This is awesome because it shows anyone with the right tools could do it, but it's obviously something left to a pro like you! Crazy detailed work, can't imagine how many iterations you've gone through to get this technique so perfected
That is painfully beautiful. I have a list of cards I’d have loved to see Foil and seeing how you’ve perfected your craft (you did an academy early on if memory serves?) is truly inspiring.
Hey man, awesome video! I just stumbled over your complaints over yellow paints and as a miniature painter, I strongly relate. Yellow pigments, especially those used in acrylic paint, do not cover well and are, overall, rather meh. What might also work on cards are acrylic inks, as these tend to use different kinds of pigments. Especially in the case of yellow, I had great results. Most brighter tones in inks are rather transparent (except for white, holy smokes, those titanium pigments cover well...), so it might be ideal for foil art. Anyway, thanks for the insight. I am really looking to get into some card alteration, so your video was a great inspiration.
Love the video, thanks for sharing. Do you find that the condition of the underlying card makes an impact on how well the adhesive works? What about the condition of the donor foil?
For the underlying card, I recommend LP or better. Additionally, you will want to wipe the card down with either acetone or alcohol to make sure that there isn't any hand oils or grim on the surface of the card. For the donor foil, you can use cards that have considerable scuffing or clouding of the foil since the varnish applied at the end will fill in the blemishes and bring it back up to a smooth surface that should look nice.
I foil new cards as well. The process is pretty much the same at the core: Strip down a donor foil, remove the foil backing from the areas you want to show through, press it in the vise with adhesive, then do touchup work with paint.
Thanks, Grant! I've weighed these and depending on which set I use for the foiling layer the weight is between 2.05 and 2.07 grams. A normal retro foil weighs about 2.05. Some retro foils are a bit lighter at around 1.9 grams. These are from sets like Onslaught or Mercadian Masques that used a thinner foil layer compared to most old sets. So, all in all, they are so close in weight and there is enough variation in weight with old foils that these are indistinguishable when shuffled together with other retro foils. They also have the same flex feel as regular retro foils. I do take commissions and if you're interested in placing an order, you can email me at scourgealters@gmail.com
You can do this but the text on modern cards is black rather than the white text of old frame cards. Additionally, the card layout is a bit different and the position of the text is not lined up correctly. Because of this, I only do Modern -> old frame foiling if I am also doing a language swap on the card so that I can redo the text and put it in the correct spot.
For trying to old/black border white-bordered lands, do you have any specific foils you'd recommend? I'm here thinking of the Bayou you gave a phyrexian treatment to, the one that you auctioned. Which foil did you use for that, if you don't mind my asking?
Hello, there is no doubt that you are an artist, your work impresses me a lot, tell me, is there a way that I can buy some of your works or commission you? I am from Mexico and I would love to see a force of will with the foil of the old school please tell me if my request is possible.
A few of the tools that I use are handmade so they're not something that you could go buy at the store but here is a general list: Frogtape (painter's tape for keeping the printout of the text in place) #16 xacto blades (for scraping the art and text off of the card as well as for etching out the space in the back of the foil for the name and set symbol) acetone or alcohol (for cleaning the non-foil card to prep for adhesion) Plexiglass and some small cabinet handles (for the tool that I stick the donor foil layer to when I am doing the adhesion process) Scotch repositionable spray mount for the adhesive Krylon Crystal Clear Satin varnish to finish the surface of the card Golden Fluid Acrylic paints Princeton paint brushes Clear ruler Metal ruler The desk that I have with the light box is custom made but I believe similar things exist for architecture work.
can you give a detailed explanation for the foil scrapping? im not so sure how to do it with my exact o knife? is it normal the plastic layer has scratch marks? if not is there like a specific set that the paint comes out easier?
Hey, Anson! Thanks for checking the video out :D Whenever possible, I try to find donor foils that have a matching artist credit but we sadly don't have any blue foils with your art on them :( The card name text is a larger font size and easier to etch space out for but the card type and art credit text is small enough that it becomes a bit rough looking when I've tried to clear the foiling for that text. Additionally, on older cards like Transmute, the credit is right where the foil shooting star is. In cases like this, I just tend to erase the credit text entirely and just use my altered art signature to help fill that space.
