Originally published July 1994 in Duelist #2
Freelance artist Quinton Hoover was born in 1964 in, of all places, Fruita, Colorado. He makes his home in rural eastern Oregon, and works out of his basement. He has one wife, four kids, an idiot dog, and a snotty little cat. He has a Masters Degree in Nothing from the College He Failed to Finish. In his spare time he likes to fish, wander the local wilderness with his family, and generally put as little effort into anything as possible.
Quinton claims to have done much small press work in his earlier days which now is "out of print or hard to track down." He has also worked with numerous comic publishers, including Cat's Paw, Sky Comics, Jabberwocky Graphix, and Palliard Press. His current comic titles include Morgana X andTwilight Agency: Vampire's Curse. In the adventure gaming industry, his credits include numerous illustrations for White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast. Quinton has done work for all of the Magic releases and intends to keep it up as long as his luck holds.
On the way here, Jesper and I were talking about how you became involved with Wizards of the Coast, but I haven't heard the whole story.
Well, I was in the right place at the right time with the right samples, really. Jesper was on an art director's panel, and he was the only art director that showed up. Kev Brocksmidt and I were the only ones that showed up to listen to anybody talk. Jesper mentioned that Wizards was looking for artists. I had some color samples out in my trunk--I'd brought them hoping to pick up some color advice-- so I went and got them, and it went from there. I didn't feel that strongly about my color work, so I was a little surprised that Jesper had work for me the next Monday. I learned more about color this year, just working on Magic stuff, then I had any clue about before.
That's strange, it doesn't show.
It was a matter of having to do it and get it right. There were a couple that I wish I had done differently now.
In your Magic work there is a very...unearthly quality. Even the lines are so strong, it has sort of the sharpness that mythical figures have rather than the sharpness that real, everyday sorts of scenes have.
I noticed that when I saw them reproduced. I didn't notice it so much in the originals. But when I saw them reproduced on the cards the impression I got was that they looked almost like animation cells -- had that kind of layered look to it which surprised me.
Jesper describes your Magic style as 'very art nouveau.'
There are a lot of different influences -- a lot of it's comics, and a lot depends on subject matter. Some is very Wrightson influenced, some -- particularly the older stuff -- will show a lot of Frazetta. Mucha. Michael Kaluta. A lot of comics people: Neal Adams, Don Newton, John Buscema. Barry Windsor-Smith.
Has Magic affected your artwork at all?
The work hasn't changed so much, but I am more confident with it. I am a little bit more willing to experiment rather than be so safe with it. There have been some stylistic changes in the cards I've done but I think that I had more to do with the subject matter than anything conscious. The Legends cards didn't seem to call for the same kind of style as The Dark cards and the Jyhad cards.
What about the style and subject matter of Magic -- is there an overall feel that's different from Jyhad?
Not in my work, personally. Actually I was kind of worried about that; I thought they might be expecting something a little more interurban in style than what I came up with but I figured I was safest with sticking with what I knew best. The vampire thing plays into my tastes, anyway--I like horror and dark stuff. It's fun. There has been at least one of my cards in every other set that just made me cringe, but with Jyhad, I was happy with all of them.
Do you have a style that you prefer at this point?
I'm pretty happy with the basic style I've been using with the Magic cards--the ink, watercolor, color pencil technique. I don't know -- I'd like to get more of the effect Barry Windsor-Smith gets with watercolor alone, but I lack the patience to wait between layers of glazing, and, really, the skill to pull it off. But the colored pencil works out pretty well.
How long does it take you to do an average piece?
I would say I probably spend ten to twelve hours--not per piece, but on average. Some pieces go really quickly, some get a lot of reworking. Like Doppelganger: everyone seems to like it but me. I felt like I still had a lot of work to do on it -- there was tracing, and redrawing, and I was playing with the airbrush, too, which is still a learning process for me.
I was going to ask you about Doppelganger. It's hugely popular, everybody knows it and everybody loves it. Does that surprise you? Do you have other pieces in Magic that you think were better?
Oh, as far as being drawn well, I think most of them were better, with the exception, maybe, of Darkpact, because of the proportion problems. I think Nettling Imp or Regeneration would probably be my favorite from the first set. I think they're both much better drawn cards than Doppelganger, but that one is the one that people come up to me with, the one they want autographed and the original people still ask to buy.
Do you keep in touch with what's going on in the fantasy industry at all?
As much as I can. But it's tough being a fantasy artist in this area. Most of the artists around here are western, wildlife, or traditional artists. There's not much interest in fantasy art, and not much readily available.
