Ahead of tomorrow's new episode of Mug 'Em, here's another peek into the unused concepts and sketches behind 'The Magic Staff Trap' title card by Joshua!

From Joshua: It was a longer process to settle on a concept for this title card, the final product based on an elegantly simple idea suggested by the Viva team, which is why 'The Magic Staff' has no cleanup sketch; instead I went straight from the thumbnail to final paint.

The simplest of my unused concepts would have had the titles encircled in magic from the staff; another idea was to illustrate how misusing powerful forces can spell disaster by showing the wielder being struck by lighitng and lastly, Charles and Bernard putting on a stage magic show. A fun sketch but wow, that would have been a lot of detail!

Trying to make the staff look sufficiently magical and paint organic textures like grass and tree bark was a new challenge. Speaking of; tomorrows new Mug 'Em sketch features another title card that also required a bit of back-to-nature painting. Check it out on VivaPlus tomorrow!