Active time is usually about 6 hours but it varies quite a bit since there are so many steps in the process where things can go wrong. Sometimes, foils don't cooperate and I need to re-prep the donor foil, sometimes the adhesive doesn't work out and the whole project needs to be redone from scratch. I did a Dockside Extortionist turned into a old frame foil with Japanese text and after several misadventures, the total active time to complete was well over 15 hours spread over the course of several weeks.
Depends. In some ways it makes it more unique and could fetch a higher price on open market, but the card becomes less of a liquidable asset since stores probably won’t want to try to move it for you and the card is technically damaged and to them it is less valuable.
You can message me at facebook.com/scourgealters or scourgealters@gmail.com :) Most retro foiling projects are priced between $300-$500 depending on the details of each card.
I can never 100% guarantee tournament legality as that is always up to the head judge no matter what cards you have. This technique produces the most "judge friendly" foils that I know of and I have had sever head judges at various REL events approve them for play. I have yet to hear from a client that they had a judge disallow them. Judges have become more accepting of alters in general in recent years due to a lot of the Secret Lair stuff being pretty unrecognizable compared to the base printing. The biggest thing that this method takes into consideration is texture on the card surface and thickness/stiffness of the card so that these are within the correct weight tolerance for normal cards (not being marked in the deck).
I've had many clients play with these types of alters in tournaments varying from FNM to larger GP events. I play with them in events as well and have never had any issues. The cards are clearly recognizable and they shuffle and feel just like a normal foil. I can never guarantee that every judge is going to allow any given alter though.
I've updated the way that I process some Artifact, Land, Red, Green, and White cards. I've developed a splice method by which I remove parts of the primary donor foil and replace them with blank foil frame area from a secondary donor foil of the same type/color. This allows me to do cleaner work on frames that don't like to work well with paints. Black and Blue cards look fine and play nice with paints but the other cards tend to have some reds and yellows in them that make reworking the frame difficult with the opacity of the paint. I'll be releasing an updated video sometime this year for the new splice method.
I can't guarantee that any alter will be approved by every judge. That being said, I have spent years refining this method to make alters that are as "judge friendly" as possible. These cards are within the weight range of regular old foils and have the same flex to them so they are indistinguishable when shuffled with normal old foils. I've had plenty of clients play with these in events ranging from FNM to day 2 of a GP.
in this day in age you should have backup cards to not only deck alter but also foils in general. plenty of people get DQ for playing foils as they can curl
This is awesome because it shows anyone with the right tools could do it, but it's obviously something left to a pro like you! Crazy detailed work, can't imagine how many iterations you've gone through to get this technique so perfected
Wow amazing! Clearly so much better than your previous technique! Thank you!
Your work is mind blowing. This is art. Dude. Incredible. I love it. Wow. How much love and time you must have spend for this. Amazing. ❤
Thank you so much 😀
So *now* I find out how he does it. Good work.
Thanks for the tutorial. Gonna give it a shot and see what happens.
Wow. Just wow. Kudos to you.
That is ridiculously awesome
That's actually insane. Good job.
Thanks!
This is just awesome
That is painfully beautiful. I have a list of cards I’d have loved to see Foil and seeing how you’ve perfected your craft (you did an academy early on if memory serves?) is truly inspiring.
Amazing, man!
Thanks a lot!
Hey man, awesome video! I just stumbled over your complaints over yellow paints and as a miniature painter, I strongly relate. Yellow pigments, especially those used in acrylic paint, do not cover well and are, overall, rather meh. What might also work on cards are acrylic inks, as these tend to use different kinds of pigments. Especially in the case of yellow, I had great results. Most brighter tones in inks are rather transparent (except for white, holy smokes, those titanium pigments cover well...), so it might be ideal for foil art.
Anyway, thanks for the insight. I am really looking to get into some card alteration, so your video was a great inspiration.
