Cactuar JoeOkay, we're doing this. Start: one fully hand-drawn Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist deck <3
Xu's ability is really interesting, it encourages you to build a deck full of super high Power/Toughness creatures with negative abilities (which her resurrection ability will strip out).
And I'm gonna draw these critters as skeletons in pen-and-ink crosshatched-style, so I hope you want to know what an Eldrazi's skeleton looks like :D
Disciple of Bolas is our first main board card! For the creature cards, I'm going to more or less replicate the official art but in pen and ink and skeletons :D
Next up on the decklist, Death's Shadow. Some of these are definitely very death metal album cover ^^
#mtg #magicthegathering #art #artist #fediart #mastoart #penandink #blackandwhite
First of the deck's Eldrazi is up next, with a little splash of color to highlight the unreal nature of the Eldrazi. Turns out Emrakul has a lightwieght spongy skeleton like a coral! She's so cute <3
#mtg #magicthegathering #art #artist #penandink #fediart #mastoart
Backing up a bit on the list to do Ancient Stone Idol. I could never tell if the horns were on the helmet or the head, but I know which answer I think is cooler ^^
#mtg #magicthegathering #art #artist #fediart #mastoart #penandink
Just realized I forgot to post last night :o Here's a dragon skeleton to make up for my tardiness.
Time for more skeletons :D Here's Gray Merchant of Asphodel!
Time for more Eldrazi! Kozilek is kind of an All Chitin Bastard so I went for a cutaway. Kinda like the effect, the silhouette works, y'know?
I'm jumping the queue a little because this is my favorite thing I've drawn in weeks :D
Whoops, forgot to post this earlier :x Been an annoying day.
Next up is Golgari Thug! Dredge seems like it'd be fun in this deck ^^
Little bit of Gisa for you. Went back and forth a bit on whether or not to add some color to this one, but I think the stark look works.
I'm in the middle of a game but I haven't forgotten about you all. Have a troll <3
I'm at 40 cards complete now :D I should start thinking about what to do with the lands this time. Inkblots? Dry brush? Hm.
I thought about making the moths skeletal, too, but decided it'd be a little much :p
Up next, Phyrexian Dreadnought! This was a hard one to skeletonize, but multiple rib cages feels like something Phyrexia would do ^^
And now, Millikin! Wicker skeletons! I was a little lucky on this one, simce the official art is partially unravelled anyway.
Phyrexian Triniform! I dexided to ignore the official art for this one 'cos it's just a boring humanoid robot. I'm gonna make some unique tokens for the split up bits, too :D
We're leapfrogging forward a bit so I can show off Dark Ritual, which is my favorite thing I've drawn in months :D
Also I opened a new portfolio site over at https://cara.app/michaelbeckett/portfolio , it's got actually nice photos of a lot of the stuff I've posted here. Organized and everything, too 🤯
So there's 22 Swamps in this deck and 22 bones in the human skull. Practically draws itself <3
I'm prototyping the Swamps and I'm using a pen my elder sibling @meredeth gave me, and it's got a wonderfully sketchy nib and nicely dark ink
but it takes AN AGE to dry and I'm going insane :P
Next up, Shadowheart! This was a fun one, always nice to play with a character with a well-established silhouette ^^
#mtg #magicthegathering #Dnd #baldursgate3 #art #artist #fediart #mastoart
Next up, Stitcher's Supplier. I like the idea of a skeleton selling organs, it's a nice reversal :3
30 more cards to go! If I do one card an hour every hour between now and tomorrow I can play this at commander night!
...Yeah okay, fine, I'll actually sleep and eat. Killjoy >_>
Today's treat is Void Beckoner! Another one where the official art was kinda boring so I did my own thing. Enjoy the eyes :D
Today is a dual-faced card, Agadeem Awakening and Agadeem the Undercrypt! These are always challenging, the bleed-thru can be a real issue.
Time for a little color :D The pose on this one was inspired by the Mirage version of Drain Life, which is a favorite of mine.
17 left to go 🙃
Ten more cards left! All non-basic lands, should go pretty fast. I'm gonna dry brush and sepia tone them, pretty simple. :D
Get in the car, loser. We're finishing a deck today.
RNG-generated psychological event #574: You are suddenly gripped by the fear that you are spelling the word "rogue" wrong.
Four cards down. Gotta walk off some of this nervous energy.
Three more left to do. Take a deep breath, don't rush it.
Completed: one fully illustrated mono-black commander deck featuring Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist :D
Can't wait for Saturday :D
Of course, this thread will continue for a couple weeks while I post the rest of the cards, so no worries there :P
After goldfishing the deck a bit, I definitely think the original author's aversion to tutors is hurting the deck. Getting your closers shouldn't be left up to chance, I'm gonna make up copies of Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor tomorrow.
This deck uses a lot of "return the creature to play after it dies" effects and let me tell you, skeletons will never not be funny for this purpose.
Deadly Rollick! This is a weird card. Specifically designed for an Evil Carnival faction, it's difficult to translate into a non-Rakdos context... So I didn't try. Max goofiness, go!
Today's card is Culling the Weak! Or as we used to call it, Darker Ritual :p
Let's do a selection of old favorites today, replete with new fancy photos :D Don't they look nice :D
Jonas Wisser@CactuarJoe not directly relevant to this card, but that nickname got me thinking how stupid (and hopefully fun?) it would be to do an alpha draft
or alpha-only constructed
either would have to be digital or proxies, obvs
@jwisser That would be a blast, yeah :D
GrimDeck.com@CactuarJoe The sundress skeleton sells it. Deadly Rollick already has that “something horrible happened offscreen” energy, so going pastoral makes the joke land harder.
@CactuarJoe Skeletons are perfect for that loop because they make the rules text feel literal. It died, got back up, and became everyone else’s problem again. That is a whole deck identity.
@CactuarJoe Defile is such a good pick for mono-black custom art. That card wants to look like a swamp made a bad decision.
Tracey Thekla Rolandelli@CactuarJoe nice job. I have a friend you went to Vegas to play this, came in 8th in the non pro group. I’ve never played though.
Are these originals or did you make prints?
@Rolandelli They're all original, I used alcohol markers and gel pens ^^b
@CactuarJoe great job.
@Rolandelli Thanks!
Darth Paradox@CactuarJoe That is one hell of a project. Nicely done!
@DarthParadox Thanks :D
The VHS Wizard 🦝📼🧙@CactuarJoe All the time. I've been exposed to the words through a bunch of fandoms - Star Wars, X-Men, Sonic - but I can never keep which one is witch straight in my brian
🤖Robot Enby Xero🤖@thevhswizard @CactuarJoe behold, the Rouge Squadron!
CRYPTICAI can keep that one straight because whenever my brain sees the word "rogue-like", it pronounces it like "Rogg YOU Licka"
Aging Owlbear 
@CactuarJoe one of my favorite cards ever.