Here it is, finally!
Mods, please sticky this or add it to the Artwork Linkage Encyclopedia. Thanks!
I've decided to put this together for the following reasons:
1) For the Benefit of the MTG:S Art Community
2) Present need for an Altered Art FAQ\How-To
3) The artists themselves are too busy to do this
4) Boredom
lol, Ok now that that is out of the way, on to the good stuff!
Since I am not an alteration artist myself, I will need to rely on the artists help to correct me if anything I've posted is wrong, or help me add anything I have missed. Thanks!
Special thanks to the following people for their direct contributions for information, pictures, and techniques to this thread.
yawg07
omnisnake
dj catchem
I will break this FAQ\How-To down into three main sections, each with their own subsections.
1) Materials
Paints - Oil
Paints - Acrylic
Markers
Other Mediums
Other Materials
2) Preparation
Choosing a card style
Masking a card
Blanking a card with Erasers
Blanking a card with Acetone
3) Alteration
Choosing a subject matter
Applying the alteration
Cleaning up the image
Showing it off
Appendix A) Links Appendix B) Tips
Oil paints are not really recommended for altering MtG cards as they take a long time to cure, and often leave the card damaged or warped. Another reason artists prefer not to use oil paints is because it requires using a solvent which is generally toxic. You can, however, find some oils which are 'water soluble' oils and can be cleaned with soap and water.
If you choose to use oil paints, some recommended brands are:
Winsor Newton
Basic Color Recommendations
Any oil painting artists? Please help...
Acrylic paints are the best medium to use when altering MtG cards. Their 'wet time' allows you to blend colors on an art palette prior to applying them to the card as well as allowing you to blend colors directly on the card itself. One or Two ounce bottles are plenty.
The difference between 'heavy body' acrylics and 'soft body' acrylics is that heavy body acrylics need to be mixed with an acrylic medium or water to act as a thinner. The heavy body acrylics have more pigment and are thicker in viscosity than soft body acrylics which are already thinned to a predetermined viscosity.
yawg07 recommends using acrylic liquid (not gel) matte (not gloss) medium for thinning colors, usually preferring this instead of water: it can also be used by itself to seal in everything afterwards.
There are several brands to choose from:
Golden Acrylics Basic Color Recommendations Titanium White Carbon Black Raw Umber
Burnt Umber Light
Burnt Sienna
Titan Buff Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Hansa Yellow Opaque
Yellow Ochre Quinacridone Burnt Orange
Pyrrole Red Light
Napthol Red
Vat Orange Permanent Violet Dark
Diox Purple
Alizarin Crimson Hue
Jenkins Green
Chromium green Chromium Oxide Green
Phthalo Blue (RS)
Ultramarine
Cerulean Blue Primary Cyan Payne's Gray
Anthraquinone Blue
Liquitex Acrylics
Basic Color Recommendations
Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Ultramarine Blue
Phthalocyanine Green
Mars Black
Naphthol Crimson
Burnt Sienna
...Artist help needed
Markers leave a glossier finish on the card and are not as good as acrylic paints for alterations.When using markers, the 'wet time' is very limited and you must do all color blending while the ink is still wet, on the card itself. Prismacolor Markers and Sharpie markers are the most commonly used to altering cards. The best kind to get are the ones with two different size tips on each end: a fine tip, and a normal medium size tip. This allows you to use them for both background work and fine detail work.
Prismacolor Markers
Basic Color Recommendations
A set of 24 colors should be good.
Sharpie Markers
Basic Color Recommendations
A set of 24 colors should be good.
Some people use only black sharpies to alter cards, some use colored pencils, some even use crayons. You can use just about any medium, as long as it will dry over a period of time.
Of course, if you choose to use paints you will need paint brushes: the thinner the better. The key to a good alteration is in the detail.
