Throughout our conversation, we tried to ask Magali some questions about the upcoming expansion. Unfortunately, she came well-prepared, and was too smart to fall for our traps, avoiding them with ease. For those that are interested, here’s our discussion on the subject, which will offer you further insight into working with Wizards of the Coast.
This introduction should obviously be taken with a grain of salt. If we happen across some crucial news about the next expansion, then that information is strictly top secret.
The fact is I don’t know. Do you think that we’re going back to Zendikar?
I wonder if I’m going to be in that expansion… as I’ve done other things for Wizards. In fact, I don’t actually know because the planes each have their own codenames, and I do so many things I can’t actually remember if I’ve done a card for the return to Zendikar.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be able to tell you for Zendikar. I would be cool if I do have cards in it, but the suspense is rife, even for myself!
I often can’t remember, especially with commander sets that I forget I have cards in. I finish my piece, but the expansion it’s in sometimes slips from my mind.
To be honest, I think my issue is a lot more mundane than that. For three years now I’ve been working at an impossible pace and things are permanently hazy for me. I do so many things at the same time that I lose myself in them. But that’s more down to the amount of work I do.
I think that would be a good opportunity to make the most of something that I ultimately barely use, specifically my own world. I’ve been an artist for 12 years and ultimately, I’ve been putting off my own personal projects and my own visual universe for 12 years now, as I’ve become a constant chameleon. I settled into the Magic universe, then it was Game of Thrones, then Star Wars, the list goes on. But in the midst of all that, I haven’t taken the time to make any art for myself.
If I was given carte blanche, I think I would try to bring to my own universe to Magic, which definitely has less grounding in fantasy and more in realism. My core influences come from the old masters, even though I also like modern fantasy artists. Nevertheless, it was Italian and Renaissance artists, classical painters, who moulded me, which is hard to imagine when you look at my work today.
My main influences are the Pre-Raphaelites and the Caravaggisti. I was able to tap into these influences when I was working on Robin Hobb’s Farseer Triology.
That world, which is extremely dark and very realistic, was ideal for them. I notably had a piece in my work with Game of Thrones that was an intentional homage to the Caravaggisti, which was the death of Joffrey Baratheon. In it, you can clearly see the very sombre mood, the lyricism, the dramaturgy through the composition, and the drapery.
Absolutely. Everything I talked about earlier, the movement of the clothes and hair, in reality, are traces of those influences. There’s always an element that creates movement, even when the character themselves is completely still, and that comes from my classical influences. If you look at my cards, you’ll find very little verticality within them. There are often lines, a fair few tangents, and lines that are quite fluid, and all that comes from that tradition. Well I say tradition; I’m just a fantasy artist, I’m making absolutely no allusions between my work and that of the Renaissance masters, but these are the things that have heavily inspired me regardless.
If I could do what I wanted, I think I would show off this other facet of my style rather than creating my own world, since I’m very much in my functional phase, which is how I began as an artist. It started with wanting to illustrate a cover for someone else’s book. That’s why I like it when Magic tells me to do it like Magali Villeneuve from Kaladesh. I feel good in that space. But it’s true that if I could have the freedom to completely express myself with my own visual identity, that would be fantastic.
Interview originally conducted in French by Durvil.
Translated by James Whitmore.
