Project BREAKDOWN
BRINGING RESET TO MAGIC THE GATHERING
DATE UPLOADED: April 2026
PROJECT TYPE: Personal Project
PROJECT FOCUS: Illustration
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
What started as a simple assignment that I created for my concept art students at Syntra AB in Belgium, ended up becoming a personal passion project for myself. I brought my RESET universe into the world of Magic the Gathering as a fun way to expand my illustrative portfolio while teaching my students about illustration.
The first part of this project can be viewed through this video.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
The idea for this assignment emerged when I noticed that several students in my concept art course were passionate about trading card games such as Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon. During lunch breaks, we often found ourselves discussing our favorite cards, which naturally led to the question: why not create our own?
Since the course already included an illustration module, it felt like a perfect opportunity to turn that enthusiasm into a structured learning experience. Inspired by the students’ excitement, I developed an assignment that guided them through the entire creative process—from initial thumbnails to the final illustration. This approach allowed them to revisit core composition principles while strengthening their storytelling skills.
The assignment unfolded over 11 sessions, during which students developed their ideas, documented their concepts, created mood boards for reference, and progressed step by step through the thumbnailing process. They were free to choose an existing trading card game to design for, or to create an original concept for those who preferred more creative freedom. As you can see, I took this opportunity to integrate my RESET universe into the assignment.
ILLUSTRATING THE FIRST CARD
Once the thumbnailing phase was complete, students selected their three strongest concepts and developed them into final illustrations, one by one. To support this process, I created my own card designs alongside them, providing live demonstrations throughout. My work was projected onto a large classroom screen, allowing students to follow each step in real time.
To make the learning experience even more accessible, I recorded the entire process and uploaded it to my YouTube channel, enabling students to revisit the material whenever needed. The first part of this process can be viewed in the video featured at the top of this project breakdown.
For my own work, I began by creating a series of exploratory thumbnail paintings based on visual ideas from my RESET universe. These evolved into a set of three illustrations, the first of which you can see right here. It features a group of girls from a small but dangerous gang known as the Cyanide Razor Dolls, who specialize in kidnapping and ransoming their victims.
