Elemental Beauty: Perna Studios’ Elementals

I’ve previously written in general about the excellent card sets available from Perna Studios, as well as spotlights on their Witchcraft set and Artist Proofs. Here I’d like to focus on their set that was released in Spring of 2017, Elementals.

For me this was perhaps the most highly anticipated set they’ve done yet. The concept of fantasy cards dedicated to people and creatures embodying the four classic elements is fantastic, and lends itself to endless variation and interpretations.  The 20 card base set is a wonderful example of this, with a multitude of artists providing numerous unique, captivating visions.

Base cards 1-5 and SF1.

Base cards 6-10 and SF2.

Base cards 11-15 and SF3.

Base cards 16-20 and SF4.

Also included were four striking spot foil cards by Soni Alcorn-Hender, as well as gorgeous metal and lenticular chase inserts.

Fire metal chase card by Alcione Silva.

Lenticular chase card by Meghan Hetrick.

As always Perna’s sets shine shine with their one of a kind sketch cards and Artist Proof’s.  Each artist’s individual style, choice of subject, composition, etc all make every card distinct and all of them together result in the extremely high quality these sets consistently achieve.

My favorite elements are wind and water, so those were the main focus of my collecting. I got wonderfully diverse sketch cards featuring each including a gloriously semi-abstract piece by Mick & Matt Glebe (my first of theirs), Danielle Gransaull’s vivid mermaid, Arwenn Necker’s air elemental with a classic fantasy feel, and a hauntingly etherial work by Sean Pence.

Water by Mick & Matt Glebe.

Water sketch card by Danielle Gransaull.

Wind sketch card by Arwenn Necker.

Wind and water AP by Stacey Kardash.

Wind sketch card by Sean Pence.

Artist Proofs (APs) are generally directly commissioned from the artists and thus provide an opportunity to request something specific (within the guidelines and theme of the set).  In a couple of cases, such as the incredible half formed female elemental made entirely of water by Peejay Catacutan at the top of this entry, I gave just a general subject then chose between more specific ideas provided by the artist.

For the rest, instead of a common base idea for my APs as I’ve done in the past this time I tailored most of them a bit more individually based on other cards the artists had done. Stacey Kardash’s sketch cards featured recurring elementals of each type, and I requested an AP with those wind and water elementals. She gave me a number of great compositional options, and I ended up with a fantastic metal AP of the two face to face.

Wind AP by Achilleas Kokkinakis from Perna Studios’ Elementals set.

Wind sketch card by Achilleas Kokkinakis from Perna Studios’ Elementals set.

Water AP by Achilleas Kokkinakis.

I was lucky enough to pull two of my absolute favorite sketch cards from the pre-release previews (and pick up more later). One of the pulls was Achilleas Kokkinakis’ geisha themed air elemental making tea. I adored the idea and execution so much I got two APs inspired by it. One with a water elemental against a gloriously colored sky (prompted by another beautiful sketch card he did) and a wind elemental forming a dragon made of air. I can’t say enough about all the exquisite details, including the intricate borders, small thematic scrolls showing the kaiji for the element, etc.

Water sketch card by Alexis Hill.

Fire and water AP by Alexis Hill.

Earth sketch card by Alexis Hill.

Wind sketch card by Alexis Hill.

My other pull of a sketch I’d been eyeing in previews was Alexis Hill’s striking wind elemental gathering lightening. After I’d added her mermaid and earth elemental sketches to my ever growing collection of her cards, I decided to request a fire elemental AP to complete representation of all four elements. Doing a pairing with water was an idea I’d been batting around, and the resulting metal AP from Alexis is great.

And of course I was thrilled to add another AP from Juri Chinchilla, this time a playful meeting between a mermaid and her friend made of air. As always Juri’s work is gorgeous, brought to life with her vibrant shades of soft colors. What I really adore about this one in particular is the sense of motion she’s achieved on a small 2D card with the mermaid’s bubbling hair and the (pardon the pun) windswept curls in her counterpart’s.

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Hope everyone enjoyed my look at the Elementals set. Of course there are MANY more phenomenal artists featured in it and other excellent sets from Perna Studios to check out..