The Progression: Journey through altering Karador, Ghost Chieftan

I recently had a commission for a Karador, Ghost Chieftan alter. As I sat there staring at the card, plotting out my design I thought it would be interesting to take pictures throughout the process. I wanted to be able to give myself a time-lapse of sorts. So I broke up my process into steps. Although my process is not highly original, it helped me solidify what I do (and why I do it). Not to mention I just found it entertaining to flip back and forth between the pictures quickly in an attempt to animate it. I thought others might enjoy seeing my process as well, and so we begin the alteration progression....(ominous music playing).

Step I: Break  d

                             o

                                w

                                   n

Here is the Karador. The first thing I look for is movement- is there any part or element that wants to extend beyond the boundary of the card? Karador is clearly mid-movement and I decide i want to emphasize that somehow. The second thing I look for is a sense of setting. What is going on in the card? I think back to middle school english classes and run through the "5 W's"- who, what, when, where, and why? I do not like the stark difference in the pitch black sky on the left and the light poly-chromatic sky on the right and decide I will somehow mediate the difference.

Step II: Prime-time

I begin the alter by priming the border with a thin (mixed with lots of water) coat of acrylic paint, keeping in mind the overall brightness of each area of the card. I use black and white as my base shades because they do not tint the future layers. This layer is literally just a primer. I make sure that the text borders are clean, but beyond that there is not much finesse. My goal is just to block out the card's original border and remove the boundary.

Step III: Begin the blending

At this stage I begin to add color to my primed card. I start mixing paints to try and blend my extension with the existing card. This is another priming stage in a sense- I am not looking for detail, but merely laying another layer of foundation to my alter. I also paint a moon in the left corner, creating a light source to justify lightening up the darkness on the left side of the card.

Step IV: Strike up the detail

Once the background for the card has been finished I begin to add/ alter the main elements of the composition. I bring the bear out to the edge of the card to start, and start adding a dark green tone to the sky on the left. This not only brings some more cohesiveness to the two sides of the card, but it also brings out the trees by bumping up the contrast.

Step V: Detail, Detail, Detail

This is the phase where I break out my super-small brush- the 000 tip. I begin to work on fine-tuning the design. I wanted to break over the text boxes in some areas to further reduce the boundaries or the card. I began to extend Karador's antlers over his name, and to carry his front hood down over the creature type. I also began adding highlights to the bear's fur and giving him some more contrast. And who doesn't love adding some swirly ghost smoke? 

Step VI: The Finale

The final phase is where I do my touch-ups, adjust any blending issues, and sign the card. If I have any last minute design decisions I also throw them in here. With Karador i decided at the last second I wanted to extend the moon over the name bar. So i did, and to give it some continuity with the rest of the card, I extended some of the trees over the name bar's border. 

And Ta-da! It is finished. Once I have photographed and scanned the card I often blow it up to 150% scale to examine it for any areas where the detail is off or colors are not quite meshing. So I suppose I really have 7 steps, with that being my self-critique step. Regardless, this outlines my design process, and it was quite entertaining for me to be able to step back and re-watch my progression.

Original Art Karador, Ghost Chieftan (c) Todd Lockwood