Hey World. It’s time for another picture day!
I have recently started partaking in what is known in the M:tG community as creating alters– that is, cards with altered art. Some people just extend the art to the edge of the card, painting over borders and card text. Others replace the existing art with something completely different. But either way, you end up with a very distinctive (if well done) and individual looking card. Now, I don’t have the artistic training or skill of the professionals (and yes, there are people talented enough to be able to make a living from creating alters). I don’t even have the tools and supplies used by average artists that create alters. I do, however, have a weird mind, a creative nature, and a bunch of correction fluid and sharpies. Oh, and plenty of spare M:tG cards!
The first card I did when the kids and I were having a creative Sunday. The paint and pens were out and I had recently been thinking about how cool it would be to have a go at an alter or two myself. After a quick search online I came to the conclusion that I did not have access to the kit for a proper job. But if the alters are just for me, do they really need to be professional standard? Of course not. So after a quick scrabble around I came across the old correction fluid in my pencil case and figured I’d give it a try. And so we have Steward of Valeron.
© 2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC
As you can see, Greg Staples original art is very cool and knightly, but not particularly druidic. And as a Druid Knight, you’d think that he would be, so… Done with a combination of sharpie, felt-tip and kid’s paint. I like my art here, and the felt-tips worked well enough, but the paint didn’t work as well as I’d hoped.
I had so much fun creating Sir Dave (as I have dubbed him), that I decided I wanted to try a few more. And as I wasn’t happy with the paints, I could just stick to the various pens. This had the added bonus of less set up before hand and clear up afterwards, and made it easier to fit into my day. I also wanted to approach it in a slightly more professional manner, and so started making sketches in my notebook to prepare.
Next up came a card from the Return to Ravnica expansion- Stealer of Secrets.
© 2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC
So here we have Nobby the Ninja, along with his original sketches. The name definitely has a thief-esque sound, and ninjas were originally spies and thieves rather than the assassin-types of western movies, so I thought it would work nicely. Unfortunately I made the mistake of not reading the flavour text, so created Nobby when I should have created Norma. A bit of a flavour fail there. I am still definitely happy with the cards though, and they are sleeved up and in my pauper Draw-Go deck.
I haven’t included my next ones as I haven’t finished the full playset of four cards, but it is a happy(ish) little owl. You can see the original sketches with Nobby above.
The next cards has, what is for me, the funniest flavour text in all of M:tG. Originally printed back in October 1996 in the Mirage expansion, the card has been printed a total of 22 times (although one printing was digital only) and of those printings, 15 have the flavour text. Grakk would be gratified!
© 2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC
As you can see, I allowed myself to indulge in a little bad punnery here- after all, nothing says pacifist like a peas protester… I would apologize for the bad joke, but I still find it really funny, to the point that I am sat here laughing at it right now.
And finally we come to Ravenous Rats. Another card that has been in the game for quite some time (originally printed in Urza’s Saga in October 1998) and been reprinted several times.
© 2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC
These, obviously, are still awaiting some colour, but I am happy enough to show them off here. Equally obviously, none of these characters are actually rats, but they are rodents, which is close enough. I am particularly proud of Jerry (both the original large sketch and the final version), especially as I was worried by how much harder I found the original smaller sketches. For the record, I had tried to find images of both Mickey and Danger Mouse eating (Ravenous Rats and all…), but these were the best I could find under the “how to draw…” searches and I wasn’t feeling brave enough to try straying too far from the instructions.
So there you have it- my first forays into the world of Magic: the Gathering alters. I’m prouder of all of the cards than I thought I might be and I already have more cards in the works. And my enthusiasm has obviously rubbed off on the kids as well- Ethan has a pile of various zombies to alter, Shannon has a random assortment (so far she has drawn a roaring lion based on a sketch she did, but a couple of others she ended up scraping the correction fluid off instead), and Rhys has expressed an interest in trying his hand as well.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing my handiwork and I look forward to sharing more of it with you another time.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you all again soon.
TTFN!
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