Who is Udon?

Posted on November 15, 2017

I’m learning how to play Magic Online and doing so at a glacial pace. Far from trying to win a pro tour qualifier or some semblance of a championship, I’m looking for new art.

This article is the first of two that I learned from Magic Online.

Who is Udon?

Far from being a Banksy, the British “anonymous” artist known for his contradictory messages that at best are commentary on gift shops in art museums, to being downright dull in Dismaland, Udon isn’t really anonymous.

Udon isn’t a person.

Udon is an art studio, being Udon Creative technically, and is not one artist. Each artist who Magic has used under the Udon company simply wasn’t credited for their art. As each art studio differs, I recall working with Caravan Studio in the past as an art director, it’s hard to be entirely sure only the commissioned artist worked on a piece. For studios, they can delegate aspects and crediting one artist doesn’t make as much sense as a freelance artist living in Seattle.

Trying to find out more about them was more difficult than I thought, so I did some digging. I found out one of Magic’s artists actually worked for them: Marco Nelor

When I was first starting out, the idea of becoming a professional illustrator seemed so strange and far away.The guys over at udon actually gave me my first gig as a freelance illustrator, doing a drawing for one of their old tabletop games. That was almost fifteen years ago and I've grown so much since then but I never forget that they took a chance on me. It's been awesome watching them grow, and seeing how much they influence the culture. - Marco Nelor

I have been sitting on this article for a while, trying to find out who the artists were, but with one of them shutting down a DeviantArt page, the Magic community, especially those interested in art, needs to know of this mini project. We need more people asking who is who, and then celebrating their contributions to Vanguard and Magic Online avatars.

Artists I found are the following and they aren’t even the full list. Consider this a short article to get us started. They all work digitally. Also, enjoy the links to the artists at the end of the article:

Saejin Oh

Jason Ibarra

Chris Stevens

Brandon Chng (Kaizo)