Here are some paintbrush suggestions:
Royal #1 Pointed Round Fine Sable
Winsor & Newton University Series #00 Synthetic
Scepter Gold II #0000 Sable/Synthetic
Loew-Cornell 18/0 Script (For FINE detail work)
Also, a palette can be really helpful, though you can use a styrofoam plate if you don't want to buy one. just punch a hole in it for your thumb and voila!
If you choose to use markers, you can get blending sticks called "Tortillions" which are basically paper pencils that you can use to blend the ink in a precise detail. They are normally used for graphite or pastels, but can be used on ink as well.
First you should choose what style of alteration you plan on doing.
Will it be textless or will you leave the text box?
Will it be a border extension or are you going to keep the black border the way it is?
Are you going to modify the original art or just extend it over the text box\name box?
There are several options to consider and you should have a general idea by time you start masking and erasing the card.
You will need Painter's Tape. It is blue and looks like masking tape, but forms a much better seal. It comes in several thicknesses and you will want to get the thinner kind.
I need some pictures of a card masked and ready for blanking.
Masked and ready for blanking.
The best erasers to use are Magic Rub erasers as they erase ink. Blanking a card with an eraser is a timely process and can sometimes take several erasers.
I start with the edges:
Then work on the middle:
All done and unmasked!
Acetone is a chemical commonly found in nail polish remover.
Nail polish remover, however, has a very low concentration of acetone and will take longer to blank a card than pure acetone.
You can get pure acetone at most hardware stores and at some drug stores.
Just dab a little onto a cotton ball and start wiping away the ink.
Be careful not to let the acetone soak into the card or it may damage it.
This specific brand is called "Klean-Strip" and is the most common type you will find.
This section to be improved upon shortly....
I could really use some "in-process" pictures showing the steps taken to apply the alteration: laying the gusso (if any), painting the subject, then cleaning up.
What do you want to paint? Once you know what you want to paint, mask it again (if you've unmasked it), and pencil sketch what you plan to paint. In my case, I've sketched out the general subject, a wizard looking at an orb that has all the basic land types in it.
Paint it
Use a toothpick to clean up any uneven edges
So once you've completed your alteration, now what? Well now it's time to show it off! Take a picture of it or scan it, and crop it down to size. Then once you have it uploaded to an image hosting site such as www.imageshack.us you can use the following tags to show it off:
To BB cards with Golden Acrylics: use an ultra thin coat of 90-95% Carbon Black and 5% Titanium White liquid acrylics to match the finish of the card almost perfectly.
If doing older sets (Revised, 4th, Chronicles) add a little more Titanium and a smidge of Raw Umber.
Ok, i literally JUST got back from the store and bought a bunch of erasers to determine which ones worked.. it was just a target (the craft store isnt open for another week or 2 :() i found one called "pentel hi-polymer" to work ok.
I bought a 25 pack of sharpies since it was all they had. i have yet to open them.. was just about to when i saw this thread. i noticed the displayed markers are all regular tipped. i bought fine tipped markers. should i wait on opening them, and return for the regular tipped? or do fine tips blend also?
fine tips will blend also, they just let out less ink than regular ones. You shouldn't have to worry, but maybe someone who alters cards with sharpies will better be able to answer the question. It was my understanding that most people use the regular tipped ones for the background work, and the fine tipped ones for the detail work. There are some that have both the fine tip on one side and the normal tip on the other... Those would be best.
Yeh, all Target had was fine tip or regular tips. and my logic was, a fine tip can do large areas(although time consuming) and small areas but a regular tip cant do detail near as well.
Im wondering if i should even bother opening these, because i know when the Michael's opens up i will be able to find decent markers, and even paints.
Yeh, all Target had was fine tip or regular tips. and my logic was, a fine tip can do large areas(although time consuming) and small areas but a regular tip cant do detail near as well.
Im wondering if i should even bother opening these, because i know when the Michael's opens up i will be able to find decent markers, and even paints.
