General The Alter Thread

[Velrun]

This thread was requested so now I'm making one
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Show off your altered MtG cards here. Preferably the ones you have in your cube

Here are some of my favorite colored cards


Isamaru, Hound of Konda by CardKitty


Path to Exile in foil by Jérõme Turcotte


Oblivion Ring by CardKitty


Ponder by Toni Micol


Counterspell in foil by Jérõme Turcotte


Fact or Fiction in foil by Malte Bigup


Toxic Deluge by Dustin Bossard


Lotus Cobra by Sandreline Moussé


Abrupt Decay in foil by Malte Bigup

 

[Velrun]

Here are some of my favorite colorless cards


Sensei's Divining Top by Jei Linan


Ancient Tomb by CardKitty


City of Traitors by CardKitty


Bayou by CardKitty


Tundra by CardKitty


Taiga by CardKitty


Plateau by CardKitty

 

[Velrun]

Here are some of my favorite Basic lands






















Here is a link to the visual spoiler of my Basic Lands Box we use for cubes:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/5fbd58b45132cb1052dab23e?view=spoiler

 

[Velrun]

And finally here are my The Lord of the Rings altered cards
All by CardKitty

 

[sigh]

Good golly. Certainly didn't waste any time with showing off as many cards as possible A lot of cool ones. I do like alters with totally new art, really adds another layer of uniqueness

Here's one that I've had for a while, and remains one of my faves. It's fairly unique in that it's one of the only alters I've purchased from Etsy, along with Tormenting Voice.

 

[James Stevenson]

Velrun, that is amazing. I never imagined that ANYONE had such a dope collection of alters. It must add so much to playing that cube!

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

These alters are as sweet as these pictures are enormous.

 

[Velrun]

Now who else has alterations they wish to share?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I gave my likes to the first two posts, because that Lotus Cobra and that SDT are amazing!

I run no alters myself, so I don't really have anything else to add, but feel free to post more sweet alters

 

[McMenno]

I didn't know they had monuments to the gods of amonkhet on ixalan...

 

[shamizy]

These are fantastic. I don't actually have any alters in my cube, I mostly try to foil it out whenever I can. I'm up to around 328/408 possible, the hardest part is going to be the land section though

 

[sigh]

Here's a couple more of my favorites. The Starry Night top was a birthday present from gasp I think.. 2 years ago. And the Stuffy Doll! Very cute and unique art for a brainstorm

 

[sigh]

These two share the honor of being some of my only alter-art impulse buys; usually I toss things into my watch list for a week at least
The stark contrast of the single bloom against the winter scene really drew me to the Tender, she seems much more earnest about tending blooms in that atmosphere.
The ooze is my only foil alter (and my only card from Israel!), and the acidic corrosion look is really outstanding. My scanner does not do it justice..

 

[VincePendrell]

I was altering cards just before I went to university, stopped playing Magic competitively and started just collecting cards for cube or EDH, but never really got many cards altered for my own cube. I'd much rather use my time painting alters for commissions, and I was never a fan of running alters if I could run foils.

These are the ones that I still run:

Spoiler

Spoiler

These were actually commissions by a friend of mine, just before we joined our collections to start building the cube. They are among the first commissions I ever painted.

Spoiler

Wastelands were a bit away from our purchase power for a while, so we got a huge amount of cheap-ass World Championship Deck Wastelands at some point. I didn't like the gold borders very much, so I got rid of them.

Spoiler

These are some of the last alters I've made for my cube. I had already decided that I liked foils more than borderless alters. I had seen some interesting minimalist alters and decided to try my hand at it.

Spoiler

These are from the same batch as the previous one, but I got them signed by Jesper Ejsing last GP Copenhagen

Spoiler

These are the only two alters that I run that I haven't painted myself. I got them altered by Raymond Swanland in the second GP that I ever participated (and the first one that I played; previously, I had participated in another one, but because some of the organizers knew my work and wanted me to join and alter cards during the event, since there was no actual artist joining).

This Wurmcoil Engine is one of my absolute favorite cards, and like I mentioned in a few GRBS threads before, my cube was originally designed to make Wurmcoil Engine into a great card, but not a ridiculously powerful card.

 

[James Stevenson]

These are outstanding, Vince. I'm really impressed, I wish I had skills like that. What's your technique? I always wonder how it works, working on these tiny pieces of cardboard.

 

[frostymoose]

I painted alters for a few months a couple years ago and these are my 3 best. Admittedly I have none of these cards in my cube!

