I'm terrified to respond. Every time I find an artist I like it seems like they turn out to be a completely garbage person. Therese Nielsen, Seb McKinnon, Noah Bradley....
Jeremy Wilson, Magali Villeneuve, and Johannes Voss are probably my highest ranking active artists right now, but now I'm looking forward to finding out one is an actual cannibal or something.
I feel you there... Although it was already fairly apparent that Nielsen wasn't a great person by the time I really became aware of her, for quite a while, I considered Noah Bradley to be my favorite MtG artist. After that story broke, I vividly remember saying to myself, "Well, at least there's still Seb McKinnon..."
And, well, yeah...
I guess my favorite artist after that would be John Avon, even if he only occasionally does new MtG pieces these days. At least he seems like a pretty wholesome guy, but then again, I thought the same about Bradley...
Two artist not already mentioned, but I am a fan of Richard Kane Ferguson cards. And Robert Bliss cards always gave me the hebbie jeebies as a kid, so pretty fond of them now.
The first time I met him was at a GP on Sunday, everyone was starting to break down, and he still took 10 minutes to talk to me about stuff. I've got a playmat with a bunch of his signatures from all the times I've met him
Jeff Laubenstein is awesome and has done some great alters for me. He's awesome to talk to at events.
Dan Frazier will always hold a special place in my heart because I wrote to him and a bunch of other artists when I was 10 or 11 and he was the only one to write back and answer my questions.
Victor Adame-Minguez did the art for Brutal Expulsion, which is a card that holds special significance for me.
Howard Lyon does some really phenomenal work and he's another person who is really great to talk to at events.
Steve Argyle is an absolute madman when it comes to alters and sketches and he's another really awesome dude to talk to at events. He's so soft spoken and his artwork is so loud and I absolutely love that dichotomy.
I've loved Jenn Ravenna's art ever since I saw The Eldest Reborn. What a fantastic display of her personal style.
Some recent favs are Sam Guay, Uriah Voth and Dominik Mayer. But shoutout to Mateus Manhanini who only has appeared in a Secret Lair but knocked it out of the park.
The more established ones I have a fondness for are Mark Tedin, Steve Prescott, Dave Kendall, Wayne Reynolds, Scott M. Fischer and Jesper Ejsing
Alayna Danner has been one of my favorites for the last few years. I love her artwork.
In the older game, DiTerlizzi was my all-time favorite, with Verdant Force being one of the cards that made me fall in love with the game. John Avon, Quinton Hoover, Andi Rusu, Kaja & Phil Foglio, and Jesper Mryfors were some that really typified "Magic" to me.