WOW - okay guys, the auction site has exploded...over twenty more alterations posted since I checked yesterday!
So hold on to your hats, and awayyyyyyyy we go:
These are by lonewolftrickstr:
Maybe we're spoilt for choice here with awesome alteration artists like Yawg, Catherine and crew posting regularly, but these seem a little sloppy to me. Rushed perhaps, but like I've said before, I'm no artist myself. What do you people with actual skill think?
The latest offering from artisticallyaltered:
And these have been posted by ewuchinpokemon - not clear if this person is the artist or not:
Some beautiful work here - I like the Witness and the work on Thirst for Knowledge. The Top is pretty damn good too
Sorry, just saw the post by yawg...completely agree. That made my teeth hurt when I opened the link to that poor vandalised Bazaar...seriously, what is with that horrible sig?
@BoB thing: I think he actually did a rather good job on that. However, given that it is such an expensive card, I agree that more care could (and should) have been taken making everything blend nicely and making the extra fill-in look more like the actual art and less like something that was added on. For any regular card (as in not something worth far too much money) I think it would have been just fine, but I agree that a Bazaar should take more time, care, and work.
@Mephiston: I agree that some of those new ones you just posted look a little sloppy, especially the middle portion of the first spoiler (the Cruel Edict, second Incinerate, and Lash Out in particular). However, I think the Psi Blast and the first Incinerate are absolutely amazing. Also, I think everything in the last spoiler except the Brainstorm flows incredibly nicely and really does a very good job of what I think these types of alterations should do (make it look like the entire card is covered in the original art, not look like someone added to the art that was there).
Some beautiful work here - I like the Witness and the work on Thirst for Knowledge. The Top is pretty damn good too
yeah I saw that the altered art auctions had a surge of sorts last night...
I like the Thirst for Knowledge a lot too, I saw that earlier this morning. And I have respect for the Top, having done one myself, the art is so simple that it's very easy to mess up, so props to the artist for doing it nicely
I hadn't seen the Surgespanner yet. I really like it, and the top bar being partially obscured really makes the art come together and 'pop'. The name looks a little squashed though, but the overall effect is very nice.
The lonewolftrickstr cards look messy, especially the second incinerate
And, this is a little off topic, but I'm taking commissions again for a short while, I've lost the names of half the people who've asked me so I thought I'd put a note up.
Anyway - I'm looking forward to seeing more people's stuff go up, it's always neat to see different approaches to the art!
@Mephiston...However, I think the Psi Blast and the first Incinerate are absolutely amazing...these types of alterations should do (make it look like the entire card is covered in the original art, not look like someone added to the art that was there).
Fair point, although I think he was helped due to the fact that those first two were originally MPR Textless Extended Arts to begin with...definitely the best ones though.
Your final point is absolutely right
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You're not your deck.
You're not how much mana you have in your pool.
You're not your half-naked, animè girl card sleeves.
You're not your DCI rating.
You're not your freaking ‘Coldsnap Prerelease’ t-shirt.
You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the Multiverse.
Hey, here is my pretty much finished counterspell. After seeing the image I went back and made some tiny touch ups, but it is pretty much identical to how this card looks now. This is my first complete altered card.
Call me a naysayer, but this is turning into an epidemic. There are a few modders out there that are doing alterations that are beyond awesome (you know who you are), but beyond those there's just a lot of good cards getting ruined. It would be one thing if these lesser mods were just being made for personal satisfaction, but this rash of sloppy mods is being created just for profit. I really hope that it doesn't lead to (other) people losing interest in the craft, but it seems inevitable when there's so much junk getting churned out.
Call me a naysayer, but this is turning into an epidemic...this rash of sloppy mods is being created just for profit. I really hope that it doesn't lead to (other) people losing interest in the craft, but it seems inevitable when there's so much junk getting churned out.
