I gotta disagree with you about that. WotC themselves have now published 4 different non-un-set frames with non-rectangular art. (Zendikar basic lands, Planeswalkers, Futureshifts, and Vanguard)
The art need not be a perfect rectangle.
You've got a good point here. They will put in the work when they see fit.
I certainly wouldn't want to dissuade anyone from throwing down some really creative, or oddball frames.
You don't even mention the Hexmage/Thopter deck that's been everywhere online, so I'm just going to assume you don't actually play online, and just copy/paste decklists and make guesses about what deck beats what with no actual data to back it up.
Dark Depths is the same deck, with or without Thopter Foundry. Since he includes both Dark Depths, and a listing on Tezzeret/Thopter Foundry, there's really no reason to show every variation.
I think this is this best so far. I really like how clean and simple it is. The frame has nice lines, and everything is where you'd want it to be. I like the art going to the borders.
Some suggestions:
1.) The art has to be square, the frame dropping into the art from the top is kinda cool to break that rectangle, but unsettling. I don't think WotC would let you get away with it, so it'd make me happy if it was a flat edge.
2.) The gold color is pretty off putting. Too much yellow, not enough orange. Secondly the texture is very small. I'm sure the details are great, but I'd rather see some of that texture with my arm outstretched. That's the kind of gold that'd be perfect for Pokemon, but misses the mark a little for magic.
3.) I really like the black background for the power and toughness. For the manacost I'd suggest using a thick black border around the mana symbols instead. And for the expansion symbol, it seems to draw just a bit too much attention... what if it was a tad smaller.
This one is great, and certainly a looker.
The black frame looks fantastic, but I can't help but wonder if it's a feasible look in the other colors as well.
The diagonal frame is great, but again, I don't think WotC would let it fly. There is no easy solution for it here, but boy does it look good. I'd give more props, but if you were pitching to WotC, it's likely they say no on this point alone.
Where the art breaks the frame is another neat trick. Since its something WotC does with their planeswalkers, I say "why not." It might not be something they could put the extra labor in for every card, but perhaps mythics or more.
I like what you did with the "Legendary" and "Creature" symbols.
Suggestions:
1.) The mana cost is in a pretty bad place. The first change would be to place it above the name. I'd really rather see it towards a corner, as far to an edge as possible.
2.) I like the minimal borders. Something about the texture here doesn't do it for me. I think i'd rather seem more of a flat color, or simplify the outside lines (just making it so they don't all curve into each other when connecting.)
I think toning down your textures in general will help.
Going a bit further, your frames are very close to what Magic has now. Which means you understand their design well, but I think you want to try to go a bit further. Since WotC won't change the frame without a good reason, I think you want to design an "overhaul" rather than an "update."
Nice seeing people put in so much work all around.
I think this a very good, very "concise" article. It's still a lot of words to be considered concise.
It took me awhile to see where you were coming from with Faeries. Sounds like the article was written a month or two ago, but after I read the whole thing, I wouldn't disagree. Old faeries is bad, I don't think you explain new faeries isn't bad; I think you should have pointed to the 6-0 faeries list at worlds... It's nearly identical.
All in Red. It's got alot of ridiculous plays (turn 1 chalice for 1 while on the play is one) but it loses to a single thoughtseize. With a lot of luck, you'll dominate. A little luck is probably still a loss. It just spends 3 or 4 cards to get a fatty which can be easily countered or removed.
Living End is a deck. It loses to the same hate as dredge does. I haven't played it but I doubt it's a solid as Dredge. I'd liked to see some stats comparing it to dredge - until then I'm going to assume it's just a bad version of dredge. *admits to assuming*
If I did it again, I'd probably go for a white mask rather than trying to keep the colors of the original card. Most of my time was spent matching color, and its just less recognizable as a result
For me, it is a side income doing something I love (art!), involving another thing I love (magic!). I've seen cards that I was proud of go for as much as I felt they should, and cards that were merely ok by my standards go for much less. People can see the quality, and if that Thoughtseize weren't so well done, it would never be seeing that kind of bidding.
I also try to level out that need when commissioning- I feel that a nice balance between my time and work should come about even with the quality and coolness of what the buyer is getting. I'm not going to go into prices, as I'm sure they are all over the ballpark right now (agreed, an "Altered Art" union of sorts would be cool to help with this stuff :)), but right now I'm starting a commission for 4 Spider-Man alters, and the only thing I can think of is "THIS IS SO COOL. I GET TO PAINT AWESOME SPIER-MAN PICTURES ON A MAGIC CARD AND GET PAYED FOR IT". Sure, I'm an uber nerd, but that kind of feeling can't be found doing some menial job (the one I still have to do :D), and I'm hoping that the end result makes the consumer happy to boot.
