Walk Through the World of Magic Art

Art of Magic is one of the most visually dynamic and bustling places at any MagicCon, filled with color, voices, and players eager to meet the artists featured on their favorite cards. The artists of Magic: The Gathering bring the game to life, transforming characters and planes from ideas into richly imagined stories and worlds.

Art of Magic is a place to meet the people behind your favorite art, pick up prints, playmats, and other exclusives that are often only available at these types of events, and gets cards signed. There will be dozens of artists in attendance at MagicCon: Las Vegas, and we’re thrilled to announce three featured artists: Dan Frazier, Rebecca Guay, and Scott Fischer.

For as long as there’s been Magic: The Gathering, there has been Magic art by Dan Frazier. Among his most iconic pieces are the original moxen, luminous jewels set against gently textured and marbled backdrops. Thirty years later, Frazier would return to this style for his Secret Lair drops, which reimagined the signets and talismans in the style of his original Magic artworks.

“I do not think I have a singular ‘style’,” Frazier said. “An art director gives me a problem, and I have to figure how to solve it.  The first cards were to be simple icons painted the size of a postage stamp, recognizable upside down from across a table.”

While these pieces are some of Frazier’s most well-known works, his range of Magic art reflects a long career dedicated to exploring and evolving. His artwork has appeared on over 180 cards through Magic’s history, and on everything from goblins to sorceries to artifacts.

“If you look at the scope of my pieces you’ll see a broad range of images. I’m getting old. That means I’ve had a chance to explore and evolve. The Swamp from the Onslaught expansion was trying out the Hudson River School in the style of Heade. The greatest influence was a series of workshops given by Frank Covino.  He taught how the old masters worked.  Jester’s Cap was before Covino. Jester’s Sombrero was after. My advice is to keep learning.”

Also, in case you didn’t know, while Frazier’s image doesn’t appear in any of his own Magic art, Frazier posed for the art of Dwarven Nomad by Mike Kimble.

Of course, the addition of a new Mox in Tarkir: Dragonstorm called Frazier back into service, and his unique Mox style is once again echoed in Mox Jasper, a dragon-centric addition to the series. 

Find out more about Dan Frazier by visiting his website. 

Rebecca Guay’s gorgeous, romantic, and ethereal work first appeared in Alliances in 1996. Among her favorites from this era are Angelic Renewal and Regenerate, though she says that picking a favorite Magic piece is challenging because “I have so many .. it’s like picking a favorite child.”

Guay called these early Magic pieces “perfect examples of my water mediums era,” and her style has been enchanting Magic players for the nearly 30 years since. With her fluid, delicate figures and colorfully muted palette, Guay’s Magic art is among players’ favorites and always easy to pick out in a Magic set.

In 2023, Guay melded her signature style with a modern aesthetic for her artist feature Secret Lair, leading to some of the artist’s favorite recent cards.

"One of my favorite recent cards is Stoneforge Mystic or Serra the Benevolent! The new ones weave together my current gallery work applications.”

The bulk of Guay’s Magic work has often been built around central figures, with even her instants, sorceries, and enchantments featuring a central character in the art. With Foundations, however, she ventured into a set of open landscapes that are still unmistakably hers for four basic lands.

“The land series is inspired by the landscape paintings of the American romantic landscape painters like Church and George Inness. A lot of fantasy art is based upon European mythology or sometimes Asian or Turkish imagery (or an amalgam of these things), which I love of course, but I thought it would be wonderful to touch base with the imaginative realists of the American landscape traditions for these given that I grew up in New England and trod these places.”

Find out more about Rebecca Guay by visiting her website [link: http://www.rebeccaguay.com/ ] or her Instagram.

Scott Fischer’s bold and dynamic artwork first appeared in Mirage in 1996, and he’s created almost 200 works of art for Magic cards in the years since as part of an illustrious career as both a fine artist and illustrator. Magic is one piece of his prolific career, which has included everything from comic book and book covers to fully illustrated middle grade fiction.

Fischer’s Magic art includes powerful angels through Magic’s history, including Serra Avenger and Pristine Angel. In 2023, Secret Lair celebrated angels with the Commander deck Angels: They’re Just Like Us but Cooler and with Wings, which included five incredible new pieces from Fischer. 

Among those pieces were Gisela and Bruna, who together form the meld card Brisela, Voice of Nightmares, which seamlessly brings together the two pieces in one terrifying Eldrazi angel. This also made Fischer one of only six artists to ever work on meld pieces for Magic.

In 2023, Fischer was one of three artists to paint a Black Lotus for the Vintage Championships, making him one of five artists to have illustrated one of Magic’s most iconic cards. Most recently, he illustrated yet another angel, Giada, Font of Hope, for Magic: The Gathering Foundations, and lent ethereal interpretations to Tragic Slip and Sylvan Tutor for Special Guest spots, and showed us Gonti in their new role as Night Minister in Aetherdrift.

Find out more about Scott Fischer by visiting his website or Instagram.

MagicCon: Las Vegas is on the horizon, so it’s time to get your badge, grab your cards and get ready to meet some of Magic’s most iconic artists! See you there!