How to Give an Unforgettable Magic: the Gathering Gift

Happy Valentine’s day! In spirit of the day, I thought this would be an excellent time to tell you about the matched pair of cards I recently altered as a wedding gift. So if you’re interested in learning about how you can alter paired cards yourself, or if you’re just curious about what the process looks like, you’re in the right place! (office mess not included)

It was probably the most interesting project I’ve done to date — how often do you get to paint Omnath in a wedding veil?! — and it was definitely the most intense thing I’ve done so far. These two are each player’s favorite card and the idea to have the two getting married was both hilarious and adorable. I’m already looking forward to receiving my next commission!

I originally planned on doing a detailed walkthrough on my altering process from start to finish, but it soon became clear that the post would be entirely too long. So today, I’ll be giving you a step-by-step overview and cover the detail-intensive portions in posts of their own so they can have the time they deserve.

Phase 1: Make a Plan

This is never more important than when you’re altering an MtG card because you want your paint to be as thin as possible, which means as little painting over mistakes as possible… or worse, having to scrape away entire segments and then re-paint it and deal with covering up the seam. I actually made that precise mistake on this project, which you’ll see later.

I like to draw a 3×5-inch rectangle on a piece of paper (in this case, two of those) and draw my design on that to start with. It’s definitely helpful to block out where the nameplate, power/toughness and mana cost are at so you don’t have the awkward moment later when you realize your design is about an inch too tall. I don’t typically add much detail at all in this phase; just enough to get the concept across. This is also what I’ll send to the client if they want a draft run by them ahead of time. Although, you’ll soon see just how much can change over the course of a project…

After I have my general idea figured out, I’ll start working out details. Already you can see that once drawing actually begins, technical details start emerging that need addressing. The most notable difference here is that the creatures themselves are much larger than in the original draft — I realized quickly that there needed to be more ‘creature’ in the creature card lol. Once I’m more or less happy with it, I draw a half-inch grid over the entire design.

The final step in the planning process is to get your cards set up on your workstation, prep them with your base coat and then draw a grid over the actual cards. I use this to re-draw my design box-by-box onto the card. I like to tape my cards down for a number of reasons, but particularly for a matched set it ensures that your paint strokes will flow naturally from one card to the next. I also don’t like to paint a solid basecoat– it’s thinner this way but also opaque enough that I can see the lines I draw onto the card as I paint… plus it’s mega satisfying to watch the original card slowly disappear under your handiwork.

Phase 2: Painting!

Once the card was completely planned out, it was time to think about the different layers here– the stained glass in the far back, then the garland and finally the elementals themselves. You generally want to try to paint from the back to the front so you have less cleanup to do as you work. Your backgrounds will look a lot cleaner too, because you won’t be carefully painting around your already-detailed foreground. So, stained glass first!

I have a habit of painting something completely out of order just to get a block of paint onto the card– it helps remove that initial blank-canvas nervousness. Omnath is pretty perfect for that, being essentially a big green blob already. And you might notice that I didn’t paint any of the stained glass around the center and bottom. I had a plan, I promise!

That garland makes a massive difference in how complete this feels. I actually still needed to add my highlights and deep shadows at this point, but I waited on that until I had the elementals painted in so I wouldn’t be going over my work. Nobody likes re-doing their painstaking efforts.

At last, the evidence of my big mistake. If you compare the picture above with the one below, you’ll notice some distinct differences in Maelstrom Wanderer’s anatomy. You’ll notice that he’s decidedly trimmed down around the bottom and middle. And… black is the absolute worst thing to paint over, though I tried! I eventually had to scrape out a huge portion of the lower body and re-do the entire thing. A tip: try to scrape all the way out to a natural ‘seam’ so that yours isn’t so glaringly obvious.

At this point, it’s mainly just a details game. I was finally able to finish the stained glass at the bottom now that I knew definitively both where the Wanderer’s body actually began and ended, and where Omnath’s veil was (and wasn’t). I suppose you could just, I dunno, actually plan that out from the beginning, but what’s life without a little mystery?

Once details were wrapped up (and I kept finding more to do, basically everywhere) it was finally time to take the tape off and clean up. This is my single favorite part and I struggle so hard to avoid doing it preemptively. Cleanup is straightforward, really. Grab your bestie Toothpick and straighten out those borders! I also take some time flattening out any stray raised paint-strokes to give the final product an even smoother appearance.

Ta-daaaa~ !

And here’s the final product! Whipping up the matching Companion cards is always fun and for these and I decided to use the stained glass backdrop from the actual cards as the Companion background.

Wrapping Up

Literally, the very first thing you should do is wrap your work. I use a penny sleeve and top-loader, and they don’t come out except for their photoshoot. I plan on talking more about that particular thing later, so if you wanna know how I plan and style my photos you’ll want to stay tuned!

I really hope you enjoyed the tour of my process and the final piece(s). I learned so much from this project and feel energized to do just about anything now! (seriously, those garlands were the biggest exercise in patience). Know anybody who would love a matched set of their own? Drop me a line because I would love to do more like this!

And remember — follow your heart, chase those dreams and be sure to step outside sometimes~