Depends, when does it open? How impatient are you? What markers are you intending to buy?
its a new shopping center.. only part of the stores are open so far. michaels should be open by the end of october.. but no date is set in stone. i am impatient.. but i spent 18 bux on these sharpies. i am not extraordinarily talented .. and have little to no experience in anything other than pencils.. so idk ill probably just try these markers because i got some acetone to strip what is left behind after erasing.
Nice job califrag, I really hope this thread gets stickied and filled with tons of usefull information from the people doing those fantastic alterations we all keep seeing. It's been needed for a while.
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"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." - Calvin & Hobbes
Yes. A thousand times yes. They lured me in with Ivory Tower and Zuran Orb, and I kept telling myself "I can quit whenever I want...just look at that untapped disk". That was ten years ago man.....
I've tried using the citadel acrylics (be careful not to use the inks) but I find them too thin and it usually takes a lot to get good coverage... I haven't used them a lot, just tried them once..
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Mods, please sticky this or add it to the Artwork Linkage Encyclopedia. Thanks!
I've decided to put this together for the following reasons:
1) For the Benefit of the MTG:S Art Community
2) Present need for an Altered Art FAQ\How-To
3) The artists themselves are too busy to do this
4) Boredom
lol, Ok now that that is out of the way, on to the good stuff!
Since I am not an alteration artist myself, I will need to rely on the artists help to correct me if anything I've posted is wrong, or help me add anything I have missed. Thanks!
Special thanks to the following people for their direct contributions for information, pictures, and techniques to this thread.
yawg07
omnisnake
dj catchem
I will break this FAQ\How-To down into three main sections, each with their own subsections.
1) Materials
Appendix B) Tips
Oil paints are not really recommended for altering MtG cards as they take a long time to cure, and often leave the card damaged or warped. Another reason artists prefer not to use oil paints is because it requires using a solvent which is generally toxic. You can, however, find some oils which are 'water soluble' oils and can be cleaned with soap and water.
If you choose to use oil paints, some recommended brands are:
Winsor Newton
Basic Color Recommendations
Any oil painting artists? Please help...
Acrylic paints are the best medium to use when altering MtG cards. Their 'wet time' allows you to blend colors on an art palette prior to applying them to the card as well as allowing you to blend colors directly on the card itself. One or Two ounce bottles are plenty.
The difference between 'heavy body' acrylics and 'soft body' acrylics is that heavy body acrylics need to be mixed with an acrylic medium or water to act as a thinner. The heavy body acrylics have more pigment and are thicker in viscosity than soft body acrylics which are already thinned to a predetermined viscosity.
yawg07 recommends using acrylic liquid (not gel) matte (not gloss) medium for thinning colors, usually preferring this instead of water: it can also be used by itself to seal in everything afterwards.
There are several brands to choose from:
Golden Acrylics
Basic Color Recommendations
Titanium White
Carbon Black
Raw Umber
Burnt Umber Light
Burnt Sienna
Titan Buff
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Hansa Yellow Opaque
Yellow Ochre
Quinacridone Burnt Orange
Pyrrole Red Light
Napthol Red
Vat Orange
Permanent Violet Dark
Diox Purple
Alizarin Crimson Hue
Jenkins Green
Chromium green
Chromium Oxide Green
Phthalo Blue (RS)
Ultramarine
Cerulean Blue
Primary Cyan
Payne's Gray
Anthraquinone Blue
Liquitex Acrylics
Basic Color Recommendations
Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Ultramarine Blue
Phthalocyanine Green
Mars Black
Naphthol Crimson
Burnt Sienna
...Artist help needed
Markers leave a glossier finish on the card and are not as good as acrylic paints for alterations.When using markers, the 'wet time' is very limited and you must do all color blending while the ink is still wet, on the card itself. Prismacolor Markers and Sharpie markers are the most commonly used to altering cards. The best kind to get are the ones with two different size tips on each end: a fine tip, and a normal medium size tip. This allows you to use them for both background work and fine detail work.
Prismacolor Markers
Basic Color Recommendations
A set of 24 colors should be good.