Anyways, seeing as a few people have dabbled in the "Step-by-step" (please forgive the double post, only so many attachments per post!) approach, I decided to take pictures every step of the way doing a chinese Chrome Mox (which was kind of a weird art to alter btw!) for a commission. So besides posting my first alter for 3 days (I've been busy though!).. Hope this helps people, if I forgot anything, let me know fellow artists! Here we go!
Step 1. Materials
Just ask yourself: What would McGyver do?
Grab your materials. I will be doing this in acrylics for a few reasons: They are easy to work wiht, as they blend, and can cover lines and the card itself very well. They are also kind of elastic by nature, so it will dry appropiately on the card without fear of cracking or something (if you use oils, prep them properly! and forget watercolors!). In a few cases (which I'll cover), they are also easy to work with in case of mistakes. Markers are very hard to use, as they are harder to blend, and blending is a key to making the card look as seamless as possible (for borderless alters anyways. for superhero custom work, go right ahead!). They are also less forgiving in most scenarios. Kudos to anyone that has success with them!
So grab your paints, multiple THIN brushes (you are working on a tiny canvas!), an eraser, a pen and pencil (for various detailing or sketching beforehand), some tape, and... oh yeah, a Magic card ready to be made into awesomeness.
A quick note. Just like a newborn puppy, you will be making quite a mess most of the time. Try and get a surface beneath you that won't mind getting covered in streaks of hard-to-remove paint. A trashcan nearby will help you from making multiple trips. (can't help with the bathroom trips though)
Step 2. Prep work
I watch in horror as my Chrome Mox starts blending in with my table...
So you are ready to alter your card. There are a few places to start. We are going to go ahead and do some precautionary erasing. This is semi-optional, as the paint WILL sometimes cover the borders on its own, and therefore doesn't need the erased card to work. However, a few things arise in the process- you DON'T want to see any borders/lines beneath the paint. Erasing makes sure this doesn't happen. You also don't want to have to put too many coats on to cover them up. Thinner the better (though don't worry too much about that- even thick, it's still pretty thin).
As you can see in the picture, it doesn't have to be pitch-white either, just enough to not see that bold black border underneath. I've heard different things about erasers (ink erasers are supposed to work well), but I've found that a generally hard eraser works fine. Just be careful how hard you scrub sometimes, if the card gets caught up, and you lose hold, it CAN get bent in your erasing frenzy.
The tape comes in handy here- you can erase to your heart's content, without worrying about erasing the box away. Just a quick note though: try and stick your fingers on and off the tape a little beforehand, just to get a little of the glue off. The tape can sometimes bond too much to the card, and can either take a layer of paper off, or worse. Just a precaution.
Step 3. Ready... Set... Paint!...?
Donato Giancola laughs in triumph over his impossible-to-blend color scheme!
You knew this was coming. So the card is taunting you with it's bare, ready-to-be-painted edges. Time to step up! Get your pallete ready with all the colors you think you might be using. Looking at Chrome Mox's picture, it was a little daunting- it's not only a very detailed picture (damn you Donato!), but the colors in the background range all over the place, and are very subtle. But identifying the base color in any card's art will help you out, as it's that base that you will build off of with the light and dark details. The base here appears to be a light greyish beige (beneath the weird rainbow and black smudges). You can see that the blacking hints are already starting to blend towards the bottom edge of the card. Don't be afraid to go back to the mixing board to get it right- because getting it right will result in a much tighter, much more seamless card. The light grey at the top didn't mesh for me, and I needed to remix my colors. The small dash of light brown in the middle of that grey seems to match pretty perfectly, so besides a few variations in darkness, I'll continue with that shade to finish my base coat.
Also, tape is still an option to not worry about going into the text boxes/name/cc. You can see I strayed into the textbox a little. It won't be the first time. Taking your time, and avoiding that is best, but we're only human. Just remember not to let the tape touch the acrylic. It will most likely pull it off.
Another note at this step, and an important one: Don't be afraid to go into the picture a little! Blending your paints into the picture is what will make it seamless. You erased those borders for a reason!
Ignore my ugly brush- I need new ones.
Step 4. Finding your snow.
A fuzzy picture to hide my shame...
Alright. While you were gone, I finished up the border's base coat, with what I thought was looking good, till I took a step back. As you can see, the range from light on top, to the black on the bottom, seems to fit the picture, but DAMN does it look ugly being only grey and black.
But take heart! This is natural. You have to see that we've not only just begun, but with acrylics, you are able to cover your tracks, or at least try.