How has fantasy art changed in the last ten years, in your experience?
From looking at book covers and such, the one thing I have noticed is that the art seems to have gone from more artistic to being straight illustration. I'm not altogether happy with that. I don't like a photorealistic fantasy world. So many artists obviously use photos or posed models, and they use that atmosphere -- there's no life to it. I associate it with Boris, because he was the main person doing this style And the Hildebrandts, too. Yeah, and the Hildebrandts. They had a little more...pure creative stuff in theirs, I think. Look, Boris is an incredible artist--what he does he does very well--but if you don't like that style...I've seen it going in that direction: posed and lifeless. Too much fantasy art is technically perfect, but has no feeling. It's kind of funny -- it's exactly the sort of thing you hear people complain about with Norman Rockwell, but I see much more mood and character and pure fantasy in his stuff than in much of today's popular fantasy art.
For example, I don't do a lot of reasearch for my work, unless it really has to be accurate. I don't keep a photo file -- I'll look things up. I looked up Ball Lightning and Land Leeches for cards in The Dark. That's the one nice thing about the repetitiveness of comics: there are a lot of things you just pick up, and they stick with you.
Are there other artists or authors who are sort of touchstones for your own artistic imagination?
Stephen King is probably my favorite author. Simply because he is a consistent story teller, and he appeals to the blue collar audience. I really enjoy his work. Probably my all-time favorite book is Lord of the Flies -- the imagery throughout the book just stuns me. I would love to do a graphic novel version, but I don't know if I could do it right. Even though it's a realistic book, it doesn't put realistic pictures in your head. Everything is blown up bigger than life.
I used to read more, but I haven't had time in the past couple of years. It's been about a year since I've read anything other than newspapers, magazines, and the occasional graphic novel. I used to read quite a bit of fantasy--not that much science fiction, but a lot of fantasy. And loads of comic books. Anymore, though, comic books kind of suck.
What do you mean?
I'm not really into super heroes, which is mainly what the market has been taken up by. That's pretty much what the nearest comic shop carries: DC, Marvel, Image -- mostly superheroes. There aren't a lot of fantasy titles being published, anyway, or science fiction. You know, I used to like horror comics. That's what got me into comics: Swamp Thing, House of Secrets. Berni Wrightson was the first artist I could recognize by style. We were going on a trip back to Colorado to see family and my mom bought Initial Swamp Thing for me-- the last one he worked on, number 10 . I've still got it in one of my boxes; it's all beat up; I just fell in love with that comic book! Then I realized I had seen his work in the other mystery titles and what-not and then later on... But I never had a taste for super heroes. Right now the market doesn't have a whole lot to offer.
So you got into comics as a comic reader when you were a kid?
Yes. It wasn't until high school that I realized that it might be something to look into as a profession. I always drew, but I never had any direction. I went through a big Conan phase and discovered that with a friend that I hung out with. We did a lot of that stuff and that's what basically got me into fantasy, too. I wandered from there into Tolkien and Shannara, the Thomas Covenant books...I read a lot of that stuff and when I got into Conan, John Carter, Warlord of Mars was out and a couple of Tarzan comics -- a number of fantasy titles. They dried up and blew away shortly after that. I think Warlord was the last hold out from the original comics that I read.
I was a pretty big Batman fan -- I belonged to a Batman fan club. When the first Batman movie came out, DC squashed us like a bug. I kind of lost interest after that. There were books I might have enjoyed, but avoided because of interviews with their creators. They would come across as rather arrogant and snotty, and I couldn't get past that. It's stupid, I know; interviews don't always show people in their best light.
We could make you come across as arrogant, if you'd like. Yeah, we could do anything.
It's funny; the image I get most often is that people think I'm really business-like and straight-laced. They seem to have the impression that I have this very strict work ethic and that I'm very diligent and very, I don't know, stodgy I guess, and they're always surprised when they meet me face to face.
I kind of help that I think. Oh, how do you do that? Well, the way I talk about him. You talk about him being straight-laced and snotty? No, I talk about his work ethic.
I do put a lot of work into it. But I don't work as diligently as I should, and I'm lazy. I also have four kids at home, and you can't always plan a schedule around that. I think a lot of it is my correspondence. I respect good letter-writing, and when I've had the time to sort my thoughts out, and actually put something coherent down... Now it's just chaos? Yeah -- now it's just chaos. I've by and large lost my ability to communicate with adults -- being with kids and being house husband for ten years, it does that to you. Being largely isolated, too; we've always lived in small communities.
