Fantasy Fulfilled: An Interview with MTG Artist Ellie Jo Livingston
The artist's debut in Bloomburrow makes her childhood dream a long-awaited reality
Magic: The Gathering’s newest set, Bloomburrow, was host to a handful of new artists, joining the game’s artistic roster for the very first time. Of this group is Ellie Jo Livingston, and over the last month I’ve had the immense pleasure and privilege to get to know her and sell her original paintings. She had been waiting more than a year for her first cards to drop, but a lifetime for the opportunity to be a part of this game she’s loved since childhood.
This is her story, a Fantasy Fulfilled.
Donny Caltrider: Who are you, where are you from, and what do you do?
Ellie Livingston: I’m Ellie Livingston (Eleanor Josephine Livingston to be exact but everyone just calls me Ellie) and I’m originally from northern Massachusetts. I moved to Richmond, VA almost 11 years ago and have been happily ensconced here ever since. I’m a tattooer, illustrator, and general fantasy freak!
DC: I understand Magic has been a lifelong dream for you. Can you tell me more about that?
EL: Oh yeah. I grew up in a huge family with lots of older cousins, one of whom was like a big brother to me and really encouraged my interest in comics and all forms of gaming. He gave me a longbox of his old Magic Cards when I was probably like 9 or 10 years old (1998ish?) and I became totally obsessed with them. I found a kid in my class who was willing to teach me how to play and he gave me one of those tiny old rulebooks they used to make. I was completely hooked after that. My best friend and I just played against each other for years because we were too intimidated to play with the older kids at the game store. I got a subscription to The Duelist and I would read it cover to cover and pour over the art on every card. Reading the name of the card and the flavor text would evoke images in my mind and I wanted to try my hand at it every time, so I would draw my own little versions of the card art and tape them over the existing art. I just wanted to exist in that world.
All I ever wanted to do was draw, and specifically for games. When people asked me what type of illustration job I wanted, I would just tell them I want to be the person who makes the art on the Magic cards or draws the monsters in the Monstrous Manual. When I eventually went to school for illustration after highschool I struggled with receiving a lot of feedback that my style was kind of dated. For my senior portfolio review at Mass College of Art one of the teachers left a sticky note on my portfolio that just said “Try a more modern style”. I would submit to Spectrum but couldn’t get in. At some point a couple of years ago I felt like I was finally coming to terms with the fact that my art wasn’t going to fit into modern fantasy gaming, and I was kind of depressed. Almost like, did I spend my whole life trying to emulate the art I love only to make myself an anachronism in the industry I loved? I had just received some more feedback like that from some folks I respect, and I was trying to be gracious and just kind of accept it (but also having a big cry about it lol) and a couple of months later I got an email from Tom (Jenkot) at Wizards that they wanted to have me work on a Relentless Rats alternate. I don’t mean to be hyperbolic but I think it was one of the happiest days of my life.
DC: You are one of a handful of Magic artists who also do tattoos. How does that skillset play into your illustration work?
EL: I think tattooing is such an intense thing- you have to really commit to your choices, and you have to be bold in your designs so that they’ll age well on the skin. I think those things helped improve my illustration work SO much. There’s a saying in tattooing that you want the tattoo to be readable from across the room. My illustration work earlier on was a little convoluted and my color palette was a little hesitant. One of my college professors called it “anemic” ha. Once I started tattooing I had to learn to be bolder and more committed to my choices and that made my illustration work improve rapidly!
DC: What gets you inspired?
EL: I literally have stacks of MTG cards all over my studio, and bookcases full of fantasy art and comics. When I’m feeling stuck I just flip through those books and cards, just like I did as a kid, and I instantly feel inspired to draw. I’m also very inspired by music, so if I need a kick in the butt creatively I can listen to an album and feel the world it evokes boiling up in my mind’s eye. Oh, and the natural world, of course! Huge treehugger here. I grew up in the woods and I love the mystery of a deep wooded area that could be full of spooky shapes and creatures.
Bloomburrow
DC: Let’s talk about your cards! You had six cards released during Bloomburrow, all as a part of the Woodland Showcase. Let’s go lightning round style, quick like a bunny.
DC: Darkstar Augur- BatBob, as he’s been called, has some interesting design features; were these from the style guide or your own creation?
EL: I mostly went off of the style guide with Bat Bob, but I tried to make it mine! I wanted to give him more texture and make him a little more tattered and weird.
DC: For the Common Good- there is a LOT going on here; talk to me about your process- anything from how you began to how you finished?
EL: My awesome art director, Aliana Rood, gave me some options for how to imagine this card- it seemed like what they wanted was for the image to embody things growing and multiplying, so she said you know, you could do this a lot of ways, and one of them is to show the critters stockpiling things. I did three preliminary sketches, and one of the first things I imagined was the whole village coming together assembly line style since they’re so little and the food was supposed to be basically to scale. I figured little animals will need to work together to make this type of project work! So I took this card as an opportunity to tell more of a story than the other cards, which are more individual creatures in the spotlight. In this image I wanted to show the bustling energy of everyone coming together to lend a hand, and the cozy results of those efforts.