As you can see, I've gone out of the lines quite a bit (insert Peter Griffin quote here), but we'll cover that at the end, when we clean this sucker up. Still, it's not encouraged, just don't rip the card up, and snap your brushes in half if you do.
The base coat is still an important step, as you are setting the flavor of what you will paint over it. Painting a Snow-Covered land? Most likely you will be painting half of it some shade of white. Sure you will blend blues, purples, greys and blacks into it, but that's all additional. Chrome Mox's snow is beige, slowly fading into brown. If that makes any sense. <_< So going by the artist's picture, try and evolve of of that and start adding your colors, and the start of your details.... (that means move onto step 5!)
Step 5. Colour or Color?
And you guys thought I had given up hope! Take that, evil Magic card art!
So, here we are. As you can see, I've done my best to incorporate not only the colors and background of the picture to the edge of the card, you also have to work the way the artist did. The style he worked with will most likely be the style that dictates you here, because you are *ahem* extending HIS (HER) art.
Like I mentioned before, matching the colors, and blending it just right will help you the most here. Those little flecks of greens, pinks, browns, and blues all seem kind of random, but in the end they develop into a pretty good idea of what Donato was thinking when he did the first 80% of the card's art.
I won't lie, this was pretty difficult to match, as it was very easy to tell if the flow wasn't quite working. Patience, and blending, blending, blending will eventually win out though, keep trying!
But what's this? I can't just match the pretty random-color-background-thingy? He had to go and add those little detailed pendant chains. Let's trudge onto step 6!
The Chains of Mephistopholes have nothing on... THE CHAINS OF CHROME MOX!
So we've got to do that chain. Details like this on something this small can be rediculous, but don't lose heart! When you do paint on a card, people DO understand this, and will accept artistic license when you were too sucky to do it right preferred to keep it in your own style. >_>
So start by getting your finest brush. With this, I started out by putting the darkest layer down first (black/dark brown), and slowly work my way up the lightness scale, so to speak. I put some light brown/pink accents on the underside of the chain, to match the ones in the art, and finish it up with light grey to white reflections on the top of the chain. The thinner the brush, the better, as you are basically doing the tiny surgeries that give the card's art a real oomph to the viewer. For black details, an ink pen will work pretty well on top of the acrylic, but just don't scratch it too hard (it will tear up paint, and make a big mess of things), get it on the name/cc/textbox, or smear it, as it won't come off.
I won't lie- this isn't the proudest part of my tutorial. The chain on this card was very difficult to do as detailed as Donato did it, and although I did my best for now, it will be a challenge for another day. Overall, I still think it looks good, and matches the card well enough that the desired effect worked.
So, we are coming to a close on the details, but the card is starting to look pretty shoddy with all the acrylic where it isn't supposed to be. Using a Pact of Negation I was doing as an example, view the next step to see how I deal with that.
Step 8. Finishing touches (aka, fixing your mistakes)
Pact of Sloppiness. If you don't pay the upkeep, nobody will buy it! And that means you lose the game. Of life.
OHNOES. Yup. You got crap on your card (in the namebox for those that can't see glaring faults...). Not only that, but it's where it shouldn't be. Unless for some reason you are going for the "sloppy and ugly" look, your card should be as scrisp and clean as possible. It helps it look professional, it adds to it's value, and don't forget that your cards represent your work as a whole, and should therefore NOT represent the aforementioned "sloppy and ugly". It should represent "awesome, leet, beautiful work". So yeah. That poor Pact of Negation has been turned into an abomination.
Let's fix it! Start by grabbing a toothpick. Next, you are going to be LIGHTLY scratching off that rebel acrylic paint. Acrylic will easily come off if scratched, but you need to take your time, and do it slowly and carefuly, as you don't want to A) scratch into your previous work, or B) scratching into the card. It can be done, just be careful and patient:
Go-go-gadget toothpick!
And presto, you've fixed that problem. You should keep this trick in mind when you screw up here and there, but it can't be relied upon every time. Every now and then the paint will stain the card, regardless of whether you scratch it off, or you will miss, and go into your previous paint job, and have to repaint it, etc. It's just there, so you don't panic every time you cross the border.
FINISHED
YAY!
I took the liberty of putting some light color into the textbox, to reinforce the flavor of the card, and what it does. but other than that, it's finished! Next and final step (if you can call it that), is to help out the card's durability. Obviously, if you can erase parts of it with a toothpick, it's not exactly indestructible. Altered cards will always be sleeved, and handled with a bit more care, but a nice layer of varnish (or two.. I usually only do one, so as not to warp it or something, but it might work), will help it stay fresh and pretty for years to come.