What does your family think of your work?
They like it. My kids think it's neat that I draw. I don't think they quite understand that that's what I do to turn a buck. The concept of actually working -- that it's a job -- doesn't quite sink in. None of them have shown any real artistic inclination, though. Patrick's the jock type; Justin, the criminal mastermind. Aaron's at that age when he's picking up most of his personality from other kids, so he goes through a lot of different stages. Alyssa's going though that typical prepubescent-teenager thing -- one big, dramatic sigh. My wife's interest in fantasy is basically an extension of what I do. Fran's more conservative than I am, but I think that has a stabilizing effect on both of us -- we're not both off in our own worlds. She keeps me in line.
Well, what kind of work do you do other than the Magic cards?
Basically, I'm doing some comic book work -- Morgana X-- for whom, right now, we don't know. Who's "we"? Alan Freeman and I. He created the character. I'm working from a short story that he wrote, co-scripting it. I pencil, he inks and does the color for the cover. I'm also working on Twilight Agency: Vampire's Curse with Lia Graf. That doesn't have a publisher right now, either, but it's an interesting story--if we can get an audience for it, it will do well. Other than that, some non-Magic illustrations for WotC, and some stuff for White Wolf.
How is your comic work different from the other fantasy art that you do?
Instantly there is a genre change. One of the comics I work on is science fiction -- well, more space opera/ high-tech adventure, really -- and the other is a dark fantasy/horror type of thing. Plus, I'm working with inkers in both cases. That gets difficult sometimes, particularly when you're working through the mail. Allen lives in Kentucky, and Lia lives in California, and I've never met either one face to face. It's an interesting way to work. And strange, sometimes. I mean, inking's tough--it's tough to keep the penciller's personality and style in there and still keep yours in there. Sometimes it doesn't work.You try to play to the inker's strengths. Lia has a much more graphic style, so I try to keep things less cluttered and detailed for her. Allen, on the other hand, can build and cross-hatch, and he knows how to deal with different types of shading. They're two very different styles.
Would you say that your focus is comics?
It was. I started off with fantasy stuff. Comics were interesting, but I always wanted to be Frank Frazetta, and do big, fancy paintings for a living. There's a lot of work in comics, and it can be repetitive and monotonous -- and sometimes it is hard to stay interested. I've had a couple of bad experiences with small companies (their fault and mine), and I'm not productive enough to work for the big boys, so I don't know if I have much of a future in comics.
Now if you say you are interested in painting comic books nobody looks at you funny. Is that true?
Now it's a lucrative market and there is some artistic merit. But back in school, fourteen years ago, ten years ago, comic books were considered a waste of time. "Why don't you spend your time on something real and important, something meaningful?" All of that stuff was pretty much written off, so I had a hard time in art classes.
Small press are accused of killing comics. The claim is that small presses cluttered the market and the market didn't grow significantly and now there are so many people in line for the attention of the consumer that a lot of companies went out of business. What's your experience with that?
Well, I worked on the truly small level -- people making home-made comics, and selling or trading them through the mail. It had very little effect on the commercial market. Basically you weren't in it for the money, you were in it for the joy of doing it. There were very few people that I can think of that made any real money doing that. But it was a great place to learn. I did quite a lot of stuff, and the practice and the feedback were invaluable. And the variety -- something for every taste. I hooked up with a lot of good people, including Allen and Lia.
How do you work? Do you sketch a lot, or--
I don't. I'm not much of a sketcher at all. I haven't had an active sketch book for quite some time. I usually have a good picture in my head of what I want. A lot of times I will actually -- I do everything the wrong way -- I will actually start on a specific area of a drawing and build out from there. That's often worked very well for me, but I think every teacher I've had told me not to do that. You know: build your composition, block everything in, then tighten it up. I just was never comfortable working that way.
What kind of formal training do you have?
Not much. I took that "Draw Tippy" course...
Did you?
Yeah, I did-- about half of it, then the art stuff started to take off. Actually, it was very good, because they didn't discourage comic-style artists or cartoonists. And they made me go back and do all the basic work that I never wanted to do in high school art classes -- the stuff I skipped over and should have learned. Like contour drawing? Exactly, contour drawing, all the basic stuff that you hated doing but, yeah, it really was useful later on. Breaking things down into cones and cylinders and spheres and all of that stuff. Did you do the crumpled paper with contour lines? No, I didn't do that. How about the leaf? No. Your hand? No. Oh. Those were the three that I had to do all the time.