DC: Hired Claw- How did you make this Lizard friend with a knife ‘yours’?
EL: For this card the direction was both specific and fairly open ended. I think the prompt was almost literally “show us a hissing lizard looking over his shoulder holding a knife”. Of all of the lizardfolk options I found the frilled lizard to be the coolest, and I wanted to take this card as a chance to make something a little more serious and classic looking. I finally got a chance to give one of the Bloomburrow creatures a spiked gauntlet (hell yeah) and flex some moodiness in the painting with the colors.
DC: Mistbreath Elder- What’s something we wouldn’t know just by looking at the card?
EL: Well I don’t know if you can tell but he’s supposed to be summoning the strength of his froggy ancestors! Look closely at the art and you’ll see that the blue swirl is made up of other little frog wizards!
DC: Tender Wildguide- It’s one of only two possums in Magic. How did you make them so special?
EL: Sarah Wassell directed me on this card, and she gave me great direction on the ambience and general action of the possum, but let me go to town with how he looks. I reeeeeally wanted to make a CLASSIC looking piece of fantasy art for this, so I went with a Frodo-green cloak and tried to set him in the magical forest of my childhood imaginary world, summoning up some deep olde forest magick. I love this boy
DC: Valley Flamecaller- The flavor text here is particularly poignant; I know you don’t have that when you’re doing the artwork, but what does that mean to you, and to this painting?
“The same heat with which we forge weapons may also forge friendships.”
—Emberheart Forge inscription
EL: I could not f***ing believe the flavor text when I saw it. I don’t mean to sound cringey- and I know I can’t be the only person who walks around saying this - but “FRIENDSHIP!” is like….my mantra. I have a lot of matching friendship tattoos, including a tattoo from one of my favorite bands (and VA hometown legends) Pg.99 that says “Love your friends, die laughing.” My friends are my family, and I truly believe it’s the glue that keeps me together, so when I saw that flavor text I nearly keeled over.
DC: And as a bonus, your seventh card, Relentless Rats, was previewed while we were putting this together! Is there anything particularly special about this card?
EL: RELENTLESS RATS IS SO SPECIAL TO ME!!! It was my first ever card for Magic, thanks to my amazing AD Tom Jenkot, so that’s special enough, but it’s also an alternate art for SUCH a classic MTG card, whose original art by Tom Baxa RULES. So…I think it made me feel like I was somehow, in the tiniest way, allowed to be part of the lineage of MTG through this card. Which is the most special thing of all, to me. You know how I mentioned in the beginning that as a kid I just wanted to be part of the Magic world? I meant, I really really wanted to imagine myself IN that fantasy world. And by getting to do an alternate art for a card that existed then, and is canon, and was done by one of THE MTG artists who contributed to building that world in my mind, it’s like there’s some tiny piece of me in one of the bricks that’s been laid down to build the castle. I don’t know if that makes sense but it’s a huge deal to me, and to little Ellie.
Wrapping Up
DC: I think we all know this answer, but tell us again- how does it feel to be an official Magic: The Gathering artist?
EL: Oh god, I’m afraid I will jinx this by answering the question. I’m going to answer it the best way I can - which is that getting to make 7 cards for Magic: The Gathering has been the highlight of my illustration career, and an incredibly emotional personal achievement for me. I’ve mostly been feeling a lot of gratitude to all of the people who gave me a chance at fulfilling this dream, and went to bat for me to make this happen, and all of my friends who cheered me on (or cheered me up). And for now I’m just trying to allow myself to exist in the joy of this world that we all love, and that I get to share with all of the other fantasy lovers, MTG freaks, artists and dreamers for a little bit.
DC: Do you have anything else exciting in the works, with Magic or otherwise?
EL: Honestly I’m just kind of cruising right now! I have a comic that I’m working on illustrating with a friend of mine, so keep an eye out for that, and otherwise I’m just waiting to see what the future holds!
DC: Where can we find you online to follow your work?
EL: I’m @elliejoliv on Instagram, Cara, and X - so come find me there! And also check out my website www.ellielivingston.com for a gallery of work and some blog updates.
DC: Ellie, thank you so much for shining a light on your journey into Magic, and being a bright spot in this brand new set. I’m so glad you made it, and it’s been such a treat to know you and work together these last few weeks. I can’t wait to see where you go from here.
End Step
There is perhaps no greater joy in what I do, as both art writer and agent, than watching an artist climb the mountain and finally illustrate for the game we all love. To see a dream realized with such devotion is pure magic.
Ellie’s passion for her craft is unmistakable, and of the unusual kind and quality that just hits differently. I sincerely hope this is not the last time we see her work here, and that this is just the beginning of even greater things to come.