The winter orb is the only time I painted "new" artwork instead of just extending the artwork. At the time (before EMA) this art was only available as an MTGO promo and I never was too fond of the polar bears.

If I ever try altering again I'm buying much smaller brushes.

 

[Suicufnoc]

My humble alter collection. There's a few more that aren't in the cube, and probably one or two I missed. The sucky ones are by me

 

[VincePendrell]

These are outstanding, Vince. I'm really impressed, I wish I had skills like that. What's your technique? I always wonder how it works, working on these tiny pieces of cardboard.

Thanks a lot!

I'm not sure if I had a specific technique, but I'd usually would just mix a bunch of paints and throw them in the card with fine brushes. I know that some people erased parts of the card they'd paint over, or do multiple layers. I usually did as few layers as possible, and I'd avoid base coats for alters that will use darker paints.

I honestly don't think you need to be extremely skillful to do an alter, because people overlook tons of details. Especially colors. It takes some amount of training and the right light to notice some subtle color differences. What took me the most time to learn was how to mix the paints to get the right colors, thought it helped me that I was studying a bit of color theory and anatomy drawing, but if you already have any artistic training, it really shouldn't be that hard to do it.

If you have a set of acrylic paints laying around (but not the ones with a glossy plastic finish, because those look like crap on alters), I'd suggest you to just get some brushes, go to a well lit place (either with some sunlight, or with a super-bright white lamp) and throw some paint over your cards too! The first 5 or so are guaranteed to look like crap, the next 10 will look OK, and by the time you paint your 50th card, you'll probably already know what you are doing well, and what you need to improve at.

And to wrap up the post, I found pictures of some altered cards that have been in my cube before, but ended up getting removed:

Spoiler: Wasteland Again

I'll start with these two that I posted before and technically haven't been removed. I did remove the golden borders from the cube, though, so I'm saying it counts.

Spoiler: Soltari Something

Remember the time we used to power-max and this guy was a great white weenie card?

Spoiler: Equipped Creatures

The Wild Nacatl from the last post was wielding the two swords available at the time, but the Knight of Meadowgrain had the honor of carrying the fork of power.

Spoiler: Winter Orb

This is the same Mana Vault I posted before. I was trying to get rid of as many of the white bordered cards as I could, but it made sense to maintain it for the Winter Orb

Spoiler: Very Cursed Scroll

Before and after pictures of this Cursed Scroll restoration project

Spoiler: Mox Earth

Technically, this alter was never in my cube, but the card was. I took this out after I got the FTV:Relics Mox Diamond for my cube, then painted and sold this one. This was one of the last alters I've ever painted, and probably the prettiest one as well.

The stars were made by splattering paint with a toothbrush. A technique that I also used in the two wastelands.

 

[James Stevenson]

Thanks a lot!

I'm not sure if I had a specific technique, but I'd usually would just mix a bunch of paints and throw them in the card with fine brushes. I know that some people erased parts of the card they'd paint over, or do multiple layers. I usually did as few layers as possible, and I'd avoid base coats for alters that will use darker paints.

I honestly don't think you need to be extremely skillful to do an alter, because people overlook tons of details. Especially colors. It takes some amount of training and the right light to notice some subtle color differences. What took me the most time to learn was how to mix the paints to get the right colors, thought it helped me that I was studying a bit of color theory and anatomy drawing, but if you already have any artistic training, it really shouldn't be that hard to do it.

If you have a set of acrylic paints laying around (but not the ones with a glossy plastic finish, because those look like crap on alters), I'd suggest you to just get some brushes, go to a well lit place (either with some sunlight, or with a super-bright white lamp) and throw some paint over your cards too! The first 5 or so are guaranteed to look like crap, the next 10 will look OK, and by the time you paint your 50th card, you'll probably already know what you are doing well, and what you need to improve at.

Cool. I'll have to give it a go at some point Thanks!

 

[safra]

I love love love the mox diamond alter.

 

[Velrun]

Never noticed Jitte only has half of a handle until your alter showed me!

 

[Velrun]

That is the prettiest drawing of Earth I have ever seen on an alter!

 

[Velrun]

New alters in the Fantasy Cube

Relic of Progenitus, Silent Gravestone and Rishadan Port by George from LocalProAlters. You can find him on either www.localproalters.com or on MCM.





Forest by Danielle Lackie. You can find her on Facebook on the group "Lackie Mini Painting" where she does all sorts of hand-painted modern arts.

 

[safra]

I like them all, but the Port is absolutely stunning.

 

[Jonas]

This is the only kind of alters I have, people get to sign a land when they win, preferably noting something in on the card about what won them the draft.

Spoiler