Making Magic – How to paint a Magic – the Gathering illustration by Paul Scott Canavan

This is the most comprehensive tutorial I’ve ever made. Making Magic describes my entire process for painting a Magic: the Gathering card, taking a classic card as inspiration and covering every step from sketch to final.

This is a 30+ hour painting compressed to 3 hours, with an additional 1 hour video introduction to Daz Studio and Blender, two pieces of 3D software which I use to create a reference image. These are some of the must useful techniques you can master and I really wanted to include everything I have learned through the 50+ card illustrations I have done for the game (as well as my 14 years working as an artist in games industry).

This tutorial is going to be super helpful for illustrators of any level, especially if your goal is to create bold, exciting artwork for videogames, book covers or tabletop RPGs. Don’t be put off if you don’t have any 3D knowledge – I keep things super simple, and that stage is entirely optional. Enjoy!