I don't think you're being a naysayer; I briefly had the same thoughts today, but I firmly believe that there is absolutely no danger of this happening. I know that there will always be people who just want to make a buck, but if they turn out rubbish, no one will buy it or pay more than a dollar or two for it. Either way, the market for high-quality stuff will survive.
To back up my argument, here is the very latest from the auction site. If this doesn't inspire other budding artists to lift their game, not sure what will!
Check these out, but get ready to hold on to your eyeballs again:
:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o
What can I say? Catherine has outdone herself - the Thoughtseize is quite honestly the best alteration I have ever seen by an artist outside the professional Magic: The Gathering stable. This is simply brilliant work. I predict a record sale for this on the auction site for an alteration by a non-Wizards employed artist - of course I'll be contributing to this; already got my bid down on it
And I haven't even discussed the Troll or Chandra...you can all do that...:D
I don't think you're being a naysayer; I briefly had the same thoughts today, but I firmly believe that there is absolutely no danger of this happening. I know that there will always be people who just want to make a buck, but if they turn out rubbish, no one will buy it or pay more than a dollar or two for it. Either way, the market for high-quality stuff will survive.
Yeah, I'm sure you're right. I just hope that people outside of this thread can recognize the difference.
They can. I've already seen the price reflect the work on everything I've ebayed so far. People buying this will approach it even more carefully than us, as they are putting their hard earned money down on it- they simply won't bother paying a lot for something that's not making them go "wow!". Like that last batch. Wow. O_o
The troll looks gorgeous. The Thoughtseize looks gorgeous. The Chandra is the least exciting of the bunch, due mainly to the fact that the card looks great anyways, but it's certainly a flawless alter.
@Cablerock: The card looks great. My only nitpick- the guys body isn't visible at the bottom, where it should be. But seriously, the card is flawless otherwise, good job!
@Cablerock:
Your way of handling the text is what inspired my Japanese Vampiric Tutor
Seriously, it's the best text/mana cost alter I've ever seen.
All of these are going to have serious appeal to the Vintage/Legacy crowd in particular I think - those Vintage boys love to pimp their decks...:rolleyes:
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You're not your deck.
You're not how much mana you have in your pool.
You're not your half-naked, animè girl card sleeves.
You're not your DCI rating.
You're not your freaking ‘Coldsnap Prerelease’ t-shirt.
You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the Multiverse.
hey Catherine Chandler, i was at the philly prerelease this weekend and there was a guy with about 20 of your altered cards, he was sitting right inside the doors showing everyone that walked by the art you did!! needless to say, they were alot more impressive in person then on the computer screen and i was blown away when i saw them here! keep up the good work =)
~Jeff
There some nice new alters on that site that I have to check out. Then there are some that probably won't fetch a very high price :(.
I tried my hand with paint and it took a long time. I messed up the bottom and I am really mad at myself but with more practice I think I will be able to do some decent alters. I assure you though, this one won't be going on any auction sites
hey Catherine Chandler, i was at the philly prerelease this weekend and there was a guy with about 20 of your altered cards...
So this is who's been sniping me...:)
@Zialum
Keep it up! Practice is only going to make you better at this, and I can see some real potential in there; particularly around the middle-sides of the card.
This has also come up recently on the auction site, by artisticallyaltered:
I like this one, and enjoy watching this artist improve constantly.
hey Catherine Chandler, i was at the philly prerelease this weekend and there was a guy with about 20 of your altered cards, he was sitting right inside the doors showing everyone that walked by the art you did!! needless to say, they were alot more impressive in person then on the computer screen and i was blown away when i saw them here! keep up the good work =)
~Jeff
seriously? That's so cool, I have quite a few different contacts in the PA area, wonder who it was. Thanks so much for the compliments, and THANK YOU whoever was doing that, I can always use the exposure.
The Spellstutter looks like the person had a hard time matching the colors- you can see the bordered part quite easily. Also, the quality of the paints and render don't mesh well with the card.. certainly not their best.
That Seat of the Synod is excellent- except for a little meh on the bottom, it really is good. Nice and seamless.
