks ago and am planning to do a Bob Ross as a way to try my hand at oil painting!
I’ve done a lot of Warhammer painting with acrylics but never a canvas.
Have you got any advice for someone about to put paint on canvas for the first time as to how to actually develop skills and techniques around oil specifically? I know wet on wet isn’t exactly ideal for the type of art you have displayed here but is it a good starting point to get comfortable with the medium? Or is there other decent starting points?
Love your art! And I’m actually building a deck around your planeswalker right now on arena because of that art! <3
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u/ZaraAlfonso Zara Alfonso | Official MTG Artist 3h ago
Hey congrats, that’s really exciting!
I learned a lot of my oil painting process from a video Dan dos Santos made called “Oil Painting for Beginners”, and the blog Muddy Colors helped answer a lot of technical questions I had along the way.
I’ve done a few magic paintings entirely wet on wet, but if I have time with the deadline I like to leave some time for drying. I paint solvent-free, if you’re using solvents make sure you have a very well-ventilated space to paint. Also I’d recommend wearing gloves when panting with oils.
To keep my palette from drying out, I put a paper towel with a few drops of clove oil in a container when I’m not painting. To speed up the dry time you can mix liquin in with your paint, to slow it down you can mix in walnut or linseed oil (but not too much or it won’t dry.)
If you want to do wet on wet, you can always fix things after by letting it dry and then going over it, or wiping off the paint with a shop paper towel (blue ones, not regular paper towel) while the paint is still wet.
Hope that helps!
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u/___Azarath Duck Season 4h ago
It's nice, don't get me wrong, but is there a chance for a painting in the old school mtg style? Still very impressive...
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u/Extension_Big9363 Can’t Block Warriors 5h ago
First of all, happy birthday. Second of all your art rocks.