Did you expect when you started working on Magic that it would have such an impact on you?
No, I just thought that I was just going to pick up a couple of extra bucks and that would be the end of it. I didn't really realize the magnitude of it until this year's Norwescon. I mean Jesper had been telling me that it's big, and other people told me that it was big but I didn't have any idea just how big. I got up there and I was just stunned.
How has Magic influenced your existence as an artist?
It's improved my attitude. The Magic cards have been the most fun thing I've done in a long time. They seem less like work, and more creative.
Is that because of the freedom you're given in doing them?
The freedom is a lot of it. And it was nice to get back to the root stuff. It made me want to work. I'd been going through a long period where I didn't want to work, when it was hard to sit at that drawing board and come up with something. The gaming work has been a welcome diversion, and it's kept me interested. It's also helped me improve my work a bit, too.
Is that strictly because of your own work, or are you being influenced by other Magic artists?
A lot of it has to do with deadlines -- the simple fact the work has to be done, it has to be presentable. Just working on my own I tend to develop really slowly; if I'm working for a purpose, a certain project that has to be done by a certain time with a degree of professionalism to it -- I learn a lot more during those periods and improve more quickly. What's the term? "Needs must when the devil drives." As for the other Magic artists, I don't know if it's influence, or a certain sense of competition.
Are there Magic expansions or projects that are coming up that you'd want to work on?
The Tolkien one. When we start getting into tie-ins with other people's universes--I can see where that could go in some interesting directions. I mean, personally, I could see a Stephen King-based Magic game would be a lot of fun. You know, as far as kind of the images you could get. Pern, too.
Would you ultimately like more visibility as either a Magic artist or a fantasy artist or a comic artist? Keep in mind you have no choice because this is going into The Duelist.
That's true, it is kind of a strange question: "50,000 people would like to know if--" I don't mind the exposure. I enjoy it when people recognize my name and come up to me. It hasn't reached a nuisance stage -- I mean , being pretty isolated, it hasn't ever been a problem. Right now I'm happy with my level of fame. It's bigger than I realize, but not so big that everybody knows who I am. It's comfortable. I was surprised at how many people knew who I was at Norwescon, and I wasn't prepared for it. It was fun -- just realizing how big the game was, hearing that it'd outsold Trivial Pursuit in its first year... And Pictionary. Wow. I thought, my god, I'm involved with a monster.
This might swell your head a bit, but most people list you as one of their favorite artists in the game, if not the favorite.
Sometimes that bothers me. I shouldn't worry about pleasing people so much but I realize that this is a commercial venture, so there is a certain obligation to at least produce the same quality of work that you were producing in the past. There's a bit of pressure involved with that.
Personally, I would have a hard time thinking of a favorite artist. There are so many good artists. From a purely artistic stand point, Drew Tucker's work just blows me away. Honestly, there wasn't anybody's work I didn't like. That's unusual -- to have that many different artists in one place and not have somebody that just made you go "ugh." I'd love to collaborate with some of the other artists. There were a lot of people who were influenced by the same people you were. Daniel Gelon was, I was, Chris Rush was, yet all of the styles are different. Yeah. That's the one thing I think I am most pleased with about my work: it doesn't really look like anything else in the set. Maybe that's what attracts people to them. If I could have one wish, it would be to see my work through other people's eyes. Because I have a hard time looking at my own stuff and seeing past the technique. I see it the way I drew it. Obviously I don't see what other people are seeing because I get a much better reaction to my work than I think it deserves. I don't understand the fuss. I mean, only eighteen of my Magic pieces have made it out on the market so far.
There is another one, isn't there, a one-of-a-kind card which Richard Garfield commissioned?
Yes. That was cool. Richard was planning to propose to his girlfriend, Lily. He had this idea to use the game to do it. I hadn't met or even talked to Richard at that point. But shortly after The Gathering came out, I get this call from him, right out of nowhere. He said he liked my work, and asked if I would do the artwork for his proposal card. Man, I was really...incredibly flattered. I did up a piece of him proposing to her, you know, in a fantasy setting. He had Dave Howell make it up in secret, and as I understand it, he played the card in a game around Thanksgiving. I heard it took three Magic games before the card turned up! Well, she accepted. Richard tells me she really liked the card. I wish them a long and happy marriage. I met Richard briefly this spring -- I liked him. Besides, if it went sour, there'd be that guilt by association thing...I might be out of a job...