New cards and their art

[Drow37]

Hi,
I was wondering why are new cards looking so bad? They are lowering SE art standard with each expansion.

And, even more, why every card done by Shawn Kennedy looks like this?

shawnne.jpg

[Kosmiker]

Is that a new aldmor? Baby Aldmor!?

[RandomGuy]

My guess would be that Wulven has lost a bit of money over the years. Card art is pretty expensive and unless you have a in-house artist to do all the cards, you're going to have to hire freelance artists which can be quite pricey. While an amateur artist is willing to draw a illustration starting at $50-150, the industry standard starting price is about $250 - $300 for a professional. Some professional artists will draw illustrations for $400 - $1000+ per card, which is about how much most MTG and Legend of the Cryptids artists get per card. You can hire a studio like Wulven did for a lot of the Dark Prophecies cards which will lower the cost per card a teeny bit, but it can still add up to tens thousands of dollars.

Art prices is a major factor as to why newer companies resort to crowdfunding for their card games. Also it is usually why you see only major companies (especially Japanese ones) creating them. They can afford it.

If you want the art to improve spend more money on Shadow Era.

*edit* This doesn't factor in the costs needed to pay the people who hosts the servers as well as costs of any employees of Wulven, among other costs. The employees would need a livable wage and Wulven is a relatively small company. It all adds up.

[Kip thorp]

Honestly I think the arts are pretty good, but that's art for ya, subjective.

As for Prey Bird, I'd rather have a player making art and I think his style is pretty cool.

Only two cards bother me, 1) Spirit of devotion, makes anything look good compared to it and it's so ugly you almost feel bad for it. 2) Eternal Troll, they actually took a sticker from TG (or wherever ). And made it into a most annoying and ugly card. (Yes , I get the joke but it's so ugly and trolls aren't powerful why is this one reasonably powerful)

[Drow37]

To make things feel worse, I actually offered my help not so long ago to Wulven team, because I was well aware of everything you just said, RandomGuy.
I never even got a reply

[Gondorian]

To make things feel worse, I actually offered my help not so long ago to Wulven team, because I was well aware of everything you just said, RandomGuy.
I never even got a reply

What kind of help were you offering? Doing artwork?

[Snowstalker]

Quite interesting... I was just thinking how the quality of art in LL improved compared to SF... And i like the art of Eternal Troll, btw., fits the card perfectly.

[tafkad]

I am really upset at the new art, now there is so many more great looking cards and fun mechanics I need more then 3 deck slots! please nerf all cards to have placeholder art and all be 0/1 with "if you sac this card, draw a card" so I can fill my hand with nothing to look at but vanilla 0/1's - otherwise give us more deck slots! yea slots

[Delay of Game]

Does anyone want my help? My profile pic is an example of the exquisite & elegant artwork I'm capable of....

[G.P]

Though Shawn has his skill improved , some cards use his artworks made from very long ago , like the 2 homonculus allies. Personally I'm OK with him taking care of the artifact related card of the Aldmor ( although the tribe arts make no sense, one part is a puple medieval theme with horses and sword , the other has all the machinery stuff ) and Elemental allies , some abilities because he can get away with all the cool effects , armors .. Etc . But when it comes to human figure, the guy is not fit for it atm . Twilight Mariach looks extremely meh while she's supposed to be the leader of the tribe . People complained about Trias Digital artworks but they are better than Shawn when it comes to painting good looking human figures imo .

On the other hand , Wulven has been working with some professional artist from Vietnam since SF, so the price should be cheaper than normal . Personally I think they have done a great job , their Ravager and Wulven allies artwork look very good and detailed .