Out with the old, in with the new...Playmat

A commission from a very cool guy who had a playmat so worn it looked like sueded lambskin the color of parchment led me to do this piece. His old playmat had sketches by some of the Magic greats in art and had a very classic feel to it. His friend told me he was a blue mage, control type player. Playmats use up a damn lot of ink and take forever due to the size of the "canvas," but they're one of my favorite projects to do b/c I love drawing freehand and seeing what emerges.

Response to that OkCupid/Finkel crap on Gizmodo

Note: the "smoking hot babe" part was strictly for the haters who were trying to say everyone dissing the article was a lady-hating dude lol (link to article: http://gizmodo.com/5833787/my-brief-okcupid-affair-with-a-world-champion-magic-the-gathering-player)



This is mean-spirited trash. Well-written trash, but still trash. I agree with Software_Goddess below. The worst part is that this kind of geek-bashing actually makes gaming very hard for females that are trying to crack the guy-dominated scene. This is something that should be reserved for posting on a personal FB page or something, it's not worthy of an article. Unless Magic somehow violated this author's life or Jon Finkel spat into her tater tots and she now has a personal vendetta against the game, there is no cause to couch the story in such negative terms with her catty trolling verbiage. Magic players aren't worthy of dating. Geeks sucks. Nerds are scary. They're all weird. Yeah, really original content, things we've never heard before. This is a lot of fluff turned into a full article, apparently fueled by sheer cruelty. What I read between the lines is that Jon and she went on a date, there wasn't much chemistry, they had no common interests (she can't play solitaire, perhaps she felt out of her league? perhaps he was awkward? give us the real story, please, a less biased account would have been MUCH more interesting as well as enlightening) and then she used his Magic career to promote herself by writing a snarky article, and despite his efforts to be gentlemanly, and despite the fact he thought he was out on a date with a normal, thoughtful girl, he ends up getting slammed - simply because he likes Magic. Congratulations, you're a decent writer. Next time I hope you show some professionalism (if you take writing seriously) and change the name of your poor date, and use some discretion. I used to date on Match.com, and never wrote a public account of the horrors I had there despite the fact that I'm a smoking hot babe and a capable writer. What have I got to prove? Nothing. What have I got to gain? Nothing that's worth hurting people's feelings permanently. Returning a guy's good intentions with premeditated meanness is nothing to be proud of, no matter how clever a name you give it. You have hurt the Magic community with this article (both men and women), without even knowing what you're doing or who's going to care. Truly sad. Big brave sentences, small minded. All too common.

Nin, the Pain and Pleasure Artist - Final

A challenging commission, but incredible concept by the client. Very happy with the results. Making her four arms visible was one of the specs, as was making her scars that are visible in the original full-size piece more visible on the card image. You'll see I changed her two-handed grip on her torture instrument to one-handed, bringing the lower right arm down to tighten her corset. Her upper left arm was then added to cradle Stuffy. Tons of detail and what felt like millions of instances of color matching made this quite the time-consuming alter. The runes on the face of the torture machine were incorporated on her gown. And I tried to really do Stuffy justice. When I finished this piece I forgot actually how much I'd added until I looked back at the original card. Whew! I think it worked out well, and now we can enjoy Nin in all her dark glamour and terrifying glory.

Mattel Misstep

Superfun and clever idea by the community's own podcasting judge-about-town, Charlotte Sable (@jqlgirl on Twitter).

Chandra, in Flames

SCG Seattle, Part I

This would be our first experience traveling over 30 minutes in the car with the baby. So we allowed about 5 hours for the trip from Portland to Lynnwood, Washington, and I will brag that my estimate was within minutes of exactness. 5 hours! Whew.

Luckily my son fell asleep, lulled by my massive repertoire of country songs. He particularly enjoys If I Die Young, but also tolerates my renditions of Me & Bobby McGee, House of the Rising Sun, and several original future country hits I've written. We made a very memorable pit stop at an exit whose number I can't remember. We walked our boy down a dead-end street that was decidedly rural, yet was next to the over-developed, strip-malled center of town and basically in the backyard of a Starbucks. This country road had a very cute house with a low split-rail fence, and our son couldn't get enough of standing in front of it and enjoying the shade. What was extremely special and charming was that after a few minutes of this, an adorable little old lady came out and gave us peanut butter cookies! PEANUT. BUTTER. COOKIES. They were crisp and delicious, we told her we were travelers, and she asked where we hailed from, and told us to take all the cookies on the plate. We did, and I thanked her profusely but did not get her name. It's one of those moments that sticks, putting a +1 in the column for Humankind is Inherently Good.

Next we stopped in Seattle, which for me is always double-edged because this is where I lived during my ill-fated first marriage. I love this city, but it has a lot of odd memories, most of which feel like they belong to someone else. Elliot and I took our little baloth to play on the fountain steps across from the art museum. What's ironic is that these steps are part of the development where I lived during that first marriage. Not like near, or close to, but the exact place that I used to live. Despite that, we had a great time and I actually forgot about the loaded nostalgia of the place watching my family enjoy the sunshine and the water.

We were so relieved to get to our hotel. I'll be honest, this Best Western looked like guano from the outside (like old...80's? I'm no architecture buff or historian but...you know, like old crap) but inside it was lovely and comfortable. I'm the type whose patriotism might be questioned at times, so this, the view from our window, is for Mike Linnemann, Gathering Magic's resident Ichiban Vorthos Patriot:

And, to add even more nuance to the luxurious vistas afforded by the Brentwood Best Western, here's a little something for card alterist Jeremy Froggatt, the Community's Alter Professor:

Exhausted from the lengthy commute, we hit up the nearby Grocery Outlet (these are always a great way to save money on road trips, if they're available and you have a microwave/fridge available) and got TV dinners and some...extra treats for Hackworth and Moxy.

Stay tuned for the next installment. I'll actually talk about SCG Seattle! Oh, the joys of family life. Trust me, totally worth it. The journey, not the destination, is it, after all.

'Till next time,
May Magic be your sword.
-MJ

Nin, the Pain and Pleasure Artist

Working on a really fun commission right now, edgy and challenging. This is the concept sketch I did for the client. Most of you have heard that I <3 Nin, and augmenting this card is going to be a blast.