Source: https://bsky.app/profile/magic.wizards.com/post/3mkvqoghxru24
Based on the similarities that Dan Frazier’s The One Ring has to the borderless art by Marta Nael
IMO, this seems like letting Dan off way too easy. It’s a pretty blatant copy of the art by Marta and a disappointing thing to see such a well-respected Magic artist do. Perhaps they’re just not pressing the issue because of his age. But really how did the art directors not catch this before it got to print???
This whole thing is just so bizarre to me. I posted Jesper Myfors’ latest response and I think I’m just as dumbfounded as to how this even happened. These are all the very weird things:
- Why would Dan do this hack job at all?
- Why was Dan and his agent at odds with what happened at first?
- Where were ANY art directors at WoTC, because even I can immediately see this issue.
I just don’t get any of it, it’s so weird and so poorly done and so oddly handled.
this seems like letting Dan off way too easy.
From reading comments it sounds like wotc admitted they used the wrong version. There also was a back and forth between Dan’s agent and wotc over his original submission. Dan, a classically trained artist, normally submits oil paintings. The art for this set was required to be all digital.
I very well could see Dan having submitted the work he wanted, wotc saying no, they send him Marta’s work as reference, he flips it, smudges it, tosses it on a stock background, and resubmits it as a 🖕to wotc, they shrug and print it.
This is definitely an issue on WOTC’s part. It seems like it’s a misunderstanding between WOTC and Dan over what version was intended to be used.
If WOTC wanted digital art, they should have asked a digital artist to do it.
a small gaming collective makes an indie tabletop role playing game with spurious and tangential connection to D&D
Lawyers, threats, press releases and so on.
a WoTC artist rips off another artist’s work and waits for the community to notice
“We’re all human, let’s just be friends.”
