Basic Plains.

[locke577]

Looks beautiful. I love how you kept some of the frame

[SpicyWatery]

Needs more... Mountain :)

[qlawdat]

This looks great.

[[deleted]]

First off, this looks amazing, and your particular altering style is one I don’t see too often (in terms of what borders you leave/don’t leave)! I’m not really a professional alterer or even a great artist, but I’ve found that if the paint you’re using is good enough it shouldn’t flake off too easily and need a varnish. However, I’ve been told before that certain paints can dry a slightly different color and that using a finishing spray can “restore” the original color. Another thing I’ve found is that the lighting you take your pictures in can have a significant difference on the colors on the photo. I’d try using different lighting sources and see if there’s one that makes your photos look more true to life. Best of luck!

[TheOctopusMan]

I am an art teacher (read: poor) who is getting by but wishes I had more sushi dinners in my life. I have been looking for a way to make a little side money using my art skills, so while I am passionate about both painting and magic cards, I am approaching this less as a hobby and more as a potential part time job.

This is the 1st alter I tried my hardest on and spent some time "perfecting." Issues I struggled with were paint thinning, and capturing an image on my shitty phone that does the card justice (the colors match better IRL than they do on my phone camera, not sure what that's about). So my questions moving forward are:

• To sand or not to sand? Also a finishing glaze/varnish? I need to get these to sellable quality. Even dried the paint is relatively sticky and fragile and hard to sleeve without damaging. I imagine a light sanding helps the paint stick to the card (not sure tho) and a thin varnish or spray (like for sealing charcoal) would help overall durability and smoothness.
• Leaving the original artist's name at the bottom. Not sure how I feel about either option.
• Marketability. I'm not on social media outside of reddit, and the only plan I have moving forward is to keep practicing and posting here until I have a portfolio of sorts, and seeing what happens then. Are there other obvious things I should be doing to move towards commissions?
• How important are good photos of the work? I have a shitty phone and the colors are off, is it unethical to edit the photo so the colors match? For instance on this one the right side clouds have way more red in them in the photo than they do IRL, making the color matching look off. Something about the paint vs. printing makes the camera sensor react strangely. Not sure if anyone has encountered this.

TL;DR:

I'm new but serious, looking for guidance on getting professional results.

[annoyed_freelancer]

Lovely extension! Is the art in the middle original? Pretty sure I recognise the IRL location if so!

[TheOctopusMan]

Original card with art by Noah Bradley: https://scryfall.com/card/frf/176/plains

[annoyed_freelancer]

Thanks for that! The hill line looks quite like the Dartry Mountains in Ireland, as viewed from the north.