Upper Deck is excited for our newest gallery print releases. These two colorful new additions by artist Sebastian Szmyd bring the world of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands to life. First there is the Regular version, which features Tiny Tina herself performing the role as Dungeon Master while the heroes Valentine, Frette, and Paladin Mike face off against the Dragon Lord. The second is the Variant print, which still features Tiny Tina, but this time the Dragon Lord looms behind her and the heroes are joined by Queen Butt Stallion.
If you’re like me and love getting to see the progress of art pieces, you’re in luck! I was able to ask artist Sebastian Szmyd about his process while working on the pieces and will be sharing that process in this blog.
“I start with rough composition sketches, figuring out the general placement of things on the image. It’s usually black and white, but this one was fairly complex, with several characters that had to be clear, so I additionally color coded the important ones,” Szmyd explains. In the image below, you can tell which party members are being depicted, plus having Tiny Tina herself featured as the master of the game.
“After that I usually collect more references to make sure things look the way they should, since these characters have established designs. If it’s a game, I also generally try to play it or at least watch let’s plays to get a better idea of what the characters are actually like. The more you know, the better.”
For a game with such a unique style, the references are also useful when going back and forth to make sure the style lines up. This is especially true for such a well-known franchise as the Borderlands games, which Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is part of. So coming into this, Szmyd was familiar with the setting of the games, being an avid gamer as well as an artist. He’s also been able to create art for other well-known video game worlds.
“I draw/paint basic mannequins for characters and shapes to figure out the basic anatomy and gesture of the characters (in art ‘gesture’ means the general action and dynamism of the character or any other object; gesture drawing is usually very rough and expressive) and some basic environment to bring it closer to a full image.”
“From this point on it’s mostly labour, rendering each element to the desired finish, getting feedback from the art director, changing things according to said feedback, and so on until it’s done. Here’s the piece somewhere in the middle of the process:”
When asked about a favorite character or element, Szmyd mentions the heroes and the Dragon Lord. “They have quite complex outfits (especially Valentine) and since they’re not that big in scale on the piece, it was challenging to simplify them enough while keeping them still recognizable,” Szmyd said. He does a great job bringing these characters to life, creating pieces that will look great displayed on any gamer’s wall.
You can find the finished, numbered versions of the prints on the Upper Deck Store, and enjoy the detail that was put into these beautiful and limited pieces. The Regular version is numbered out of 250, while the Variant that has Queen Butt Stallion will be numbered out of 100. Make sure to get yours before they’re gone!
View Sebastian’s artstation page and keep an eye out for more of his work in the upcoming Upper Deck Trading Card Game, Rush of Ikorr.
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