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Minor Explosion
Mattias Frisk

Mattias Frisk - Minor Explosion.jpg

Mattias Frisk's "Minor Explosion" painting has elements that hearken back to Anson Maddock's (another Sorcery: contested Ream Artist and original MTG Artist) famous MTG Alpha artwork "Disintegrate".  Although unintended and coincidental, this gives Minor Explosion an iconic vibe.

Anson Maddocks - Disintegrate.jpg

Anson explained in an interview that he made Disintegrate in about 30 minutes with a sponge and paint. At the time he was under the gun to produce a large amount of card art in about a month’s time, and ended up doing 30 alpha cards; a full 10% of the 295 cards for the set.

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This was typical in the early days of MTG, when a few artists had to produce artwork very quickly for the initial Alpha release. Since Wizards of the Coast wanted to pay artists with a royalties-based compensation structure, several artists withdrew from the project.  This left several original artists with both the pressure and the opportunity to produce paintings very quickly under aggressive deadlines.

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Mattias' approach to "Minor Explosion" was quite different. In an interview with Mike at Collector Arthouse, Mattias described his technique for this painting:

 

"I did, as most often do, a grisaille (grayscale) underpainting. I started by sketching up the composition in acrylics and then I splattered paint all over it. I continued by working out details and small adjustments. Then I used oil paint in transparent glazes, coloring the underpainting and fading in some shades. On top of that I worked in opaque oil paint, making the fire and other details and added some final splatter."

Mattias Frisk - Minor Explosion.jpg
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