Sports Card Alter
And Now For Sports
My friend Jeff May is Dre’s co-host on the Nerd! podcast. Jeff has been gracious enough to let us release our show on his feed. He also does a lot of pack breaking videos on his YouTube channel.
For a while, I subscribed to a Patreon level where he was sending me cards from the breaks. Dre is always trying to synergize what the podcasts are doing. Lately, he’s been thinking of using my card alters to cross over somehow with the card breaks. Notably the Stained Glass alters which also connects with Jeff’s other co-host Andrea Guzzetta.
I usually alter Magic cards, but there’s no reason why I can’t do the same for other cards. As long as the stock isn’t too glossy, I can paint on it. The Stained Glass and Blueprint styles can be transferred to many contexts. I went through the cards Jeff sent me and picked out a few with some good poses for the stained glass treatment.
It Had to be Fedorov
I grew up in the Detroit suburbs in the late 80’s - early 90’s. I was at the age and time to be primed for Red Wing hockey. Sports didn’t stick with me as I moved away from the area. I never picked up new fandoms for the Chicago city teams and rooting for the Detroit teams felt like something I outgrew. Still, I love the general stories around sports figures. It’s like Jeff’s other podcast “You Don’t Even Like Sports” was tailor made for me.
Most of the cards I received were from Detroit teams. This one of Segeri Fedorov holding up the puck is perfect. The puck in his hand feels framed like a holy object. Him staring at it from the left puts all focus on the puck. Accentuating the puck with a holy light has to happen.
Behold, the puck
Discovery
Step one… same as any start. Mask off the area I plan on painting. I’m still using that blue Poco paint pen for everything. I should experiment with some other colors to set the tone.
Fans! Wheredja go?
Next, pencil in the areas for stained glass pieces. I’m taking almost the same design approach as on the Geist-Hoonored Monk alter I did. The puck will be emitting the light like a sun. Other glass pieces will be treated as a background behind the sun. I love how he’s staring at the puck as if it really is a holy object.
I'm caught in your spiderwebs, leave a message and I'll call you back
For the next stained glass piece, I’ll look at some images of stained glass on buildings. There are so many ways to design a card around the style. You can draw the “glass pieces” outside of normal physics for cutting glass. You can create flame pieces to make up a demon or rounded cloud pieces on an angel.
At this point it’s a paint-by-numbers piece. The toughest part is coming up with the color scheme. Having a unique layout means nothing if the colors clash. I have to do something similar to the Llanowar Elves alter where each section of the piece is in a different color. Actually, I have an Isaia Thomas card that could make for an easy trial run there.
Everything but the edgework makes for some sloppy lookin' lines
Last is my favorite part: adding the micron pen lines. I usually give it a couple more rounds offline cleanup with edges. Toothpicks are my best friend in erasing.
So much cleaner
What Did We Learn?
There’s alter life beyond Magic: The Gathering.
Socials
I make occasional posts about my alters on Instagram.
Cheers, all!