Process Video: 2018

A step-by-step video showing Stan!'s homage to the cover for the Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica

Over the course of this project, I’ve done my best to capture the artistic stylings of a couple dozen of the greatest fantasy artists of the past half-century—people who have been inspirations to me over the course of my own artistic journey (such as it is). It’s a tricky thing to capture something you see or imagine and put it down on paper (or canvas, or digital medium) … and oh so much trickier to try to capture what someone else saw. THAT’S the trick with an homage—to try to recapture another artist’s interpretation of an image, be faithful to their vision, but also add your own. One reason I always make sure to call the drawings I’ve done here “cartoon homages” is that I’m keenly aware of how much I’m filtering out, flattening, and simplifying the original work as I process it through my own internal and artistic filters.

In his cover for Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica, Magali Villeneuve created a scene of subtle details and raw power. It’s quite honestly a level of artistic subtlety that I couldn’t even begin to approach. But I CAN translate it into MY artistic language. And while I’ll never recreate it’s depth, I can take my best shot at approaching the same emotional content—evoking a similar feeling in the viewer, despite the wide difference in approach.

I’m a cartoonist. My worlds are a little flatter than a painter’s. But on a very good day, we can both capture the breadth of human emotion and experience. I’m not sure if this particular piece was drawn on “a very good day” (only you, the viewer, can determine that) … but it was sure fun trying.

Subscribers to this newsletter got to see this drawing early, whereas the general public are only just getting their first glimpses of it today. But there’s still something left that’s JUST for the paid subscribers—a process video showing the step-by-step creation of this cartoon homage. (If you’re currently a free subscriber, now would be a great time to upgrade.)