And yeah- yawg, the Deltas are flawless. I'm jealous.
Here is my altered torchling:
Me
Sampad
Randall
Fishman
Bandre
Danny
I don't get it.
needless to say, they were alot more impressive in person then on the computer screen and i was blown away when i saw them here!
This is a good point to make- the scanner/camera is brutal to you when you mod these, considering they are so small already, you work very hard to match a miniscule picture, and then the camera goes and picks out every little flaw. Besides my own, I've seen others work in person, and it really does look amazing all sleeved up.
WOW at the troll, thoughtseize, chandra and spellstutter sprite!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good job everyone!!!! It appears this thread/trend is getting more and more popular and I look forward to seeing an exponential increase of altered cards on the market.
It seems that starcitygames.com is now running a gif format banner add that reads "virtually anything you want painted on a magic card by Ken Meyer, Jr.", then goes on to say just click here.
It (the gif) shows many examples of altered dark rituals in one of its parts.
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You know that you want some delicious multi-planar cake....
Quote from sawbladeX »
Kreon bashing is unimportant.
What is important is the failure of logic that Kreon has that make him think that this will work.
hey Catherine Chandler, i was at the philly prerelease this weekend and there was a guy with about 20 of your altered cards, he was sitting right inside the doors showing everyone that walked by the art you did!! needless to say, they were alot more impressive in person then on the computer screen and i was blown away when i saw them here! keep up the good work =)
~Jeff
That's odd, I was at the Philly prerelease (Sunday only) with some altered cards that I did on my own inside my trade binder. I didn't see anyone else with some, but you could be talking about someone else. I traded my altered Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter straight up for a Chandra and Siege-Gang Commander that I needed, so I think sticking with this is an excellent choice.
It seems that starcitygames.com is now running a gif format banner add that reads "virtually anything you want painted on a magic card by Ken Meyer, Jr.", then goes on to say just click here.
It (the gif) shows many examples of altered dark rituals in one of its parts.
This has been going for a while...it's pretty cool. I got Ken to alter an image of Brandon Lee as 'The Crow' on one of his Tempest Dark Rituals - looks awesome. I keep forgetting to scan the thing and post it here
He's an absolute pleasure to deal with as well, and responds quickly to emails.
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You're not your deck.
You're not how much mana you have in your pool.
You're not your half-naked, animè girl card sleeves.
You're not your DCI rating.
You're not your freaking ‘Coldsnap Prerelease’ t-shirt.
You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the Multiverse.
Due to the demand for a step by step tutorial I thought I'd give it a whirl.
I'm painting a pair of Umezawa's Jitte textless and full bleed. I got the idea for this alteration in an earlier post in this thread. They put up a computer mock up but I never saw a painted piece.
Step One
I started by laying down a thin coat of citidel foundation. I really only do this if I'm covering the text box to give me a nice adhesive surface and to prevent the letters from showing through. I draw in a sketch of my addition using permanant marker. I like to add some of the shading, it makes a good backdrop to blend the shadowed areas into. Next I would stretch the sky and moon out to the edges. BEWARE: When painting more than one at a time the color balance can very during printing, so you cant always just mix up one color and slap it on. Most of the time this would be a non issue, but given the solid color sky it can be a hassle.
Next Issue: Step 2 - Coloring In the Sketch
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:symb:--I use my real face as an avatar--:symb:
:symb:Because I'm not a virtual tough guy:symb:
Okay, so for the next step I just lay down some of the basic colors for the image. I paint right over the sharpie intended for shading. This makes for a better blending surface. You should be trying to paint as thin as possible. The paint seen here is still incredibly thin, notice you can still see the border through a little around the edges.
Your next step is going to be fleshing out some of the shape and textures of areas through shading and highlight. The face without a doubt will be the most difficult part.
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:symb:--I use my real face as an avatar--:symb:
:symb:Because I'm not a virtual tough guy:symb:
Tucker: You're my hero.
Did you get those Jittes from Little Man? (Nick P.)
