I am currently accepting commissions for paintings and drawings. Contact me for pricing. I’ve done card alters, sketches, full re-creations on Artist Proofs and as stand-alone paintings. I am also starting to do custom playmats. If you have an idea for a new image just let me know - I’m very flexible.
The four illustrations I did for the original Magic: The Gathering set. I was working full-time as a cartoonist but wanted to try something different. I met the art director at a sci-fi and fantasy convention and he offered me any cards I wanted to do. I only picked 4 because I was busy and the pay wasn’t very good. In hindsight, I should have done a whole lot more!
These were all done rather small, 7” x 5-1/2” in acrylics. I was going for a high fantasy look, but ended up with a comic book feel, which makes sense given most of my work was cartoon illustration.
Trading card game illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast. Acrylic, fantasy, war, sword, castle, fire, horse, horned helmet.
Trading card game illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast. Acrylic, fantasy, dwarf, dwarves, explosion, mountain, blast.
Trading card game illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast. Acrylic, fantasy, soldier, wizard, magic, sword, apparition, fight, fighting.
Trading card game illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast. Acrylic, fantasy, magic, scorceress, rose, vine, branch, glow, hair, flowers.
These are paintings I did for the expansion to the original set, Magic: Ice Age. However, I pulled out of the project due to what I felt at the time was a conflict of interest. In retrospect, I should have let the artwork be used, but young people often make stupid, rash decisions, especially if they are an artist!
These were all done 7” x 5-1/2” in acrylics except for the blue-toned sentinel that was done in gouache.
Trading card game illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. Magic: Ice Age, Wizards of the Coast. Acrylic, fantasy, sword, polar bear, fly, flying, mountains, warrior.
Trading card game illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. Magic: Ice Age, Wizards of the Coast. Gouache, fantasy, sentinel, guard, spear, shield, sumerian, warrior.
Trading card game illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. Magic: Ice Age, Wizards of the Coast. Acrylic, fantasy, landmine, explosion, horse, miner, blast, snow, forest.
Trading card game illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. Magic: Ice Age, Wizards of the Coast. Acrylic, fantasy, jump, orc, warrior, spear, sword, wall, castle.
Trading card game illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. Magic: Ice Age, Wizards of the Coast. Acrylic, fantasy, weapon, catapult, snow, trees, mountain, monster.
A couple of painting I did in the style of the original Magic cards. The Japanese Ogre was done in watercolor, the Knight & Dragon with gouache.
Trading card game illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. Watercolor, fantasy, flames, warrior, demon, troll, orc, sword, armor, samurai.
Trading card game illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. Gouache, fantasy, warrior, sword, armor, scared, worried, dragon.
Private Commission
I was commissioned to create a new version of my Keldon Warlord painting that was originally done for the first Magic: The Gathering trading card game back in 1992. Below is the new painting and the original card painting. Both were done with acrylics. I’ve also included notes and photos of my process.
The new painting is quite a bit more refined than my original due to several factors. 1) I’ve improved my painting techniques over the past 20+ years, 2) I took a lot more time with the new painting as I was paid significantly more, 3) the new painting is 12″ x 18″; the original was 5 1/2″ x 7″. I wanted to improve on various aspects of the subject: A more realistic main figure, a better sense of atmosphere, more intensity, and more realistic sword and helmet.
The first step, of course, was the layout sketch, shown here at full size ready for transfer to the paper.
Moving on to the painting had its share of difficulties. When I dug out my acrylics i found about a third of them had dried up and I had to order more. Once the paints arrived I realized I was missing critical brush sizes and had to run out and buy new ones. I was surprised, however, at how many of the paints were still good as some of them dated back to my art school days in the late 80’s.
I started in on the background. I’m painting on watercolor paper with several coats of Gesso. I’m starting with a dark, moonlit night on the left moving the to red and yellow glow of the fires on the right.
Next I moved on to the fire and decided to look at photos of forest fires to try for a more realistic look. The fires were primarily white at the bottom and moved to yellow and then orange at the edges. Virtually no red in the flames at all. Added smoke in the sky reflecting a bit of the fire glow.
Painting the broken tower at the left was the opposite of the fires on the right, using blue, black and gray. Added some yellow reflecting from the fires along the block edges. Can’t tell you how difficult it is to smoothly blend acrylics to get the tower to look round!
Here I’ve painted the background monsters.
Flesh areas and cape...
Added veins to arms, painted base helmet tones and blue metal rims, started on mouth and the crimson parts of outfit and sword. I didn’t actually get around to working on the flesh again yet.
