Hi there, I'm trying a different approach to creativity with magic cards. I am trying to electrolytically etch a Magic Card into steel for use in my Commander games:
The main issue I am having currently, is that I need a black/white image to create the mask needed for etching.
I have tried a few different photoshop guides for turning images into stencils, but due to the complexity of the coloring on magic cards, this rarely turns out well.
Does anyone know a good method to use to create a detailed balck and white version of card art?
That first link you provided just uses laser printer print-out to make a resist, so you wouldn't actually have to cut out a stencil. You just need to get some pretty high contrast. Try starting with a high resolution scan or render and desaturating it then pushing up the brightness/contrast. You might need to experiment to learn how much contrast is really needed or if it can be done with more gradual grayscale images. For example, maybe try making a simple gradient scale from white to black and see how well it comes out.
You should probably start with a few very simple line art designs like the first flower example in the how-to article just to learn the process. After you understand the process better you can move onto more complicated designs like magic cards. When starting any new art, if you try to start with really complicated designs then you are fighting both against learning to work with the medium and against the harder design at the same time.
You could always print out the art on the card at about 2-3 times the size of an actual card. Then get some tracing paper, trace out the outline with black ink (I really dig the new-ish Sharpie pens for this), and then scan said tracing. You may need to clean it up just a little in PS, but that should work fine.
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(some background to the process)
http://www.mordent.com/etch-howto/
http://www.ehow.com/how_8695077_electrolytic-etching.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_7818155_use-ferric-chloride-etch-copper.html
The main issue I am having currently, is that I need a black/white image to create the mask needed for etching.
I have tried a few different photoshop guides for turning images into stencils, but due to the complexity of the coloring on magic cards, this rarely turns out well.
Does anyone know a good method to use to create a detailed balck and white version of card art?
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You should probably start with a few very simple line art designs like the first flower example in the how-to article just to learn the process. After you understand the process better you can move onto more complicated designs like magic cards. When starting any new art, if you try to start with really complicated designs then you are fighting both against learning to work with the medium and against the harder design at the same time.