Part 2 - From Chandra to Oviya Pashiri, Diversity in Art - Magic: Exclusive Interview with Magic Artist Magali Villeneuve

There are a lot of strong women in the world of Magic. You notably painted Druid of the Cowl, Captain Sisay, and Chandra, who are women that play an important role in the story. You’ve also shown through your art that age isn’t a barrier to strength, as can be seen in characters like Jaya Ballard or Oviya Pashiri. Oviya, the lesser known of the two, appears in the plane of Kaladesh and her card art depicts an old woman looking at a small dragon contraption perched on her shoulder. Is it important for you to be able to represent diversity through your art?

Absolutely. I’m always happy when I’m asked this question as it’s something that’s very important to me. It doesn’t come from some vague feminist desire on my part, but if you look at all my cards in full, you could say that Wizards have given me a lot of female characters, which I’m very happy to do. When you work for a game like Magic, there’s a certain responsibility to the way that you represent women, which also applies for how you depict men, different ethnicities, and so and on and so forth… But there’s been a stumbling block in the way that women are represented in fantasy in general, as the genre has been stuck on a rather out-dated depiction of women for a very long time.

This is especially linked to the fact that illustration is a very masculine field, particularly in North-America. I think that if you took a tally of the top artists working in fantasy, the majority would be men. They are influenced by comics and heroic fantasy tropes from the 80s and 90s, which is completely normal. At that time, the depiction of women was what it was, whether you like it or not.

So, to give a generic example, even though it’s a lot more complex than that, think of warriors in metal bikinis.

And as if by chance, arrows would always be drawn right to her metallic bra.

That’s their speciality, these metal bikini warriors: knowing where to get hit! But that needs to evolve at some point. Not for feminist reasons, but rather because that image feels dated to me. Things change when you draw powerful women, and by that, I think we actually mean credible women, who can be just as believable as their male or anthropomorphic counterparts.

We’ve still got some ways to go when it comes to age. I’m glad I could do character like Jaya and Oviya as, quite often, older women in fantasy are often just crones toiling over their cauldrons, or arthritic & reclusive old witches living in hollowed-out trees. For a while, that was fine.

That’s why Jaya and Oviya were such great assignments, especially Jaya. She’s someone who has already been introduced to the story previously, but who now needs to look a lot older, and I was told to make sure that I drew her in a badass way. I told them that it was fantastic and a great idea, because why not?

Age doesn’t change anything, especially for mages who don’t rely on brute force or their physique.

Also, when Jaya was released, people were happy to see her. It’s inaccurate to think that people only want to see the same kind of hero. It’s the opposite; they like it when we give them something unexpected, or something that they don’t see all the time. So older or less athletic characters are very well received when they’re well designed.

When it’s well executed, diversity is the most satisfying thing you can do.

*That’s right. Especially given that Magic is open to that kind of diversity. When working for other clients, I often say that we’ve still got a ways to go before we can move away from an extremely stereotypical image of fantasy. *Thanks to my work with Magic, I was able to explore and try out a lot of different things. So when I put forward a slightly atypical fantasy character to other publishing houses and they respond with a “Hmm, could you not do something a bit more classic?”, I feel that there’s still progress to be made.

They’re afraid that it won’t be well received by the public.

To me, it feels like an off-base anticipatory reflex on what the public might or might not like. Things are moving forward gradually, but little-by-little.

The main thing is that it’s moving forward, thanks to companies like Wizards of the Coast, who are showing that can be done and that it works.

Yes, because they’re such a visible company they’re able to influence others to act similarly.