Q&A with Rob Rey about his art for Thrumming Hivepool.
Q: What inspirations did your draw from when working on Thrumming Hivepool?
A: I certainly looked through lots of other sliver cards to see what other artists had done with the creatures. The prompt included that this was to be a vessel filled with silver liquid, so obviously cultural references like Terminator 2 came to mind immediately with its liquid metal villain. For reference, I found a video by the Slow Mo Guys on Youtube very useful where they filmed liquid gallium metal in various ways: pouring, splashing, and spun around in a blender.
Q: Were there any particular points where you deviated from the prompt or did you stick to it pretty tightly?
A: I did follow the prompt pretty closely. It mentioned that the cavern used to be a place of worship. I probably took this too far where one of my sketches included a religious looking relief sculpture of several figures on the back wall. I think the art director was probably correct to nix this as it was probably too distracting from the main focus of the image, the slivers. However, I do like the gold design motifs I came up with for the left and right sides of the image that feel vaguely religious, but also vaguely sharp and dangerous.
Q: What are your thoughts regarding slivers as whole?(whether in the actual card game or just appearance wise)
A: They're pretty damn creepy. Actually, I've never been into horror movies, and monsters aren't a particular interest for me, so this commission was a bit outside of my comfort zone. It was a fun challenge though and I would be happy to do it again. I enjoyed the process of figuring out how to paint the liquid metal.
Q: What’s your favorite part of the art you drew for Thrumming Hivepool?
A: I like the tails whipping out of the liquid and the way the liquid dribbles down the outside of the roughly textured vessel. I like the glow I created below the vessel. I like the implied meaning of the crack running down the back wall and between the cloud motif, giving the sense of a cataclysmic event as the slivers emerge.
Q: Do you have any trivia or a fun fact regarding Thrumming Hivepool?
A: The funniest thing for me about this image is that the idea of the single sliver breaking the surface of the liquid in a dramatic whipping motion, for some reason, strongly brought to mind the iconic scene from The Little Mermaid, where Ariel breaks the ocean surface and whips her hair out of the water. The thought of this sliver performing a similarly dramatic scene, with perhaps the same dramatic music, just makes me laugh every time I think about it. The Little Slivermaid.
Q: Did you work with the artist who did the sliver token art at all or did you work independently?
A: I worked independently. Though as I said earlier, I looked at all the other sliver art I could find before I started work on this image to make sure I was getting it right.
Q: Is there anywhere fans can go to pick up pieces of your other work or maybe an artist proof of the card once it releases?
A: My website is Robreyart.com, which has an "Available Works" page to easily see what originals I have available. There is also a link to my print store, where I will probably be listing artist proofs soon. If there's something you would like to see added to the print store, just get in touch and let me know.
Q: Is there anything else you want to say about the work?
A: Thanks for including me in your podcast! I hope you enjoy it!
