Sketches by Request: Toil to Renown

Welcome a special edition of Sketches: by request! We got an email from a gentleman by the name of "Bo". We assume he's a gentleman, anyway; in our imaginations, all readers of magicthegathering.com are very refined and are probably wearing top hats and monocles. And even when you yell at us in the forums, we like to imagine that you delicately cock your pinky in the universal signifier for refinement.

1. Art Description

Here's the original art description for Toil to Renown:

Action: Talara Many-Tined is a young elf warrior of great renown. She guards an elvish safehold built around a waterfall, one of the only relatively beautiful places on this world. Here we see Talara in long robes, standing in the shallows below the falls, bringing her sword to rest on the head of a fellow elf who's kneeling, as though she's knighting her. There should be a sense of strong, benevolent, nature magic.
Mood: We will find a way to celebrate life in this bleak place.

2. Sketches

The card was assigned to Larry MacDougall, who turned this in:

3. Final Art

When the art came in, it was still a little too bright. The background was darkened to bring up the sense of hope and valor in a dark place.

4. Card

And here's the card as you can see it in booster packs.