Lack of Updates

I haven't been posting much lately, but that's about to change.  I just finished moving which means that I now have the time to create more alters.  Expect some pictures very soon!

Shannon Ketcham

I Like Lands

Because I love lands so much, I decided to try and make some into awesome life counters.  So far, I've made a mountain and an island.

This mountain was another attempt at not only making the card 3D, but also changing the card itself.  The artwork that I used for this alter was from Teetering Peaks, which was a non-basic mountain from the Zendikar block.  As you can see, it looks pretty good with a basic mountain as the face card.

Another interesting thing that I attempted with this alter was to add another layer to the mana symbol in the text box.  I think this looks great in person.

I also created this island for a guy I met at my local gaming store.  He was interested after I showed him the mountain life counter.  He handed me a stack of islands, and that week I got to work.  He even asked me to sign it!

For this one, I used slightly smaller beads in an attempt to keep them from rubbing against the bumped up island symbol, which was a problem I encountered with the mountain.

Eventually I'll create an entire set of life counters based off of lands.  I'm looking forward to doing a plains, since white is my favorite color in the game.

Shannon Ketcham

Saproling Token

Hello everyone,

I'm back from a great summer trip with more alters!  While I was away I only worked on a couple of alters, including this saproling token.

Saproling Token

This one was quite complicated and I wish I could have done more with the little spikes and pieces hanging off of the body, but I think it came out well.  I really like the artwork for the M13 saproling, and I'm looking forward to making one of those some time soon.

As a parting gift, here's another token I created recently.

Golem Token

Stay tuned for more cool alters!

Shannon Ketcham

The Process of Altering

Today I'll explain a little bit about what I do to create alters.  To help explain, I'll be showing pictures I took when creating a life counter with the card Ambassador Laquatus.

When making an alter, there are a series of steps that I like to follow.

1. First, and probably most important, I decide on the layers.  Starting on a project without a clear plan is a bad idea.
2. Second, each of the layers is cut.
3. Once the cuts are made, the edges have to be inked.  Leaving the edges plain white looks very bad most of the time.  Coloring the edges also helps to hide some mistakes that may have been made.
4. The final step is to put all the pieces together.  I use craft glue for this step, although I've seen several people use sticky foam.  This step takes the longest, and is by far the least exciting.

In this case, I started with this card.

While this artwork doesn't lend itself to 3D altering as, say, something with more scenery would, I did realize I could do a lot of detailed work on the body.  I considered cutting the throne as another layer, but decided against it.  The finished layers are in the next picture.

I chose to do as much detail on the body as possible, so using the leftovers from the layers that were cut, I cut out the arms, head, and some of the clothing.

Those pieces will fit onto the layer shown beside them.

Now, since this was going to be made into a life counter as well, I needed to cut out the text boxes to make room for the beads.  After the edges were all inked and everything was ready, it was time to glue it all together.  Partway through, the beads went in.

Finally, the top layer was added and it was done!

3D alters make wonderful life counters.  They make even better EDH commanders with life counters!

Shannon Ketcham

Two Tokens

Today, I'll be sharing a couple of tokens that I created recently.  Without further ado, here you go.

Angel Token

Demon Token

These are the double sided tokens from the Avacyn Restored pre-release events.  Originally the plan was to create a double sided 3D token, but I decided that it would be too thick, so in the end I made two individual tokens.  Personally, I think the demon turned out quite well.

Next I'll be sharing a commission I'm working on, so look forward to it!

Shannon Ketcham

Introduction

Hello,

My name is Shannon Ketcham.  I'm a student studying to become an electrical engineer.  I've got many interests ranging from playing bass guitar to underwater hockey.

I also play Magic The Gathering.

Now, while I love playing the game, I was also interested in the artwork on the cards.  When a friend introduced me to the interesting and expanding world of altered cards, I decided that I also wanted to create cool cards.  The problem is that I'm terrible at painting, so I decided to try creating 3D cards.  Let me show you an example of what I mean.

Soldier Token

Using a knife and glue, I can create cards which have a 3D effect.  The soldier token in the picture above took six different individual tokens to create.  You may be wondering, "Can I use these cards in my deck?".  The answer is, unfortunately, no.  The altered cards are too thick to be used in a deck.  There are exceptions for this however.  Tokens can be used since they aren't actually in your deck.  People also love having a stylish 3D commander for their EDH deck.  The other exception is double sided cards from the Innistrad block, since there are official checklist cards that can be used in place of the actual card in your deck.

Going forward, I will post pictures of my alters as I create them on this blog.  Stick around to see some really cool stuff.

Shannon Ketcham