MTG Salvation

If there ever were a totally legitimate and awesome brag post that is it.

What better way, however, to make your altered cards look average than surround them with 99 other top-notch alters.

@urbanlengend: Your EDH is so impressive, I can't believe how many alters you've managed to collect from so many different artists. What a feat!

Epic Urbanlegend! Epic....

Great deck, Urbanlegend! Do I wanna know how much money you spent for this? ;-)) Seriously, awesome deck.

Does anybody use spray to protect alters? I used universal fixative that made in Italy by Mamery co., and only now noticed that it makes acrylic colors darker and ruins all the matching. I knowed that most fixatives for soft media changes hue a little, but that one had no warnings about it or something.

Just a example; four hours of work…

Alter that I forgot to post here for some reason:

Epic EDH deck. Nicely done. How long has that taken to acquire all the cards?

That deck's really really nice.

alext, I do see it. That really sucks.

Wow Urban, have you ever kept Lupe busy!
Now I'm second guessing the quality of the ones I'm working on for you!

Beautiful collection

@alext : I use Krylon crystal clear acrylic coating and it doesn't seem to change the paint colour at all. That pre-spray sphinx was beautifully done, its a shame.

I commented before everything was up. Holy S! Feels like that deserves its own gallery / hall of fame entry. A few months ago someone else posted an entire deck of alters. An amazing collection.

Quote from alext

Alter that I forgot to post here for some reason:

Two things. I'm very sad that the spray ruined your color matching. It was a beautiful alter. And I really really want that Drowned Catacomb.

Quote from Kyrian

@alext : I use Krylon crystal clear acrylic coating and it doesn't seem to change the paint colour at all. That pre-spray sphinx was beautifully done, its a shame.

The weird and hopeful thing about sprays is that if you (alext) hit it with another spray like the Clear Coat or Kamar Varnish it should go back to the way it was. Of course that isn't always the case, but a different varnish can sometimes save a painting.

Out of curiosity, what did you use to coat it?

A somewhat related story: I did some charcoal drawings awhile ago and hit them with a matte spray, but it looked like someone sprayed salt all over them. Then I sprayed them with a gloss varnish and they looked great, except they were now shiny charcoal drawings (which is weird). So I thought they'd be sealed enough to try the matte coat again and the salt look came right back. Frustrated as hell, I sprayed it with gloss again and once again it looked fine. You'd think I'd learned my lesson, but I tried it again with the same results. In the end I went out and bought an airbrush and came up with a mixture of matting agents and gel medium and sprayed it with that. They are now weatherproof, look good, and totally sealed. Unfortunately it cost $300 to do the trick.

Finally - Have any of you ever taken online art courses? If so, please PM and tell me how that went. Thanks!

it's been 2 or 3 weeks and it's still not quite dry!


and @urbanlegend: that executioners capsule makes me sad. that was the one card I thought I could extend well but now I'm not so sure.

some of my altered cards got photographed in this feature match report
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/18440_Round_1_Ben_Wienburg_vs_Robert_Vroman.html

too bad I got dominated

So I'vw looked back and can't find anything on it, what do you recomend acryllic paint or makers?

Been wanting to full art my Mayael for EDH but not sure on that

Quote from Magus0fthe_Funk

So I'vw looked back and can't find anything on it, what do you recomend acryllic paint or makers?

Though it's really up to your personal preferences, I like acrylic alters a lot more. It gives the artist more options in my opinion. I have seen quite a few great marker alters though.

About the sealant problems: Is it necessary to always seal? I haven't sealed any of mine, but no wear has shown yet.


A few more from me...

@Kyrian: Ok, I will try to find it, thank you.

@Galspanic: I hope that will work, thank you too. I used fixative varnish named… umm… «Fixative varnish». That one.

@Trancebam: Unfortunately, it's not for sale.

Quote from urbanlegend

My Sharuum EDH deck is mostly done - I'm just looking to replace a few cards. Most of these have already been posted. There are a few new ones, especially the Liliana Vess and art nouveau style cards. Please let me know what you think.

Part 1 - Alternate art cards, including the insane Liliana Vess by Lupe Woody

Part 2 - more alternate art cards

Part 3 - Artifact Creatures

Part 4 - More Artifact Creatures

Part 5 - Even more artifact creatures

Part 6 - Artifact mana 1

Part 7 - Artifact Mana 2

Part 8 - Stuff

Part 9 - more stuff

Part 10 - Even more stuff - with General Sharuum

Part 11 - Lands 1

Part 12 - lands 2

Part 13 - lands 3

Part 14 - lands 4

Part 15 - lands 5

Part 16 - lands 6

And finally - the art noveau-styled cards by V

SNIP

My jaw is on the floor. How on earth did you manage that? Fantastic, just fantastic.

Probably commissioned a little bit here, a little bit there...musta cost ya a fortune. sweet and unforgettable deck, not a bad build either.

Quote from KriggY

1) True. I have some markers but acrylics give you more options and better results imo.

2) I thinkit is not necessary but better imo.

BTW: nice alters :))

As someone who has done a lot of both I would totally have to disagree that marker gives you less option it just gives you different options that usually wont blend quite as well with the original card art but if you are doing complete alters than that shouldnt matter anyways.

So to sum it up if extensions are what you want to do in most cases paint will serve you better than markers but in you are doing totally new art than it comes down to what you are more comfortable with.

I would also point out that as large a difference as there is between good quality paint and bad quality paint there is an even larger quality gap where markers are concerned, mt personal recomendation for markers in use for altering is

1)Copic-The range of colour and quality of pigment makes these markers unbeatable IMO.

2)Pitt Artist Pens-Made by Faber and Castell these also come in a very wide range of colours but not as many tip choices as exist with the copics.

3)Sakura Pigma Pens-They actually make what might very well be the best fineliners of the bunch but dint come close to wither Copic or Pitt when it comes to size of their colour pallet and I think their wider tips and brush tips leave something to be desired.

There are a lot of other brands out there that people seem to rate very highly like Letraset Tria, and Stanford Prismacolor but in my opnion they are not nearlly as good as the pens listed above for the purpose of card alters.

The one thing that all of the markers I rate highest have in common is Pigmented instead of Dyed ink, the main benifit of which is fading or lack thereof. If you are going to spend a lot of time and effort on a piece of art you owe it to yourself to insure that it will look as good as possible for as long as possible and pigmented ink is one step in doing that, but Im sure Galspanic could speak much better than I on the benifits of pigments over dyes.

I still have a number of cards I am trying to finish by Christmas, but this one is done and ready for Santa to take it away.

Sick Ertai there. Good job Galspanic!!

Quote from Sysel

@Galspanic

Stunning Ertai, I've wanted to see that card altered for ages.

So did the guy that it's for. It was supposed to be done a while ago. Oops.

Quote from pyrofiliac

How do you guys feel about using fixative for cards? I have a bottle of krylon spray-on fixative and some alters that could use sealing for my cube, but if they're going to get damaged I don't really want to use it.

Exactly what Krylon spray? If it is Workable Fixative, then DON'T DO IT. But there are some that work just fine as long as you put them on in multiple thing coats.

@Gal: I like two things in particular about that Ertai. The robe/sash extension (red/blue) & the P/T box. I like how you edged it off like that. Wish more people did it like that. Less jarring, visually.