Gaia's Blessing, 2020

Hey! Been a while since I’ve shared any paintings, and something I’ve been sitting on for nearly 3 years has just been revealed. Proud to finally share my work for the MtG: Secret Lair summer drop.
I’ll share the other three paintings from the set over the week, but I want to start with the first one I painted for the set. I viewed this illustration as a sort of ‘sequel’ or spiritual successor to a painting I made in 2012 (ancient times). Here’s the official blurb taken from the official MtG site:
“Inspired by the liner notes in an old heavy metal album, these cards show a hero charged by the gods to do battle with a colossus in the shadowlands beyond the known world. Nemesis of Reason represents the hero’s initial challenge, Gaea’s Blessing shows the hero’s first real sacrifice, Twilight Prophet depicts the hero’s greatest and final sacrifice, and the Worldspine Wurm is the monster at the end of the journey.”

https://secretlair.wizards.com/us/product/835856/artist-series-ryan-alexander-lee