Mariah Tekulve

@mariahtekulve.bsky.social

mariahtekulve.com | https://twitter.com/mariah_art I put pencil to paper and make stuff. WotC, HitPointPress, IoPublishing

A friend recently was reflecting that they felt art direction in games has gotten generally worse. I think it's a good use of our time & energy to celebrate the fact that while there are a lot of whiffs in the world today, the recent era has also seen some of the greatest of all time

South of MidnightMarathonSeason: A Letter to the FutureZelda: Tears of the Kingdom

a little tiny microscopic dragon, rotifers passing by. I've spent a lot of time peering down a microscope in the last few years, enjoyed taking inspiration from the real tiny organisms to make one of my own.

Watercolour and pencil illustration of a microscopic dragon sitting on a plant root. It's body is transparent and it has two rounded wings covered in beating cilia hairs. It has a long neck and blunt snout with long whiskers. Inside its neck, large jaws are visible and it has tiny black eyes.

The dragon has large claws on its feet, like a water bear, and a long segmented tail hangs down and splitting into a fork at the end. From the root, golden diatoms are growing, and sun animalcules creep along it as a group of rotifers swims past.

Spectacular Skywhale - painted for Magic: The Gathering's "Secrets of Strixhaven". I love getting to paint large celestial beings and little tiny people, so this illustration was a real joy for me. I wanted it to feel as whimsical and freeing as possible, as though you're dancing with the whale.

The artist with the paintingA painting of a magic whale, twirling through the sky, leaving a trail of magic behind it. Below it is a group of people shooting fireworks and celebrating! The Magic card "Spectacular Skywhale"