Rebecca Guay is an artist known early in her career as an

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

, commissioned for work on

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

collectible card game A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards. The genre was introduced with ''Magic: The G ...

comic books A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

, as well as work on

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

. Guay subsequently turned primarily toward gallery work, opening her first solo exhibition in 2013 at the R.Michelson Gallery.

Early life

Guay received a degree in Illustration from the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

in New York City in 1992.

Career

Early career

After graduation, Guay became an illustrator at

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...

('' 2099 Unlimited'') and landed numerous gigs at

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

and its Vertigo Imprint, like becoming the full-time penciller for '' Black Orchid'' and various work with

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

's '' Sandman'' universe. After painting the '' Magic: The Gathering'' CCG tie-in graphic novels ''The Serra Angel'' and ''Magic the Homelands'' in 1995 for

Valiant Comics Valiant Comics is an American comic books, comic book publisher, the first incarnation of which was founded in 1989 by former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter along with lawyer and businessman Steven Massarsky. In 1994, the company was ...

, Guay worked with

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

extensively on the card game itself and was commissioned for anywhere from 3 to 12 cards per release, beginning with '' Alliances'' in 1996 through the set ''Eventide'' in 2008. Other TCG/RPG outfits she has been involved with include ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'',

White Wolf Publishing White Wolf Entertainment AB, formerly White Wolf Publishing, was an American roleplaying game and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant (game publisher), Lion RampantBella Sara and ''

World of Warcraft Trading Card Game The ''World of Warcraft Trading Card Game'' (''WoW TCG'') is an out-of-print collectible card game based on Blizzard Entertainment's MMORPG, ''World of Warcraft''. The game was announced by Upper Deck Entertainment on August 18, 2005 and release ...

''.Frankel, Karen (September 2007). "Applying Rembrandt's Portrait Technique", '' American Artist'' #71(779): 34–38. Her other major clients include

Topps The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures trading cards and other collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of Baseball card, baseball and other sports and Non-sports tradi ...

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

MTV Animation MTV Animation is an American animation studio and the animation department of the television network MTV. The department's parent company is MTV Entertainment Studios, which is owned by Paramount Global. MTV Animation gained substantial popular ...

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

, Scholastic, Barefoot Books and

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

Collaborations

Guay has worked with writers such as

Jane Yolen Jane Hyatt Yolen (born February 11, 1939) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 400 books, of which the best known is '' The Devil's Arithmetic'', a Holocaust novella. H ...

(on the children's book ''Ballet Stories'' and the graphic novel adaptation of Yolen's ''The Last Dragon''),

Holly Black Holly Black (; born November 10, 1971) is an American writer and editor best known for her children's and young adult fiction. Her most recent work is the ''New York Times'' bestselling young adult ''Folk of the Air'' series. She is also well kn ...

, Louise Hawes, Alisa Kwitney, and

Bill Willingham William Willingham (born 1956) is an American writer and artist of comics, known for his work on the series '' Elementals'' and ''Fables''. Career William Willingham was born in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. During his father's military career the fam ...

on ''A Flight of Angels''.

Gallery work

After the completion of her last two painted graphic novels in 2011, she began focusing primarily on large scale gallery work done in

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

. Her gallery work focuses on the figure with the goal being a strong emotional connection to the audience. She opened her first solo exhibition in September 2013 at the R. Michelson Gallery. Her pieces have since been shown and acquired by private collectors and several museums, including the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In a crossover between her gallery work and her work in illustration, one of her pieces, ''The Visitor'', was chosen as the cover of ''Spectrum 21''.

Fandom

After the release of '' Onslaught'' (2002), it was reported on Magic the Gathering news sites that Guay had been informed that the seven works she created for the set would be her last. In what the sites reported to be her own words: "the new art director, Jeremy Cranford, thinks my work is too feminine for the vision he has for the game." Amid fan outrage, Wizards of the Coast released a statement clarifying their position — that Guay was never fired, but simply not contracted as a freelance artist for '' Legions'' (2003), and that her work would be used in future sets: :"To clear up some of the confusion, Rebecca Guay was not fired by Wizards of the Coast; she is a freelance artist who works with us from time to time. In fact, Rebecca is currently working with WotC on other projects in our Dungeons and Dragons line. In the Legions set, the creative team had to think of a way to show what happened to Otaria after Kamahl destroyed the Mirari. We decided we would show the effect of this magic by making really intense exaggerated versions of all of the creatures. We would have 'super versions' and 'hyper versions' of Soldiers, Clerics, Wizards, Zombies, Goblins, Elves, etc. Even the land would evolve over the course of Onslaught block. When selecting artists, the creative team selected artists that we felt would fit precisely within this vision of what Otaria was becoming. Even though Rebecca was not selected for work in the Legions set, Rebecca continues to be a highly valued part of our art team. Rebecca and I have discussed this and I have assured her that her art will appear in future Magic expansions." - Jeremy Cranford, Ask Wizards Wizards of the Coast used Guay's work for at least seven Magic sets and a number of other products since then. One of the commissioned works, a tribute to the controversy, appeared in the 2004 joke set '' Unhinged'': : "Persecute Artist" (1BB Sorcery - Choose an artist other than Rebecca Guay. Target player reveals his or her hand and discards all nonland cards by the chosen artist. ''The torches and pitchforks were no match for Rebecca's fans.'') A card satirizing Jeremy Cranford also appeared in Unhinged: :"Fascist Art Director" (1WW Creature — Human Horror - 2/2 WW: Fascist Art Director gains protection from the artist of your choice until end of turn. ''Dear Mr. and Mrs. Cranford, After careful analysis of Jeremy's vocational testing, I feel that he is best suited for a career in either torture or art direction.'')

Evolution

In 2014 Guay launched a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

project collecting her artworks from 1993 to 2014, ''EVOLUTION''. It was successfully funded by her fans in March of the same year (reaching over three times its intended goal of $36,000 at $124,057) and arrived from publication in January, 2015.

Teaching

Guay has been an instructor at the

and a guest lecturer at the Savannah College of Art and Design,

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the Public university, public university system of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, University of Massachusetts Lowell ...

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase th ...

and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Guay is also the creator of two professional mentorship programs, the Illustration Master Class at

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

and its online sister program, the SmArt School.

Awards and honors

Guay's work won as Best in Show at

Gen Con Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playing ...

in 2004, and she was elected Best Artist in 2005 by '' InQuest Magazine''s Fan Choice Awards. Guay's work on '' Sandman: The Book of Destiny'' was nominated for

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are awards for creative achievement in American comic books. They are regarded as the most prestigious and significant awards in the comic industry and often referred ...

in 1998, and ''Flight of Angels'' for Vertigo was a 2013

YALSA The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), established in 1957, is a division of the American Library Association. YALSA is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand the capacity of l ...

pick. Guay has received multiple awards for her gallery work and has been the recipient of several industry honors, including two gold medals from Spectrum.

Personal life

Guay resides in

Amherst, Massachusetts Amherst () is a city in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Connecticut River valley. Amherst has a council–manager form of government, and is considered a city under Massachusetts state law. Amherst is one of several Massach ...

with her husband, artist Matthew Mitchell.

References

External links

Official website, past and current work

Official website, fine art/gallery work
* *
EVOLUTION: The Art of Rebecca Guay Kickstarter Page

"Elvish Piper" Magic card

* *
Gatherer Search - Cards Illustrated by Rebecca Guay

Illustration Master Class at Amherst College

SmArt School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guay, Rebecca 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American women painters American fantasy artists American game artists American illustrators American role-playing game artists American women illustrators Artists from Massachusetts Living people Year of birth missing (living people)