Sharpie Markers
Basic Color Recommendations
A set of 24 colors should be good.
Some people use only black sharpies to alter cards, some use colored pencils, some even use crayons. You can use just about any medium, as long as it will dry over a period of time.
Of course, if you choose to use paints you will need paint brushes: the thinner the better. The key to a good alteration is in the detail.
Here are some paintbrush suggestions:
Royal #1 Pointed Round Fine Sable
Winsor & Newton University Series #00 Synthetic
Scepter Gold II #0000 Sable/Synthetic
Loew-Cornell 18/0 Script (For FINE detail work)
Also, a palette can be really helpful, though you can use a styrofoam plate if you don't want to buy one. just punch a hole in it for your thumb and voila!
If you choose to use markers, you can get blending sticks called "Tortillions" which are basically paper pencils that you can use to blend the ink in a precise detail. They are normally used for graphite or pastels, but can be used on ink as well.
First you should choose what style of alteration you plan on doing.
Will it be textless or will you leave the text box?
Will it be a border extension or are you going to keep the black border the way it is?
Are you going to modify the original art or just extend it over the text box\name box?
There are several options to consider and you should have a general idea by time you start masking and erasing the card.
You will need Painter's Tape. It is blue and looks like masking tape, but forms a much better seal. It comes in several thicknesses and you will want to get the thinner kind.
I need some pictures of a card masked and ready for blanking.
Masked and ready for blanking.
The best erasers to use are Magic Rub erasers as they erase ink. Blanking a card with an eraser is a timely process and can sometimes take several erasers.
I start with the edges:
Then work on the middle:
All done and unmasked!
Acetone is a chemical commonly found in nail polish remover.
Nail polish remover, however, has a very low concentration of acetone and will take longer to blank a card than pure acetone.
You can get pure acetone at most hardware stores and at some drug stores.
Just dab a little onto a cotton ball and start wiping away the ink.
Be careful not to let the acetone soak into the card or it may damage it.
This specific brand is called "Klean-Strip" and is the most common type you will find.
This section to be improved upon shortly....
I could really use some "in-process" pictures showing the steps taken to apply the alteration: laying the gusso (if any), painting the subject, then cleaning up.
What do you want to paint? Once you know what you want to paint, mask it again (if you've unmasked it), and pencil sketch what you plan to paint. In my case, I've sketched out the general subject, a wizard looking at an orb that has all the basic land types in it.
Paint it
Use a toothpick to clean up any uneven edges
So once you've completed your alteration, now what? Well now it's time to show it off! Take a picture of it or scan it, and crop it down to size. Then once you have it uploaded to an image hosting site such as www.imageshack.us you can use the following tags to show it off:
Just be sure to remove the *'s and replace the HTTP URL with the actual URL to your image.
Winsor & Newton Oil Colours
Winsor & Newton Water Soluble Oils
Golden Acrylics
Liquitex Acrylics
Winsor & Newton Acrylics
Prismacolor Art Markers
Sharpie Permanent Markers
To BB cards with Golden Acrylics: use an ultra thin coat of 90-95% Carbon Black and 5% Titanium White liquid acrylics to match the finish of the card almost perfectly.
If doing older sets (Revised, 4th, Chronicles) add a little more Titanium and a smidge of Raw Umber.
I bought a 25 pack of sharpies since it was all they had. i have yet to open them.. was just about to when i saw this thread. i noticed the displayed markers are all regular tipped. i bought fine tipped markers. should i wait on opening them, and return for the regular tipped? or do fine tips blend also?
Im wondering if i should even bother opening these, because i know when the Michael's opens up i will be able to find decent markers, and even paints.
Depends, when does it open? How impatient are you? What markers are you intending to buy?
~Center of the Gaming Universe~
Microsuck
A lot of people in the other thread ask how to do ^.
~Center of the Gaming Universe~
Microsuck
I'll try and take some pictures but I have a feeling that other, more excited, members will beat me to the punch today.