If you’ve picked up a copy of Ignisynthia, one of the first things you’ll probably notice is the artwork.
From the Seven Muses of Play to the shadowy presence of Ruin, the characters and visual world of Ignisynthia were brought to life by illustrator Dan Pugh.
Dan has been part of the journey since the early days of the World of Myrth, helping us explore not only what these characters should look like, but who they are. As the artwork developed, so too did the mythology and world surrounding them.
We sat down with Dan to talk about his work, the process of creating the artwork for Ignisynthia, and what play means to him as an artist.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your art?
Hi! I'm Dan, an artist-illustrator from Newport. I studied at Cardiff School of Art & Design and have been doing freelance illustrations of all types, from a mural for a community hub, to portraiture, to costume illustrations for Netflix and Marvel. And now a card game!
How would you describe your creative style?
Style is an interesting word. I like to think myself adaptable for however a project needs to present itself, though the connective tissue through my work seems to be cartoon realism. The way I draw and paint tends to have impressionist sensibilities in how I enjoy light and colour.
What was your first impression when we introduced you to Ignisynthia and the World of Myrth?
I was incredibly excited indeed! Elliot's passion for games and design is contagious. We'd played all sorts in the past and he brings that same passion to gameplay as he does to design. I was honoured to have joined the team.
What excited you most about working on the project?
That I had the freedom to create the Muses from the ground up, and that the pantheon entwined itself in the world we were creating. The design of the characters seeded stories and fables, and fed back into the designs again, and soon a whole philosophy of play.
How did you approach creating artwork for a card game?
I started with archetypes from fantasy games we both enjoyed and produced a lot of possibilities for each Muse. We worked together to distil the more cohesive designs.
Posing the characters on the cards themselves was challenging since the centre card needs to be as readable as the peripheral cards. These characters had to be distinct from each other and visually strong, but not so much as to look like they don't belong in the same game!
Were there any themes, moods or ideas you wanted the artwork to capture?
The Muses seem like a family. Maybe a bit dysfunctional, but they're a whole. I wanted parts of their design to reflect this. Their relationship to fire, their dress, the warmth in them all.
Do you have a favourite card, character or piece of artwork from the project? Why?
Call me an edgelord, but I really enjoyed painting Ruin.
He's a bit of a standout — his relationship to fire and the spirit of play is to quash it — but painting all the colours of grey and black in him was really fun; his smouldering core showing the ribs, the veils of smoke coming off his face… I think the card looks great.
Are there any hidden details or small choices in the artwork that players might not notice at first?
The runes in the spell circle might hold a secret!
What was the most challenging part of the project?
Posing the centre splash art to fit a good profile of the character in the centre card, as well as reaching as many peripheral cards as I could. The spell circle helps puzzle them together too!
What was the most fun part of the project?
Playtesting, holding the finished game in my hands for the first time, and hearing Elliot's nascent philosophy of play.
What does “play” mean to you as an artist?
Just making stuff. Creativity for creativity's sake.
Little doodles for pals, drawing over memes, painting something you've had stuck in your head for days with no pressure to show off or sell it.
Which Muse of Play do you think best represents your creative process: Optimisation, Whimsy, Mastery, Harmony, Narrative, Chaos, or Order?
A touch of each!
Optimisation takes care of my workspace and references, Whimsy the ideas, Mastery the drafts and sketches, Harmony my theory, Narrative for the vibes, Chaos for my layer discipline, and Order for the details.
What role do you think artwork plays in helping people to enter a game and/or mythical world?
It's the entire gateway!
What would you say to someone who wants to start creating but feels intimidated?
Just start. Ask for help where you can.
Even if you don't like the result, you still did it. It's yours and there's nothing else like it.
Sure, you can't fail if you don't try, but then you've just failed to try.
Be that little kid you were with your first pack of crayons again. We all were. Some of us just didn't put the crayons down.
If you ate the crayons though, that's on you.
Dan's artwork has become inseparable from the World of Myrth we know today. The Muses didn't simply arrive fully formed: they emerged through an ongoing exchange of ideas, sketches, stories, and play between Dan and Elliot, with each new design helping to reveal a little more of the world in Elliot's mind.
And that feels rather fitting.
Because Ignisynthia was never intended to be only a card game. It is our first doorway into a much bigger world built around a simple idea:
Bringing play to life.
You can discover the Muses for yourself in Ignisynthia, available now from NRD SQD.