I gave him one of them cause he got his binder stolen at the prerelease.
I can't wait to see them in person.
So hold on to your hats, and awayyyyyyyy we go:
These are by lonewolftrickstr:
Maybe we're spoilt for choice here with awesome alteration artists like Yawg, Catherine and crew posting regularly, but these seem a little sloppy to me. Rushed perhaps, but like I've said before, I'm no artist myself. What do you people with actual skill think?
The latest offering from artisticallyaltered:
And these have been posted by ewuchinpokemon - not clear if this person is the artist or not:
Some beautiful work here - I like the Witness and the work on Thirst for Knowledge. The Top is pretty damn good too
Sorry, just saw the post by yawg...completely agree. That made my teeth hurt when I opened the link to that poor vandalised Bazaar...seriously, what is with that horrible sig?
@Mephiston: I agree that some of those new ones you just posted look a little sloppy, especially the middle portion of the first spoiler (the Cruel Edict, second Incinerate, and Lash Out in particular). However, I think the Psi Blast and the first Incinerate are absolutely amazing. Also, I think everything in the last spoiler except the Brainstorm flows incredibly nicely and really does a very good job of what I think these types of alterations should do (make it look like the entire card is covered in the original art, not look like someone added to the art that was there).
Winner of the Weekly Signature & Avatar Contest Weeks 51, 59, 78, & 118.
I don't care if I was framed for murder if I only got a warning I would let it go.
yeah I saw that the altered art auctions had a surge of sorts last night...
I like the Thirst for Knowledge a lot too, I saw that earlier this morning. And I have respect for the Top, having done one myself, the art is so simple that it's very easy to mess up, so props to the artist for doing it nicely
I hadn't seen the Surgespanner yet. I really like it, and the top bar being partially obscured really makes the art come together and 'pop'. The name looks a little squashed though, but the overall effect is very nice.
The lonewolftrickstr cards look messy, especially the second incinerate
And, this is a little off topic, but I'm taking commissions again for a short while, I've lost the names of half the people who've asked me so I thought I'd put a note up.
Anyway - I'm looking forward to seeing more people's stuff go up, it's always neat to see different approaches to the art!
Fair point, although I think he was helped due to the fact that those first two were originally MPR Textless Extended Arts to begin with...definitely the best ones though.
Your final point is absolutely right
Your way of handling the text is what inspired my Japanese Vampiric Tutor
It looks excellent. And the way you did the art was great, too. The touch-ups pulled it together. :artist::smileup:
RRR Buy some of my art! Prints! RRR
I don't think you're being a naysayer; I briefly had the same thoughts today, but I firmly believe that there is absolutely no danger of this happening. I know that there will always be people who just want to make a buck, but if they turn out rubbish, no one will buy it or pay more than a dollar or two for it. Either way, the market for high-quality stuff will survive.
To back up my argument, here is the very latest from the auction site. If this doesn't inspire other budding artists to lift their game, not sure what will!
Check these out, but get ready to hold on to your eyeballs again:
:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o
What can I say? Catherine has outdone herself - the Thoughtseize is quite honestly the best alteration I have ever seen by an artist outside the professional Magic: The Gathering stable. This is simply brilliant work. I predict a record sale for this on the auction site for an alteration by a non-Wizards employed artist - of course I'll be contributing to this; already got my bid down on it
And I haven't even discussed the Troll or Chandra...you can all do that...:D
Well done, Catherine!
Those are freakin' gorgeous.
Yeah, I'm sure you're right. I just hope that people outside of this thread can recognize the difference.
RRR Buy some of my art! Prints! RRR
The troll looks gorgeous. The Thoughtseize looks gorgeous. The Chandra is the least exciting of the bunch, due mainly to the fact that the card looks great anyways, but it's certainly a flawless alter.
@Cablerock: The card looks great. My only nitpick- the guys body isn't visible at the bottom, where it should be. But seriously, the card is flawless otherwise, good job!
Seriously, it's the best text/mana cost alter I've ever seen.
