Tyler Jacobson | |
|---|---|
 Jacobson at Chicago MagicCon in 2025 | |
| Born | |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Fantasy art, illustration |
| Spouse | Kate Welch [1] |
| Website | http://tylerjacobsonart.com/ http://tylerjacobson.blogspot.com/ |
Tyler Jacobson is an American science fiction and fantasy artist and illustrator.
His work has been featured in publications by Wizards of the Coast, [2] Simon & Schuster, [3] TOR, [4] Entertainment Weekly , [5] Rolling Stone , [6] Texas Monthly , [7] Men’s Journal , [8] Runner's World , [9] The Weekly Standard , [10] and Scientific American . [11] He is also known as a mainstream artist for contributions to several popular publications, including the oil painting Last Days of The Comanches featured in Texas Monthly. [11]
Jacobson is best known as a fantasy artist, due to his significant contributions of art to Magic: The Gathering trading card game cards, package art, and promotional materials, as well as character design and game art for Dungeons & Dragons . By April 2020, he had "illustrated nearly 100 cards" for Magic: The Gathering. [12] Jacobson occsionally auctions off his Magic: The Gathering original work; [13] his painting of Drizzt Do'Urden for the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set "sold for a record-breaking $155,000" and "falls in the Top 5 highest public prices realized for an original work of Magic art". [14]
He was the cover artist for two of the core rulebooks – Player's Handbook (2014) and Dungeon Master's Guide (2014) – for the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. [15] Jacobson designed the standard edition cover for the 5th Edition adventure module The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021). [16] [17] SyFy Wire highlighted that "the cover for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight promises an ominous carnival atmosphere with a creepy clown and a looming, imposing-looking enforcer-type character". [17] He also designed the covers for that edition's revised Player's Handbook (2024), Dungeon Master's Guide (2024), and Monster Manual (2024). [18] [19] [20] In comparing the cover of the 2024 Player's Handbook to the 2014 Player's Handbook, Matt Bassil of Wargamer commented that "the old cover is an obvious power fantasy: look how powerful you can become and the cool things you can fight" while the new cover has a different focus: "look at the variety of DnD races and classes you can play, and the cool people you'll be hanging out with". [21] Benjamin Abbott of GamesRadar+ called the Monster Manual (2024) "hands down my favorite cover out of the new core rulebooks". [19]
Jacobson is the art director for Matthew Lillard's "Quest's End" whiskey line where he does bottle art and design including the map on the back of each bottle; he also illustrates the corresponding chapter of the original fantasy story, Dawn of the Unbound Gods by Kate Welch, which comes with the bottle. [22] [23] [24] [25]
Jacobson graduated from Gonzaga University in 2005 with a BA in Fine Art, and from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2009 with a MFA in Illustration and was awarded Best of Show MFA Traditional Illustration AAU Spring Show 2009, and First Place MFA Traditional Illustration AAU Spring Show 2009. [26]