Painted Alterations, a brief timeline.
(Captions on the individual pieces.)
I've been dabbling in painted alterations off and on for about three years now. There's been laughter, there's been tears, there's been a rekindled hatred of my nemesis, the Sun.
I am far from an expert on painting on cards. Or painting in general. Or really anything at all, if I'm honest. On most things I fall somewhere in between "well-meaning oaf" to "wanton charlatan." Despite this, I present a bit of a summary of my meandering path with tiny, tiny paintings.
It all started after I went to my first few Magic events, and was bombarded with requests to alter cards. Having never really done it before, or even really thought about it, those first alters were clumsy abombinations of silver and black sharpie that I'd just as soon forget ever happened. I did them for free, and even at that, I felt I was cheating them. Though, for many folks who've stuck with their fanship, they're the treasured proof of nobody's-perfect that clearly illustrates "we all start somewhere."
In the panic that can only come from ruining hundreds of expensive cards, I started experimenting with all kinds of methods and media for alterations. Different kinds of markers, paints, paint-pens. My online research yielded that the preferred, common method was acrylic paint.
They worked, but they dried so very, very quickly in the moistureless air of Utah. As soon as a color hit the card, it was dry. No blending, no mixing, and glazing just seemed to be an impossibility. I experimented with drying slowers, and eventually started using Golden Open series acrylics, which had a much better working time. But, they didn't cover well if they were thinned at all, and if they weren't thinned, they were goopy. However, they did the job, and for a long time they're what I used exclusively for painted alters.
Enter Drew Baker. Fantastic artist, friend, expert painter, and one of the best human beings around. I was yowling about some of the above frustrations, and he simply asked "well, is there a reason you aren't just using oil paint?"
I stumbled through a few reasons, realizing that they were not actually reasons. "They dry too slow!" Well, not really. There are driers. "They... damage the card?" No, not that either. Except that now the card has oil paint on it.
Drew helped me find paints and medium that would work well on the tiny format of a card. I tested things out on basic lands, to make sure the oil didn't soak in, or the thinners didn't eat the ink. Worked just peachy. In fact, it worked exactly like I wanted it to.
I'm still learning a lot about oil painting. Altered cards have been and introduction to the medium of the old masters, and great practice. Thanks Drew, for always being such a great help to me, and always challenging me to learn and grow.
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For folks wishing to try on their own, here's what I'm using these days. Pretty basic, really:
M. Graham walnut oil colors
walnut alkyd medium
Gamsol
Golden polymer gloss varnish
Tiny little brushes. 000 through 1, rounds and filberts for the most part.
I don't use much of the Gamsol, except for glazing. Mostly I just use a tiny bit of the alkyd to thin the paint and help it flow. I've found that it will mostly dry in a day or two, or if you're impatient, an hour at 170 degrees Fahrenheit will dry them. (Done a lot of experiments, and so far as I can tell, this doesn't hurt the card or the paint.) The varnish isn't something I've done that much experimenting with. Tried maybe four different types so far. The polymer is a nice combination of being easy to apply, very thin, and pulling out a "wet color" look. But I'm still playing with others.