Art Page
Alters for sale
Me
Sampad
Randall
Fishman
Bandre
Danny
He traded LOTS of Japanese goodness for me to do these
Niiiiice work man!
And is that an extended Leyline of the Void in the background?
All of these are going to have serious appeal to the Vintage/Legacy crowd in particular I think - those Vintage boys love to pimp their decks...:rolleyes:
~Jeff
T2
BRGJund MidrangeGRB
All your Icy's are belong to me!
I tried my hand with paint and it took a long time. I messed up the bottom and I am really mad at myself but with more practice I think I will be able to do some decent alters. I assure you though, this one won't be going on any auction sites
Edit: Good lord, four perfect Deltas!?!?!!?
So this is who's been sniping me...:)
@Zialum
Keep it up! Practice is only going to make you better at this, and I can see some real potential in there; particularly around the middle-sides of the card.
This has also come up recently on the auction site, by artisticallyaltered:
I like this one, and enjoy watching this artist improve constantly.
seriously? That's so cool, I have quite a few different contacts in the PA area, wonder who it was. Thanks so much for the compliments, and THANK YOU whoever was doing that, I can always use the exposure.
That Seat of the Synod is excellent- except for a little meh on the bottom, it really is good. Nice and seamless.
And yeah- yawg, the Deltas are flawless. I'm jealous.
I don't get it.
This is a good point to make- the scanner/camera is brutal to you when you mod these, considering they are so small already, you work very hard to match a miniscule picture, and then the camera goes and picks out every little flaw. Besides my own, I've seen others work in person, and it really does look amazing all sleeved up.
Art Page
Alters for sale
techoverrated.It (the gif) shows many examples of altered dark rituals in one of its parts.
You know that you want some delicious multi-planar cake....
That's odd, I was at the Philly prerelease (Sunday only) with some altered cards that I did on my own inside my trade binder. I didn't see anyone else with some, but you could be talking about someone else. I traded my altered Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter straight up for a Chandra and Siege-Gang Commander that I needed, so I think sticking with this is an excellent choice.
This has been going for a while...it's pretty cool. I got Ken to alter an image of Brandon Lee as 'The Crow' on one of his Tempest Dark Rituals - looks awesome. I keep forgetting to scan the thing and post it here
He's an absolute pleasure to deal with as well, and responds quickly to emails.
I'm painting a pair of Umezawa's Jitte textless and full bleed. I got the idea for this alteration in an earlier post in this thread. They put up a computer mock up but I never saw a painted piece.
Step One
I started by laying down a thin coat of citidel foundation. I really only do this if I'm covering the text box to give me a nice adhesive surface and to prevent the letters from showing through. I draw in a sketch of my addition using permanant marker. I like to add some of the shading, it makes a good backdrop to blend the shadowed areas into. Next I would stretch the sky and moon out to the edges. BEWARE: When painting more than one at a time the color balance can very during printing, so you cant always just mix up one color and slap it on. Most of the time this would be a non issue, but given the solid color sky it can be a hassle.
Next Issue: Step 2 - Coloring In the Sketch
:symb:Because I'm not a virtual tough guy:symb:
Okay, so for the next step I just lay down some of the basic colors for the image. I paint right over the sharpie intended for shading. This makes for a better blending surface. You should be trying to paint as thin as possible. The paint seen here is still incredibly thin, notice you can still see the border through a little around the edges.
Your next step is going to be fleshing out some of the shape and textures of areas through shading and highlight. The face without a doubt will be the most difficult part.
:symb:Because I'm not a virtual tough guy:symb:
Did you get those Jittes from Little Man? (Nick P.)
I gave him one of them cause he got his binder stolen at the prerelease.
I can't wait to see them in person.
:symb::symu:Reanimallarky:symu::symb: - Type 2
:symgw::symub:Greater Gifts:symub::symgw: - Extended
(Not exact decklist)
:symg::symr:43land:symr::symg: - Type 1.5