Artist Portfolio
Artist Steve Prescott has illustrated 72 Magic cards. He's been in Sketches before, for Enlisted Wurm and Stonehewer Giant.
Art Description
The first step of the creation of a card's art is its art description. The art description tells the artist what the card will do, what its flavor is, and what the mood of the illustration should be. Here were the instructions Steve was given for Fauna Shaman:
Color: Green creature
Action: Show a beautiful female elven shaman in the woods. She's performing a ceremony in sacred garb that has many animal elements -- feathers, claws, bits of fur, and small animal fetishes crafted from these animal elements.
Mood: She's in touch with the mysteries of the woodland animals
Sketch
Armed with that art description, Steve submitted a sketch to Magic's creative team:
Fauna Shaman | Sketch by Steve Prescott
Looks great, right? Right! Let's see the final version.
Final Art
Fauna Shaman | Art by Steve Prescott
We'd like to be able to claim that the toad is the same one from Lars Grant-West's Goblin Balloon Brigade ... so we will! So what if it probably wasn't intentional and neither Lars nor Steve (nor anyone in the creative team) has signed off on this claim?
Finished Card
And here's what the effigy in question looks like in Magic 2011 packs: