Seb McKinnon

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Seb McKinnon
General Information
Born Montreal, Canada
Status Inactive: Magic 2013 to Dominaria United
Education/ Training Dawson College[1]
Scryfall Statistics

Seb McKinnon is a Canadian former Magic: The Gathering artist. His artwork was first printed in Magic 2013, and over the following decade, he was prolific and popular. He launched multiple highly successful Kickstarter campaigns, selling merchandise with his Magic artwork to fund his other projects.

In 2022, McKinnon attended and promoted the Canada convoy protest, which had formed in response to the Canadian response to COVID-19. That protest was associated with anti-vaccination and far-right causes.[2] Despite McKinnon's assertions that his support was not related to those elements,[3][4] Wizards of the Coast has not printed new artwork by McKinnon since the year of the protest.

Education and art style

McKinnon graduated from the Illustration and Design program at Dawson College.[1] He credits his mother with his early interest in art, and names Alan Lee, John Bauer, and John William Waterhouse as influences.[5][6] Among contemporary artists, he admires Ivan Solyaev.[7] He has collaborated with Rebecca Guay, whose art attracted him to Magic.

McKinnon favors watercolors and digital painting. In either medium, he stresses the importance of letting the medium express itself and not thinking too much.[5] He is interested in themes of childhood, innocence, decay, time, rebirth, eerie beauty, and melancholy.[8] His artwork has been described as a mix of macabre and fairy tale.[9] Critics have praised his traditional style, in contrast to overtly digital artwork, while others have credited him with forcing audiences to appreciate the artwork itself before questioning the media used.[10][11]

Work for Wizards of the Coast

Stasis won a Spectrum Award.

McKinnon submitted his portfolio to Wizards after graduating from college, and was commissioned by Senior Art Director Jeremy Jarvis to create the art for Attended Knight. In October 2018, he participated in a "concept push", an extended brainstorming session for the then-upcoming Magic products.[8] While he worked for Wizards, art directors often assigned him black cards (roughly one-third of his total output).[7]

His artwork for a Magic Online-only promo of Stasis, released in 2017, won a Spectrum Award.[5]

Secret Lair

McKinnon was the first artist to be featured in the Artist Series of Secret Lair Drops.[12] His brother Liam wrote some of the flavor text.[13] He described his process for the Artist Series in a Twitter thread.[14]

Controversy

In early 2022, McKinnon faced criticism for advocating for an anti-vaccine mandate rally associated with white supremacists.[2] Wizards of the Coast generally does not comment on such matters, but has not printed new artwork by McKinnon since the year of the incident, when he illustrated a cycle of basic lands in Dominaria United. As of 2025, several of his older artworks continue to be reprinted.

Other work

With his brother Ben, Seb started a film production company, Five Knights Productions. In 2013, they released KIN, a short film that won the Best Cinematography awards at both the Montreal Fantasia Film Festival and the Cyprus International Film Festival. In 2015, they published two more short films set in the same Kin Fables universe, Salvage and Requiem. Ben died in 2016, and another brother, Liam, joined Seb to work on KIN Fables: The Stolen Child, a feature film honoring Ben.

In addition to illustration and filmmaking, McKinnon produces music under the name CLANN.[5]

McKinnon has funded his other projects via Kickstarters offering playmats with his Magic artwork. As of 2025, the most successful of these had raised more than $1.4M CAD against a goal of just $30,000.[15] Artists Sheya Chen, Nils Hamm, Drew Tucker, Rebecca Guay, and Erin Vest have contributed guest art to stretch goals for his Kickstarters.[16][17][18]

Gallery

External links

References

  1. ↑ a b c Seb McKinnon Interview - Dragon Shield (en-US). Dragon Shield (2022-10-05). Archived from the original on 2024-09-19.
  2. ↑ a b MTG artist supports anti-vax white supremacist movement (en). cardsrealm.com. Archived from the original on 2025-05-07.
  3. ↑ Seb McKinnon on Instagram (en). Instagram (2022-02-01).
  4. ↑ Seb McKinnon on X (en). X (formerly Twitter) (2022-02-09).
  5. ↑ a b c d Evan Symon (2021-05-27). "An Interview with 'Magic' artist Seb McKinnon (en)". magicuntapped.com. Archived from the original on 2025-01-14.
  6. ↑ Christian Tobehn (May 20, 2020). "Interview with Artist Seb McKinnon". Cardmarket.com.
  7. ↑ a b Rhystic Studies. "The Magic Art of Seb McKinnon (en)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2025-01-29.
  8. ↑ a b Donny Caltrider (2019-01-10). "Behind the Brush: Seb McKinnon (en-US)". Hipsters of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2025-04-03.
  9. ↑ The Art of Magic: The Gathering / Seb McKinnon (en). ASTRAL NOIZE (2021-04-29). Archived from the original on November 30, 2023.
  10. ↑ Joshua Nelson (2020-07-05). "Magic: The Gathering Art Spotlight: Seb McKinnon (en)". Bleeding Cool News And Rumors. Archived from the original on 2025-02-23.
  11. ↑ Vorthos Mike. "Archenemy Nicol Bolas Art Review (en)". www.coolstuffinc.com. Archived from the original on 2024-12-25.
  12. ↑ Announcing Secret Lair's Secretversary Superdrop (en). MAGIC: THE GATHERING. Archived from the original on May 7, 2025.
  13. ↑ Donny Caltrider (2020-12-03). "Delving Into Seb McKinnon's Artist Series Secret Lair (en-US)". Hipsters of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2025-03-18.
  14. ↑ Magic: The Gathering Artist Seb McKinnon Shares Behind-the-Scenes Story of His New Secret Lair (en-US). Epicstream (2020-11-24). Archived from the original on 2025-05-07.
  15. ↑ Seb McKinnon (en). Kickstarter (2018-04-14).
  16. ↑ Seb McKinnon Magic the Gathering Playmats: LIMITED EDITION 2 (en). Kickstarter (2020-02-10).
  17. ↑ Seb McKinnon Magic the Gathering Playmats: LIMITED EDITION 3 (en). Kickstarter (2021-02-16).
  18. ↑ Seb McKinnon Magic the Gathering Playmats: LIMITED EDITION 4 (en). Kickstarter (2024-05-12).
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