Here's yet another in a long line of cards I did for "Magic: The Gathering". If memory serves I was given the direction, "We want a Wizard, sitting on a stump, in the mouth of a cave, leering at the viewer." Instead, in an attempt to add a dallop of drama, I did a close up on the wizard, did away with the stump and threw the cave mouth in the background to finish out the composition and satisfy at least the idea of the direction if not the law. Though quite happy with the results there are still a couple things I would change if I had it to do over. First, the eyeball ring. What I thought would be a great idea turned out, in actuality, to be detrimental to the piece as it draws attention away from wizard's wolfish grin. The second change? His ear. It's about three sizes too big.

On a completely unrelated note, here's a couple of other interesting tidbits. For some reason Wizards of the coast kept giving me the "cackling" cards, (First "Cackling Fiend" and then this wierdo.) Also, sometime between my finishing the art and the publication of the card, the editors changed the title from "Cackling Warlock" to "Cackling Witch". I suppose they've got their reasons but for the life of me I just can't figure out why.