YGCTO Episode 13b - Balki the Bouncer

Back to Painting

Since 1993, I’ve been a Magic: the Gathering player. I was a casual player. I only went to a few local store tournaments and modern nights. My favorite way to play is drafting with a group of friends. I built a cube a few years ago and decided to alter some of the cards.

I ended up painting on many of my cards. First a few choice cube cards to surprise my players. Then on to extend the borders of all my commanders. I was never a great visual artist, but I sincerely enjoyed altering the cards and making them more personal.

This year, I’ve decided to get back into altering after a seven year hiatus. Dre and I are associated with Jeff May who opens packs of cards on his YouTube channel. He’s active with multiple pack breakings a week. The hope is that I can figure out some way to alter some of the cards from Jeff’s openings in process videos, then send them to some of his Patrons.

Blueprint Alters

To get started again, I’m taking on an easy alter style that I love. The blueprint alter. You take an artifact and alter the background to make it look as if the card is a technical blueprint. You can see some examples on my alters page on this site.

It’s a good re-introduction style for a few reasons. First of all, you only need one color of paint and a fine white pen. Second, it forces you to build a large single layer of color so I can focus on re-learning how to apply an effective base coat. And it’s an easy creative direction that leaves room for simple creative embellishments at the end.

I chose a Boros Locket for the alter. It’s a cheap card that I have several of. Usually I alter cards that are more likely to be used in decks, but for this first time back I’ll go with an easier alter.

Ladies and Gentelemen, tonight's sacrifice!

I’d like to try and get this first batch of alters out without picking up new art supplies, so I’m limiting myself to what I can still find in the house. The biggest thing I’m missing is my paint pen I used for base coats.

Fine. That means I’ll be using this first alter as an experiment to test the paint pens I have as bases. I have three candidates: the Mondo Llama metallic blue, the Uni Posca lt blue, or the white DecoColor paint pen. This means, I can do four cards for a full experiment, adding a fourth for no base marker.

Paint pens I'll be testing as base coats

For now, I’ll have to use the small side desk in my office. It’s the only desk near natural light in the house. I pulled together the supplies I’ll need for the project. Two brushes, one for the base coat and one for some drybrush blending. Tooth picks and an eraser for erasing. A metal straightedge / ruler. A mechanical pencil and a white fine tipped paint pen.

I use Army Painter paints for painting figures. It’s acrylic and still works well for cards. I also like Army Painter because the paints are already watered down, encouraging good habits painting in several thin layers.

Good n' Ready

To start, I take each Locket and draw a diagonal line through the center. I’ll use this when using the masking paint pen to cover half the actual image.

Step one, draw a line in pencil

I then add a base coat with the paint pen. First, the metallic blue Mondo Llama. I got some of the base on the bottom right edge of the locket.

Step two, base coat metallic Mondo Llama

Here’s the DecoColor white used for a base. I could immediately tell it would be too thick for cards. You really have to keep your paint as thin as possible. If it gets too thick, the card could be unusable in an actual game.

DecoColor white is a thicc boi

Here’s all four cards lined up with both the maker base and the first coat of paint. you can tell how much the white base paint on the right stands out. On the left is the control card with no marker base. The second is the Poco Lt Blue and the third is the Mondo Llama metallic.

First layer of actual painting

It takes a day of going back several times with several thin layers of paint. Eventually, you build up a solid blue mask over every part of the card except for the text boxes and half the artifact image. I then reinforced each Locket with a circle in white pen.

All based up with a circled locket

I used the first card slot to mark 7mm spaces for the blueprint grid.

Using a grid guide

Then drew the grid on each card, finishing each with some customized doodles.

No Base

Poco Marker Lt Blue Base

Mondo Llama Metallic Blue Base

DecoColor White Base

And all four together in the same spots they started.

Finished

And for science, here’s the bases I used for each alter

Finished

Discovery

The Poco Lt blue won out for the best base coat. It allowed for a very thin layer that was easy to paint on. Having the marker lets me cover a good area with a better-defined point to define any masked areas. I picked up another one and will be using that for my next few rounds of altering.

Thanks to Dre for the experiment advice. I was originally only going to do the white paint based one, but after telling Dre it was already failing he told me to see it as an experiment. So I added some more test cases and a control. In the end, I got my painting mojo back and some sweet new altered cards. Next time, I’ll try a new stained glass alter.

What Did We Learn?

Altering Cards is fun.

Next Episode

For the next full episode, we cover Babylon 5: Season 4 Episode 1 & 2 “Hour of the Wolf” and “Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi” with the Flint Brothers. Coming to you Sunday, January 25th.

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Cheers, all!