It's what's for breakfast!
And that's it. I'm not too sure what didn't get covered.
A few more things: Try and work in a well-lighted area. You aren't just sketching something out in black and white, you are sitting 3 inches away from a tiny piece of cardboard, trying to match colors. You shouldn't be making it any harder on yourself.
This took about 2 hours. You should make whatever artistic alterations you want (something bleeding into the textbox, etc), if you feel you want to do it. Besides the original artist, you are taking this card to another level, so have fun, and do it justice!
Also, there has been some discussion on whether the artist's name should be left on the card. It *usually* looks better without some random block of unpainted card at the bottom, but the point is still valid. I've personally dropped the name on most commissions, as they usually ask me not to include it, but if I were selling it more publicly (like on an auction site), I would definitely keep it as legitimate as possible.
I try and leave my initials somewhere on the card, just to make sure it doesn't get resold, etc. I don't see this happening yet, but as this "profession" takes off, there are bound to be some bad seeds.
A rule of thumb is that the higher priced the card is alone, that generally means a well sought after card. An altered, cool looking version of a chase rare will always mean more demand than some average common. There are a few ways you can get more money for your average common (custom paint job, a truly exceptional job, or a "chase" common like Oblivion Ring), but you get the picture. Supply and demand is already rediculous for some cards (like Thoughtseize), that making a unique version is just gravy for collectors.
And last, but not least, have fun! The cards produced are one of a kind, and do look amazing, but you can always tell when someone was genuinely proud of the work they've done, and what was just blown out in a minute for money. If you are getting paid to do it, great. But making unique Magic cards is certainly an awesome acheivement, and I'm glad to be a part of it!
Thanks for reading! Again, let me know if I've missed something, or if there are any glaring flaws in my logic, thinking, or art. Ok, be nice on that last one though...
Oh and here's another step-by-step by DJ Catchem, Altering a Stripmine:
While I'm happy with both, I'm also really disappointed in the *** - I had put alot of detail in the lower half, but when I hit it with sealer, the sharpie I had as in undercoat bled over the paint, basically erasing all the work I had done there. Oh well. I might try painting over it again and see what happen. (btw I did textless because this was originally a SF champion card, with gold border, and had to cover the gold signature aswell)
The real crime here is not making the prettiest card you can. Show the artist some respect and make a card that doesn't look like poop, cover their name up!
Please refrain from referring to someones artwork as "poop". This is immature and unnecessary, not to mention borderline flaming. There are many more polite and reasonable means to express your opinion of the work contributed here. Warning issued. Thank you. - PolarBearGod
Hey guys. I recently got turned on to the full card art; I wanted to share some lessons I've learned.
Taking the ink off is too much trouble - just use acrylic paints over what's already there.
Acrylics work great, but your #1 issue is keeping the paint as thin as possible so you can't tell its there. Here's how: Use thin paint with fine pigment - the best I've found is paint used for miniatures (Vallejo, Reaper, Games Workshop are some brands.) The place you buy your magic cards probably carries this stuff. You'll also probably want to add something to the paint to make sure it keeps thin (water will do.)
Thin paint will also make it easier to "blend" one color with another.
Once you paint them you'll want to protect your art, I've only found 1 brand of varnish that dries unnoticeabley thin - Testers. Lusterless flat, or dull coat is the spray can I'd suggest. Be cafeful because spraying too much will saturate and warp a card, so go with a few really light coats rather than one heavy coat.
Here's a card a did tonight. I've only got back and white paint right now so it had to be something easy:
Second, a gift - alter of the Wolf-Skull Playmat
You've got a good point here. They will put in the work when they see fit.
I certainly wouldn't want to dissuade anyone from throwing down some really creative, or oddball frames.
Dark Depths is the same deck, with or without Thopter Foundry. Since he includes both Dark Depths, and a listing on Tezzeret/Thopter Foundry, there's really no reason to show every variation.
Don't hate, bro.
I think this is this best so far. I really like how clean and simple it is. The frame has nice lines, and everything is where you'd want it to be. I like the art going to the borders.
Some suggestions:
1.) The art has to be square, the frame dropping into the art from the top is kinda cool to break that rectangle, but unsettling. I don't think WotC would let you get away with it, so it'd make me happy if it was a flat edge.
2.) The gold color is pretty off putting. Too much yellow, not enough orange. Secondly the texture is very small. I'm sure the details are great, but I'd rather see some of that texture with my arm outstretched. That's the kind of gold that'd be perfect for Pokemon, but misses the mark a little for magic.
