Circle of Life

OK, so maybe Beast Druid hasn't exactly taken the ladder by storm just yet. What did saw a revival in popularity were Hunter and Priest. This week, I want to highlight a typical match with a Hunter player.

Turn 4 Barnes into baby Highmane.
Turn 6 Highmane.
Turn 7 Highmane.
Turn 8 Call of the Wild.
Turn 9 Call of the Wild.
Turn 10 N'Zoth, reviving all 3 Highmanes.

This is the new Hearthstone circle of life. And while the order doesn't usually go as smoothly, "Turn 4 Barnes into baby Highmane" is still extremely devastating for the opponent. 

Enough of the Hearthstone banter, let's talk process. I initially wanted to paint a piece about Purify, Priest's new card in the expansion. But I experienced a lot of difficulty getting Anduin's facial expression right. I ditched the piece after laying down the basic color scheme... hopefully I can return to it someday.

This piece was executed pretty smoothly from concept to final. I had a pretty clear idea of the final image before I began. It definitely helped that it was a parody of the famous scene from The Lion King. The composition, Barne's pose and environment setting were directly inspired from the movie. I really loved the Call of the Wild card art, and decided to go with a similar whimsical style for this piece as compared to the original, more serious, Animal Companion artwork.