MTG Primeval Force (1997)
Color shift is real
Primeval Force is available as an Artist Proof card here.
For older paintings, through about 1998 or so, my archives are challenging. Before a certain point, I didn’t have a scanner and/or was still under the pre-digital mindset. I was formed as a student right before the advent of mass-market internet and Pentium computer chips. Before digital scans, the standard way to archive art or deliver art to publishers without sending the painting was to have 4x5” or larger transparencies shot. The problem is that until you need to use that transparency, it’s hard to know if it’s actually sharp enough. And many, it turns out, were not.
A few years in, I did get a scanner. It wasn’t very good. I stopped have transparencies shot (which was costly), and started scanning at home for my own archives. I’d still mail in paintings to Wizards of the Coast and they’d shoot them professionally.
So when referencing my scan of Primeval Force, and comparing it years later to the card printings, it makes me question myself.
