Nene Tina Thomas began her professional career in 1994 when she was approached by wizards of the Coast to contribute work to the popular card game, "Magic: the Gathering",  Her work with Wizard's of the Coast can still be seen in the forth and fifth expansions, Antiquities, Legends, The Dark, Homelands and the new "Magic: The Gathering" CD ROM Game.  Some of the other card games that feature her work are Shadowfist, Legend of the Five Rings, Galactic Empires, Tempest of the Gods, Wyrmwars, Gridiron, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, Xenophiles, and Battlelords of the 23rd Century.

    She has completed cover or interior artwork for many publications including Cryptech, Paper Mayhem, The Leading Edge and Scrye Magazine

     Nene's collectors come from every walk of  life as well as nearly every age group.  They are all drawn to the beauty, grace, and lyricism of her exquisite paintings all rendered in watercolor!  This is an exceptionally difficult medium few can master!  

    Nene continues to smash through preconceived notions of what a watercolor painting should look like with her exuberantly colorful award wining pieces such as Faery of Ravens or Dragon Moon.  Nene's style has been described as "...masterful paintings of startling complexity, as she is unafraid to chart new waters and blaze new trails...".  Nene's paintings have a mass appeal that both compliments & transcends the fantasy market.  What will the future bring Nene's?  One thing is certain, she will  not be content to rest on her laurels!

Nene Currently lives in Oklahoma City with her husband Steven Plagman, who is also her framer and fancy mat cutter.  Nene spends her days sketching, researching, painting and playing with her three cats, Shadowfax, Snowmane and Leilani.  She has three sisters and two brothers, all of them artistic and musically talented.  She doesn't smoke, drink, swear, or gamble, - but she is horribly addicted to Ice skating, The Sims, and Heroes of Might and Magic.  Aw,  no one's perfect!

Nene's Painting Techniques

When I go to a convention, people always ask me what medium I work in and how I come up with my ideas. Here goes!

I work on Archival heavy-weight hot-press illustration board, and I use both pen and ink and watercolor...mostly watercolor. I prefer using Windsor & Newton tube watercolors, and red sable brushes. The pen work is done using Rapidograph and Croquil pens.

I am constantly coming up with new ideas and before I forget them, I put them on paper as quickly as possible in a very rough format. A piece usually starts as a small doodle on a scrap of tracing paper, no larger than 4"x5" or so. My husband and I call this a "little sketch" and I do them for relaxation and fun. In fact, I enjoy doing these sketches so much that only one "little sketch" in a hundred will ever make it to a finished painting.

After I find a sketch that I really like, I enlarge it using a DB400 Artograph machine (basically, a machine that takes an image and projects it up to a thousand times its original size) onto the back of a scrap piece of matte board. Matte board is very thick and I can erase and erase without tearing through the paper. I refine the sketch on the matte board until I feel happy with it. Then, I submit it to my husband who tells me "this is great, but you know...it would look better if you...." He then tells me how he feels it can be improved and I go back and refine it...again (stupid husband!) until both of us are satisfied. I say both of us, but my husband always seems to get the final word.

After both of us are satisfied, the little sketch is renamed a "finished sketch" and I give it a title.

Next, I Xerox the finished sketch and transfer it on to Illustration board. This is done by rubbing carbon on the back of the Xerox copy to make crude "Carbon paper" and then I center it on the illustration board and trace over it with a pencil to transfer it onto the board. After the print is transferred completely, I remove the Xerox copy and begin firming up the lines with a .03 mechanical pencil. After the sketch has been firmed up on the final board, I ink over the pencil lines with waterproof brown ink. I have to use waterproof ink because if I don’t the lines will smear once I begin painting. The amount of inking I do varies from piece to piece. Carousel horse Angel White had almost no ink work on it, while Dragon Moon had extensive ink work on it. The ink work on Dragon Moon is so heavy that certain parts of her have little or no paint at all.

After the ink has been laid down, I begin painting. I usually paint the background first, unless I am not positive what background to use. When that happens, I paint the figure first to see how it will look. Skin tones for me are the hardest thing to paint, and the easiest thing to mess up. So, to combat this insecurity, I have been designing pieces that show more and more skin to give myself lots of practice. However, it really doesn’t make any difference...every time I paint skin is exactly like the first time--nerve-wracking. On the bright side, I have found that the more skin I show in my painting, the more popular the piece is. I wonder why?

It usually takes around 30 hours to paint a smaller picture (11"x17") and around 70-100 hours to paint a larger picture (20"x30"), depending on the complexity. After it is finished, I once again submit it for my husband’s approval, and if he gives his approval, and we both think it will do well as a print, we run a limited edition lithograph. We have run laser prints and photo prints, but only on very small editions (usually under a hundred prints).

That is how a piece is created start to finish. After a piece is finished, I reward myself with a few days of "The Sims," "Heroes of Might and Magic III," and "Tomb Raider". Then, my husband jumps on me for being a lazy slug and the process begins over again. I hope that this has been enlightening and if you have any questions, e-mail me and I will endeavor to answer them!

Carousel Horse: Moonlight Silver

Nene Loves fan mail!  If you would like to chat with Nene about her art e-mail her at Nenethomas.aol.com!

Back to the Table of Contents

[Nene's Art Galleries| What's New| Order Form| Links| Appearances| 2001: A Specials page |Frequently asked Questions| Painting Techniques| Nene & Steve's Scrap book| Published works| Main| Steven's Framing & Matting page]

                                                

                                       All images copyright 1999 - 2001  'N�n�' Tina Thomas Illustrations This page was last modified sometime in 2001.