The GIRUDO Artist Feature series shines the spotlight on the artists who participate in and create work for the anime, comic, fantasy, and gaming spaces. As part of GIRUDO’s launch, we commissioned original artworks from select artists to bring the GIRUDO platform to life. Today, we’re featuring one of these artists, Ben Hill.
A self-taught digital and traditional artist, Ben did not start pursuing art seriously until he was eighteen. Inspired by artists like Mucha and Arthur Rackham, he draws creativity from old fairy tales and art nouveau. In his work, he experiments with movement, texture, and pattern and tries to learn something new with every piece.
GIRUDO: How would you describe your art style and how it’s evolved, especially as it relates to commissions for Magic: the Gathering and the TCG community?
Ben Hill: I’m really happy to try to answer this question because I’ve been trying to work on being mindful of my artistic journey recently — I would personally describe my work as atmospheric and moody and I absolutely love flowing motion that leads the eye around the piece. If there is one word to describe what I try to think about to guide my thought process starting a new piece, and what I hope someone viewing my work for the first time would feel seeing them, it’s unexpected.
I grew up loving the work of MTG artists that created really interesting pieces early on in MTG’s history, and I love how that has inspired so much appreciation for art by the community many years since. As my work has evolved since my first card I feel very passionately about pushing my work with each piece in the hopes of making them feel more interesting in the way that when the cards are pulled out of packs or played on the table, there is a moment of enjoyment and appreciation for the art.
GIRUDO: We are in love with the art piece you created for us, which I believe you call The Necro Matron. Tell us your inspiration for the work. What’s going on here?
Ben: This piece evolved a lot from the moment I started it; I’ve never repainted a piece as much as this one before, and I’m really grateful to the Girudo team for being so patient with me while I worked through it. I ended up spending over 100 hours on it and over 95,000 brush strokes apparently. The initial idea was to start a painting that I didn’t have a concrete idea for and work out the details in an iterative way.
I started with some great mood inspiration from a prompt from Winona Nelson’s Smartschool class: “Show a deathly beautiful necromancer in their lair,” with some really fun mood notes that really inspired me — “Join me or oppose me, I don’t care which; you will soon be my thrall regardless.”
It was fun to play with the various thralls and undead servants catering to their matron’s needs in various ways; my favorite part is the three pawns playing chess with fingers, arguing which one has to use their last fingers for more pieces.
GIRUDO: Our founder, Ted, has been a fan of yours for a long time. He remembers chatting with you at one of your earliest events in Orlando when you had just completed one or two works for Magic. What’s it like to be part of the MTG community and to have your works so loved now by many fans?
Ben: Meeting Ted was super memorable because he happened upon my booth and actually bought my first MTG artist proof that I had ever done a drawing on; it was a little cat warrior and it so happened that Ted collects cat APs! I think we both thought it was a fun little coincidence. After that, we kept running into each other at a bunch of different events.
It genuinely has been a very heartwarming experience being a part of the community and I hope to keep contributing my work on future projects and getting to meet new people at events. It’s always lovely to have familiar faces come around to say hello!
GIRUDO: You’ve illustrated quite a wide range of works in terms of subject matter and style. For example, Consign to Memory is like an abstract / surrealist piece, while Path of Annihilation is a landscape. What are you looking forward to illustrating next? Is there a “dream” commission you’d like to get?
Ben: I definitely found a passion for painting abstract pieces and playing with my paintings with the surrealist stuff. I would love doing more of that, and I love the schematic stuff that I’ve gotten to do. They were really fun and I’m always wanting to draw more.
A dream commission would be some kind of tree of great importance. I love trees so much and the project closest to that dream has been Path of Annihilation.
GIRUDO: We always ask — what message do you have for the GIRUDO community? What do you want them to hear about or learn from you?
Ben: I find it really important that we all try to support each other in ways that we can. The motto “Never Alone. Better Together.” really resonates with me.
I love the appreciation for art in this community and how it can be so inspiring for newer artists as well. I’d love to help in any way that I can with anyone who has any questions about painting or getting into card art and illustration! I had a ton of help from my mentors along the way and those before me and I want to pay it forward.