Here’s the stage before the final details. I’ve blocked in the sword with gold details, blocked in the horns, added shading to the belt and straps, finished the mouth and added details to the helmet.
These are cartoons and sketches mostly based on my original Magic: The Gathering cards that I’ve done over the years for fans, as well as some personal projects. I’m often asked to sign cards, do sketches on cards, add art to books, and create tokens.
The first image on this page was done for the 2013 book “The Gathering: Reuniting Pioneering Artists of Magic: The Gathering” from Full Steam Press. We were asked to reimagine one of our original illustrations so of course I chose my favorite, Dwarven Demolition Team. There’s always fun to be had when explosives are involved!
There’s a variety of mediums including digital, brush & ink, markers, and pencil.
Book illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. The Gathering: Reuniting the Pioneering Artists of Magic: The Gathering, Full Steam Press, LLC. Digital, castle, collapse, explosion, dwarf, dwarves, tower, soldiers, humor.
Cartoon illustration of Keldon Warlord charging out of castle. Kev Brockschmidt. Magic: The Gathering. Digital, painting, fantasy, horse, sword, charge, run.
Custom illustration for fan’s copy of the book ”The Gathering: Reuniting Pioneering Artists of Magic: The Gathering,” Full Steam Press LLC. Kev Brockschmidt. Markers, fantasy, dragon, warrior, fight.
Custom illustration for fan’s copy of the book ”The Gathering: Reuniting Pioneering Artists of Magic: The Gathering,” Full Steam Press LLC. Kev Brockschmidt. Markers, fantasy, dwarf, demolition, explosion, blast, goblins.
Custom illustration for fan’s copy of the book ”The Gathering: Reuniting Pioneering Artists of Magic: The Gathering,” Full Steam Press LLC. Kev Brockschmidt. Markers, fantasy, magic, enchantress, sorceress, crush, ogre, tree, sword.
Custom illustration for fan’s copy of the book ”The Gathering: Reuniting Pioneering Artists of Magic: The Gathering,” Full Steam Press LLC. Kev Brockschmidt. Markers, fantasy, ogre, magic, wizard, sorcerer, umbrella, apparition, sword, mountains.
Sketches for limited print of illustration for ”The Gathering: Reuniting Pioneering Artists of Magic: The Gathering.” Kev Brockschmidt. Markers, fantasy, pen, fantasy, heads.
Custom illustrations for limited print of illustration for ”The Gathering: Reuniting Pioneering Artists of Magic: The Gathering.” Kev Brockschmidt. Markers, fantasy, pen, fantasy, heads.
Custom illustrations for Magic: The Gathering tokens. Kev Brockschmidt. Pen, fantasy, goblin, axe, club, sword, humor.
Custom illustrations for Magic: The Gathering tokens. Kev Brockschmidt. Pen, fantasy, mage, magic user, sorcerer, wizard, mana, tired, powerful, humor.
Custom illustrations for Magic: The Gathering tokens. Kev Brockschmidt. Pen, fantasy, fire, ice, smash, crush, shock,cook, fry, humor, Chandra, Ajani, Jace, Garruk.
Drawings for fan’s Artist’s Proofs. Kev Brockschmidt. Magic: The Gathering. Pen, fantasy, Dwarven Demolition Team, humor, dwarves, dwarf, explosives, bomb, tnt, dynamite, mistakes.
Cartoon drawing of Dwarven Demolition Team card illustration. Kev Brockschmidt. Ink, fantasy, dwarf, dwarves, explosion, blast.
Sketches for fan’s Artist’s Proofs. Kev Brockschmidt. Magic: The Gathering. Pencil, fantasy, warrior, sword, sorceress, magic.
Sketches for fan’s cards. Kev Brockschmidt. Pencil, fantasy, cute, humor, sword, magic, bomb, running.
Sketch of Keldon Warlord on Fire. Kev Brockschmidt. Pencil, fantasy, running, fire, mishap, humor, sword.
Sketch of cartoon Keldon Warlord. Kev Brockschmidt. Digital, fantasy, sword, pose, yelling.
These are full paintings done on the backs of Artist Proof cards in acrylics. Size is about 2-1/4” x 3-1/4”. The first four are what I call expanded re-creations, taking the original layout and adding more to the top and bottom to fill the card. The fifth card is an example of an original re-imagining of the Verduran Enchantress.
Contact me if you would like to commission card paintings like these.
Re-creations of my card illustrations in pencil, 9” x 6-1/2” on 8-1/2” x 11” archival paper.
Contact me if you would like to commission drawings like these.