Thanks for the suggestion, I tried acrylic inks and while they get closer to the correct color, it still isn't ideal.
Would love a full material list! Curious to see what blades other products you recommend!
god damn this is way more steps than a normal foil peel process. but thats how you get the best results
It's a lot of work but making foil alters that are as clean and judge friendly as possible takes more time :)
Hi ! Nice job, i'm trying to master the technic but a lot of work to do ! juste a question what kind of material do u use for removing the foil ?
Bryant Cook sent me. This is so awesome
Thanks!
Love the video, thanks for sharing. Do you find that the condition of the underlying card makes an impact on how well the adhesive works? What about the condition of the donor foil?
For the underlying card, I recommend LP or better. Additionally, you will want to wipe the card down with either acetone or alcohol to make sure that there isn't any hand oils or grim on the surface of the card. For the donor foil, you can use cards that have considerable scuffing or clouding of the foil since the varnish applied at the end will fill in the blemishes and bring it back up to a smooth surface that should look nice.
Did you try conservation resin and pigments for your paints ? Blending is probably difficult but it should cover nicely.
Thanks for the video. Do you also alters new gen folied cards ? Or only old gen ?
I foil new cards as well. The process is pretty much the same at the core: Strip down a donor foil, remove the foil backing from the areas you want to show through, press it in the vise with adhesive, then do touchup work with paint.
Beautiful! I’d be interested in having this done. Do you take commissions? Also, how does this impact the weight of the card?
Thanks, Grant! I've weighed these and depending on which set I use for the foiling layer the weight is between 2.05 and 2.07 grams. A normal retro foil weighs about 2.05. Some retro foils are a bit lighter at around 1.9 grams. These are from sets like Onslaught or Mercadian Masques that used a thinner foil layer compared to most old sets. So, all in all, they are so close in weight and there is enough variation in weight with old foils that these are indistinguishable when shuffled together with other retro foils. They also have the same flex feel as regular retro foils. I do take commissions and if you're interested in placing an order, you can email me at scourgealters@gmail.com
Wow amazing work! Would you considering altering cards as a service?
So can you also do this onto a foil card? Like if you had a foil modern frame card, could you peel a retro foil border onto it?
You can do this but the text on modern cards is black rather than the white text of old frame cards. Additionally, the card layout is a bit different and the position of the text is not lined up correctly. Because of this, I only do Modern -> old frame foiling if I am also doing a language swap on the card so that I can redo the text and put it in the correct spot.
For trying to old/black border white-bordered lands, do you have any specific foils you'd recommend? I'm here thinking of the Bayou you gave a phyrexian treatment to, the one that you auctioned. Which foil did you use for that, if you don't mind my asking?
The Bayou was done with a foil Swamp!
@@kyleblankenship6647 thank you!!
Hello, there is no doubt that you are an artist, your work impresses me a lot, tell me, is there a way that I can buy some of your works or commission you? I am from Mexico and I would love to see a force of will with the foil of the old school please tell me if my request is possible.
Hello Juan,
For orders, you can email me at scourgealters@gmail.com
How much to do one 🤔
Do you have a list of all the tools and materials for this type of alter?
A few of the tools that I use are handmade so they're not something that you could go buy at the store but here is a general list:
Frogtape (painter's tape for keeping the printout of the text in place)
#16 xacto blades (for scraping the art and text off of the card as well as for etching out the space in the back of the foil for the name and set symbol)
acetone or alcohol (for cleaning the non-foil card to prep for adhesion)
Plexiglass and some small cabinet handles (for the tool that I stick the donor foil layer to when I am doing the adhesion process)
Scotch repositionable spray mount for the adhesive
Krylon Crystal Clear Satin varnish to finish the surface of the card
Golden Fluid Acrylic paints
Princeton paint brushes
Clear ruler
Metal ruler
The desk that I have with the light box is custom made but I believe similar things exist for architecture work.
can you give a detailed explanation for the foil scrapping? im not so sure how to do it with my exact o knife? is it normal the plastic layer has scratch marks? if not is there like a specific set that the paint comes out easier?
