Truitt Parrish flies in from Colorado for Siege at the Core

Truitt Parrish paints in oils in Colorado, and in December he is bringing his work to Zaventem. He is at Quartier Papier on Friday and Saturday, the Grand Contest day, signing cards and bringing his own art. In the note he sent us, he wrote:

I am so happy I get the opportunity to meet some European fans of the game and my art.

A giant for the siege

This is the third Siege at the Core and we are excited to have the artist behind the Siege Giant in attendance.

It is one of our favourite cards in Arthurian Legends, and it catches opponents off guard more often than a 4-cost minion should. The artwork humorously depicts a giant throwing a knight over to another site. If you look closely, he even deposits the knight neatly over the castle’s wall.

There are three giants in the scene, the same number of copies an Exceptional lets you play. A nice touch.

If there is one card made for a weekend called Siege, this is it. Do not forget to bring your copies to have them signed.

Siege Giant, from Arthurian Legends. Exceptional, and on theme.

Two armies, one battlefield

On Crusade, knights under white banners with red crosses charge to the right across pale sand, a few on horseback, most on foot. On Jihad, riders on camels and men on foot charge to the left across the same sand, under crescent banners, with arrows already in the air. Lay the two cards side by side, Crusade on the left, and the charges meet in the middle under one sky.

Crusade and Jihad, from Alpha and Beta. Two cards, one battle.

Both are his, and they show the same battlefield from both sides: Earth against Fire.

Then there is the curio, one of the very rare variant cards collectors find in Sorcery boosters. One of the Beta curios is a Steppe, and it shows Crusade and Jihad together on a single card. The regular Steppe is “An Exceptional Site of Earth and Fire”, which is exactly the match for the elements of the auras.

If you want to know more about these cards, his table is the place to ask.

Oft mistaken for a dragon

Of his ten Arthurian Legends cards, the one he calls his favourite is Wyvern. A green wyvern spreads its wings over a rocky slope, jaws open, while a man crouches among the rocks below with his sword held low. He painted it with Sigurd and Fafnir in mind, the hero and the dragon of Norse legend.

The card does not entirely agree. Its type line is in on the joke, “An Exceptional Beast, oft mistaken for a Dragon”, and the flavour text finishes it: “Godric braced himself, assured that dragon-fire would give him a swift end. He was disappointed.”

Wyvern, from Arthurian Legends. His favourite of the ten.

Blessings, a well, and a witch trial

Gothic, the latest set, has six of his cards, and four of them are about faith or related themes.

On Bless, a bishop in gold vestments swings a censer over a young man. Pilgrim’s Shrine is a path through a dark forest, with a stop to rest one’s weary head. Blessed Well is a small wooden well alone on a green hill, under a wide blue sky with light breaking through behind it. All three cards give Ward as a show of faith.

On his own website he describes himself as an oil painter, and it shows. The clouds over Blessed Well are laid on in strokes you could almost count.

The fourth is the other side of faith. On Trial by Fire, a woman stands in the flames at the stake while a man in front of her lifts a book over his head. The flavour text: “The tongues of flame sing truer than the tongues of witches!”

Two holy wars in Alpha, then a blessing, a pilgrimage, and a witch trial in Gothic. Faith keeps turning up in his cards, the kind side and the cruel side.

Bless, Pilgrim’s Shrine, Blessed Well, and Trial by Fire, from Gothic.

The other two go completely elsewhere: on De Vermis Mysteriis a pale, antlered worm uncoils out of an open book, and on Thin Ice a horned giant goes through the ice while his axe goes on without him.

How do you get from knights to an eldritch horror crawling out of a book? Ask him at his table.

At his table

Truitt is at Quartier Papier on Friday and Saturday. He signs cards, and he brings his artwork. Come for the signatures and the conversation.

His portfolio is at truittparrish.com, his artist page is on sorcerytcg.com, and on Instagram he can be found at @truittparrishdesigns.

The Siege Giant gets its knights across by throwing them. The rest of us use the registration page.