A Text copy of our Questionaire answered by Ron Spencer regarding his art for Heart Sliver.
What, if any, inspirations did your draw from when working on Heart Sliver?
There was a VERY detailed and specific style guide sent to the artists. Contained in that was a drawing of a Sliver by Anson Maddocks. That illustration provided the basic anatomy of the Slivers. His piece featured the Sliver with a H.R. Giger translucence.
The art description that they provided for the Heart Sliver required that it was in a volcanic environment. With that in mind, I swapped the transparent skin for a thicker looking, gray hide.
To make it vary from the provided reference, I gave it a gnarled, crusty look. The Heart Sliver needed to blend into the walls and ceiling of a lava cavern, not a spaceship's vent pipes.
Aside from those changes, I stuck with the general anatomy requirements - elongated / beaked / eyeless head, one spiked arm, some type of extrusions on the back and two tails.
Do you remember what, if any, details Wizards of the Coast gave you for the specifics of the card? (Color, environment, etc.)
The only thing that I remember from the art assignments description was that it be shown prowling the ceiling of a lava cavern.
The artists weren’t given the names of the cards, card mechanics or flavor text.
So we looked at the art guide and the assignment notes and went from there.
What are your thoughts regarding slivers as whole?(whether in the actual card game or just appearance wise)
As monsters go, they’re fine. Not my favorite but more fun to do than some of the other creatures.
Their non-anthropomorphic anatomy can be a problem for dynamic compositions. Unless the viewer knows exactly what they’re looking at and is used to seeing Slivers crawling around, they can be very confusing to look at.
That’s why nearly all the Sliver art has the creature in a profile type pose or side view. All of body parts are shown with no overlapping.
The straight- on, front or back view of a Sliver would be a tangled blob, especially with a background and at card size.
All of that being said, they’re quick and fun to draw. Maintain the basic anatomy, then start sticking on spikes, talons and corrugated tendons.
It’s hard to mess up a Sliver.
What’s your favorite part of the art you drew for Heart Sliver?
It’s always fun to draw creatures in fire light. The craggy hide with orange highlights made for a rugged looking beast.
Do you have any trivia or fun fact you remember regarding Heart Sliver?
Only that I was unsure how to make the image interesting. It needed an aggressive look. So I tried a somewhat frontal /top view with the Sliver moving toward the viewer. As mentioned, the anatomy made this difficult.
To keep action in the pose and maintain a discernible figure, I had to turn its head to the side. This made it appear to be distracted or looking around, rather than lunging at the viewer.
Not what I’d originally intended but there were other cards to get done and a deadline looming.
Do you have any fun memories from after it was a printed card? E.G. Interactions with the players that stuck with you?
The Heart Sliver seemed to be well received by the players. The autograph stacks included a decent number of that card. Prints sales for that art were fine. Not remarkable but far better than I’d anticipated.
When asked if it was a tough or good card, the players would shrug and reply that it was good. Not awesome or “broke" - but still useful.
germansingergirl
snowghoul
vaporwave
ellievsbear
pixelskylines
jbbartram-illu
dailybridgerton
gummygunk