3.) I really like the black background for the power and toughness. For the manacost I'd suggest using a thick black border around the mana symbols instead. And for the expansion symbol, it seems to draw just a bit too much attention... what if it was a tad smaller.
Overall, amazing work.
This one is great, and certainly a looker.
The black frame looks fantastic, but I can't help but wonder if it's a feasible look in the other colors as well.
The diagonal frame is great, but again, I don't think WotC would let it fly. There is no easy solution for it here, but boy does it look good. I'd give more props, but if you were pitching to WotC, it's likely they say no on this point alone.
Where the art breaks the frame is another neat trick. Since its something WotC does with their planeswalkers, I say "why not." It might not be something they could put the extra labor in for every card, but perhaps mythics or more.
I can't think of a way to make this better.
I like what you did with the "Legendary" and "Creature" symbols.
Suggestions:
1.) The mana cost is in a pretty bad place. The first change would be to place it above the name. I'd really rather see it towards a corner, as far to an edge as possible.
2.) I like the minimal borders. Something about the texture here doesn't do it for me. I think i'd rather seem more of a flat color, or simplify the outside lines (just making it so they don't all curve into each other when connecting.)
I think toning down your textures in general will help.
Going a bit further, your frames are very close to what Magic has now. Which means you understand their design well, but I think you want to try to go a bit further. Since WotC won't change the frame without a good reason, I think you want to design an "overhaul" rather than an "update."
Nice seeing people put in so much work all around.
It took me awhile to see where you were coming from with Faeries. Sounds like the article was written a month or two ago, but after I read the whole thing, I wouldn't disagree. Old faeries is bad, I don't think you explain new faeries isn't bad; I think you should have pointed to the 6-0 faeries list at worlds... It's nearly identical.
All in Red. It's got alot of ridiculous plays (turn 1 chalice for 1 while on the play is one) but it loses to a single thoughtseize. With a lot of luck, you'll dominate. A little luck is probably still a loss. It just spends 3 or 4 cards to get a fatty which can be easily countered or removed.
Living End is a deck. It loses to the same hate as dredge does. I haven't played it but I doubt it's a solid as Dredge. I'd liked to see some stats comparing it to dredge - until then I'm going to assume it's just a bad version of dredge. *admits to assuming*
Celestial Crusader:
Umezawa's Jitte:
Maybe i'll get around to touching up the Jitte.
I'll probably get to doing some touch-ups later on, mostly dulling down the blacks. Thanks for looking, I hope this gives you ideas for your own!
If I did it again, I'd probably go for a white mask rather than trying to keep the colors of the original card. Most of my time was spent matching color, and its just less recognizable as a result
and part 2 of Masamune's tutorial
Oh and here's another step-by-step by DJ Catchem, Altering a Stripmine:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=134466
Just because his tut is 2 posts doesn't mean you get to triple post. -ChKl
Seething Song
Primal Command
I'm hoping to get a whack at that new duress soon too...
Blade of the Sixth Pride:
Wrath of God
While I'm happy with both, I'm also really disappointed in the *** - I had put alot of detail in the lower half, but when I hit it with sealer, the sharpie I had as in undercoat bled over the paint, basically erasing all the work I had done there. Oh well. I might try painting over it again and see what happen. (btw I did textless because this was originally a SF champion card, with gold border, and had to cover the gold signature aswell)
I'm still not sure what style I prefer, anyone else like one more than the other? I'll do a bit of touch up once I figure it out.
Cryptic Command
Not perfect, but I'm happy with them.
I did both pairs this week in prep for Regionals... now if only I playtested as much....
Godbless.
Original: http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=3680
Please refrain from referring to someones artwork as "poop". This is immature and unnecessary, not to mention borderline flaming. There are many more polite and reasonable means to express your opinion of the work contributed here. Warning issued. Thank you. - PolarBearGod
Taking the ink off is too much trouble - just use acrylic paints over what's already there.
Acrylics work great, but your #1 issue is keeping the paint as thin as possible so you can't tell its there. Here's how: Use thin paint with fine pigment - the best I've found is paint used for miniatures (Vallejo, Reaper, Games Workshop are some brands.) The place you buy your magic cards probably carries this stuff. You'll also probably want to add something to the paint to make sure it keeps thin (water will do.)
Thin paint will also make it easier to "blend" one color with another.
Once you paint them you'll want to protect your art, I've only found 1 brand of varnish that dries unnoticeabley thin - Testers. Lusterless flat, or dull coat is the spray can I'd suggest. Be cafeful because spraying too much will saturate and warp a card, so go with a few really light coats rather than one heavy coat.
Here's a card a did tonight. I've only got back and white paint right now so it had to be something easy:
I'll just add the blue later.