Hex Shuffle is blessed today with the time of Daniel Vandrell Oduber of Ikari Studio! Like his comrade, Santi Casas, Vandrell has contributed stunning artwork to Hex TCG. In the following interview, he discusses five of his pieces and the techniques used in their creation.

When you and Ikari Studio were chosen by Cryptozoic for the Hex TCG project, how many individual pieces were requested and how long was your deadline? Would you call that a relatively big order or a small one?

“Like other works done previously with Cryptozoic, we received the total liberty to choose the number of cards we thought we could do until the deadline (three months). Because in the studio we are always working on a lot of projects, we had to choose a [small] amount of cards to try to do our best, because we love to work with Cryptozoic, and [to] be a part of this new project was really special for us. In this case, we were working on 13 cards, and keeping in mind the amount of work we had at that time, I can consider that this one was a medium order.”

In your Necrotic Warrior progression, you use the growth of armor spikes and magical weaponry to convey an increase in power. Meanwhile, the backgrounds of each individual piece also seem to hint at a story- what was your method in choosing and creating these backgrounds?

“I have to admit that a great part of the merit of these transitions was by the great descriptions of the characters that Cryptozoic gave to the artists. Hex was a really special thing, because the descriptions were really detailed but leave a lot of liberty to the artist. In these avatars, I had to leave the backgrounds separate from the character, and that was a great opportunity to give an emphasis of narrative/esthetic to them. To achieve that feeling, I played a lot with the colors of each of the scenes, from the mournful tones but alive in the dungeon, as a presentation of the warrior, to the cemetery contrasts that give emphasis to the expression of the protagonist, or the storm that surrounds him in the last scene, to emphasize its greatest power, surrounded by those cold colors”

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The Necrotic Merchant is a particularly haunting vision. What inspired the look to his eyes? What techniques did you use to create that eerie glow?

“This was a really fun card for me. That kind of character reminds me a lot that classic 80s and 90s B-movies, with an evil character of supernatural nature like Wishmaster for example. And some of those movies have some really great classic poster art. This was my major inspiration for this illustration. The cold but brilliant look of the necrotic eyes is really interesting to paint, and digitally was so similar to using an aerograph to do the final shines on a jewel or a piece of armor. In this one, I add a layer over them, and used some brushes to take this effect. For all of these pieces, I have to clarify that I used a mix of Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter, but when I explain some methods I like to do some parallelism with a real techniques, not only digital.”

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Your Vennen piece, Xentoth’s Chosen, has some incredible texture to it- from the spider legs to the varied stone blocks. How do you plan such a variety, and how do you go about putting them in the piece?

For this piece I see a lot of possibilities. This mysterious dungeon, with that creepy warrior that was coming to you. It was a really good opportunity to work a lot on that details that you mention. Previously to [working on Xentoth’s Chosen], I worked on the three necrotic warrior pieces, and I wanted to experiment even more with the stone textures. To put all these elements with some coherence, I always keep in mind the principal light sources. Then I start to work from some previous sketches in black and white, then I start to put all the final details. I usually work on some extra layers with a mix of texture brushes I’ve done previously. And then when I see that everything works right I merge some layers and continue painting over them till the end. About the spider legs… again my love to the B-movies comes out, remembering some cult classics, and with the plus of that I really love to paint animals.

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Finally, the Corrupt Harvester. The clothing textures here are phenomenal. I look at the pants of the fallen warrior and they look real- as does the leather glove of the Harvester. How do you create such an amazing effect?

“This piece was so dramatic and reminded me a lot of classic paints. I wanted to capture this essence, for that reason a put a lot of emphasis and hours with the two characters, his clothes and the expressions of both. For some leather effects and armor details, I used a similar process that the stone textures, playing with the layers, and then painting over and over, to reach this final result. It was fun, for example the brush I created to do the chainmail, coming from simple brushstrokes, and then using some filters on it that gives that hyper-realistic feeling. Sometimes, without forgetting all the old illustration methods that I really love, It’s so much fun to experiment with the digital and expend some hours in finding new ways to create your own artistic sources.”

What advice would you give to artists looking to become involved in the TCG industry?

Work hard. I was working on comics, concept art, and illustration since 2003 and the only thing that helps me, not only to become a smart artist, if not also pay my bills; work hard. And of course love it, it’s the only way to stay always trying to grow up. Love the things that you do, try to do you best, be mind open, accept all the influences, techniques that you see, and do not despise the work of others.

And that’s the interview! Thanks again to Daniel Vandrell Oduber and Ikari Studio for the awesome art and great interview! If you enjoyed this interview, check out Vandrell’s deviantart.com profile and give him so likes, comments, and favorites!