You will always have scratch marks at first. The varnish spray at the end helps smooth everything out :)
Very nice work K*&%, ...but it looks like you might have forgotten something? Keep up the good work mr. B7
Hey, Anson! Thanks for checking the video out :D
Whenever possible, I try to find donor foils that have a matching artist credit but we sadly don't have any blue foils with your art on them :(
The card name text is a larger font size and easier to etch space out for but the card type and art credit text is small enough that it becomes a bit rough looking when I've tried to clear the foiling for that text. Additionally, on older cards like Transmute, the credit is right where the foil shooting star is. In cases like this, I just tend to erase the credit text entirely and just use my altered art signature to help fill that space.
@@kyleblankenship6647 Thanks for responding, you've given me a great idea. Be well.💡
I wasn't expecting that! haha. Love your art man! I bought some Crimson Kobolds a few days ago :D
Sick! Is there any kind of satin spray that works best for this?
Krylon Colormaxx Crystal Clear Satin is what I typically use. For some foils I also use Rustoleum Artist's Touch semi-gloss.
crazzyy.
how much active time does this whole process take for you? :O
Active time is usually about 6 hours but it varies quite a bit since there are so many steps in the process where things can go wrong. Sometimes, foils don't cooperate and I need to re-prep the donor foil, sometimes the adhesive doesn't work out and the whole project needs to be redone from scratch. I did a Dockside Extortionist turned into a old frame foil with Japanese text and after several misadventures, the total active time to complete was well over 15 hours spread over the course of several weeks.
Does this lower the value of the card?
Depends. In some ways it makes it more unique and could fetch a higher price on open market, but the card becomes less of a liquidable asset since stores probably won’t want to try to move it for you and the card is technically damaged and to them it is less valuable.
Do you do comissions/have a website/business email we can reach out to you at? Curious what you may charge for a project like this!
Thanks!
You can message me at facebook.com/scourgealters or scourgealters@gmail.com :) Most retro foiling projects are priced between $300-$500 depending on the details of each card.
Is it considered legal for tournament after this process?
I can never 100% guarantee tournament legality as that is always up to the head judge no matter what cards you have. This technique produces the most "judge friendly" foils that I know of and I have had sever head judges at various REL events approve them for play. I have yet to hear from a client that they had a judge disallow them. Judges have become more accepting of alters in general in recent years due to a lot of the Secret Lair stuff being pretty unrecognizable compared to the base printing. The biggest thing that this method takes into consideration is texture on the card surface and thickness/stiffness of the card so that these are within the correct weight tolerance for normal cards (not being marked in the deck).
Are this alters tournament legal?
probably not
I've had many clients play with these types of alters in tournaments varying from FNM to larger GP events. I play with them in events as well and have never had any issues. The cards are clearly recognizable and they shuffle and feel just like a normal foil. I can never guarantee that every judge is going to allow any given alter though.
any updates in your technique? Thanks!
I've updated the way that I process some Artifact, Land, Red, Green, and White cards. I've developed a splice method by which I remove parts of the primary donor foil and replace them with blank foil frame area from a secondary donor foil of the same type/color. This allows me to do cleaner work on frames that don't like to work well with paints. Black and Blue cards look fine and play nice with paints but the other cards tend to have some reds and yellows in them that make reworking the frame difficult with the opacity of the paint. I'll be releasing an updated video sometime this year for the new splice method.
Wait is this tournament legal?
I can't guarantee that any alter will be approved by every judge. That being said, I have spent years refining this method to make alters that are as "judge friendly" as possible. These cards are within the weight range of regular old foils and have the same flex to them so they are indistinguishable when shuffled with normal old foils. I've had plenty of clients play with these in events ranging from FNM to day 2 of a GP.
in this day in age you should have backup cards to not only deck alter but also foils in general. plenty of people get DQ for playing foils as they can curl
Why not just proxy the transmute artifact? Was that nice card really worth that sacrifice? Nice results but damn.
Was the a real transmute you ruined? Looked like a really clean copy too... shame