Seb McKinnon's inspiration for the Ikoria arts

Seb McKinnon is one of the most beloved artists within the Magic: the Gathering community. His works are sensational and he shared his inspirations for the arts of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths on his twitter.

The arts he was in charge of on this set are cave drawings made by men. The way he painted each painting makes it look rustic. Seb's drawings can be seen below.

INSPIRATION

The inspiration for Seb's art came from the paintings of the Lascaux Cave in France. The date of the cave paintings is discussed, but it is estimated that they were painted around 17,000 years ago. Lascaux is a UNESCO world heritage site and has around 600 drawings on walls, all of them animals or landscape. On Twitter, Seb shows one of the paintings he was inspired by:

So of course, the famous Lascaux cave paintings became an inspiration and a starting point. I thought this style was quite fitting for this "beast plane". pic.twitter.com/4thXrWDGOD

— Seb McKinnon (@SebMcKinnon) April 3, 2020

Inspiration is in line with Ikoria, an animal-dominated plan that humans are always on the run from.

THE PROCESS OF CREATING MYTHOS OF NETHROI

Seb shared the entire process of creating the Mythos of Nethroi card. After receiving an affirmative position from Wizards of the Coast, the process of drawing with charcoal began. He saw that the drawing had to be done by hand and decided to start his work outside, even with mosquitoes around.

It was summer and I was working outside, so I had to wear a mosquito-suit to keep the flies out of my face.???? pic.twitter.com/C2NyxCJnYj

— Seb McKinnon (@SebMcKinnon) April 3, 2020

He mixed several products to give the impression that there is rock and earth at the bottom of each painting.

I used loads and loads of different pumice gels as a base, mixed with acrylics, to mimic the texture of rock and earth. pic.twitter.com/ZZiDSsroom

— Seb McKinnon (@SebMcKinnon) April 3, 2020

And so ended his first art for Magic: the Gathering made entirely by hand and not digitally.

And here's the final painting. These were a real joy to work on, and it felt so good to switch from digital to traditional for a change, getting paint on my hands, real texture under my fingers. I missed it. These Mythos works are my first non-digital paintings for MtG. pic.twitter.com/hzez0KLIpt

— Seb McKinnon (@SebMcKinnon) April 3, 2020

Now we can see his work in the Magic card.

It seems to us that Seb was in charge of the entire "Mythos" cycle of the set. What do you think of this new work of art?