Last year I wanted to start working on a custom playmat. The first time I saw a custom playmat I knew that I would want to create one by myself. I had no idea what it should be. For quite some time I was trying to figure out what should be portrayed on the mat. In the end I came with two ideas - first one features Stoneforge Mystic, a bird and a sword and the other one featured planeswalkers.
Step 1 - What
In the end I settled on manga style planeswalkers for several reasons. The first one being this - I was no capable of drawing Stoneforge Mystic and the background the way I wanted. The second reason was because it was simply too difficult to do if you had no idea how copic markers work when used for something other than manga. I've already done manga style pictures with copic markers on paper so at least I knew that this shouldn't be such a problem.
Step 2 - What colors
After this I started drawing sketches and then started figuring out what colors I should use. I was already decided that I would use Copic markers because I simply love the product. The colors are so beautiful and working with them (on paper that is) feels really good and I just love the brush tips. I bought colors for both drafts thus and it cost me roughly about 240USD. I already got few markers as a gift before (I don't count that). It wasn't really easy on choosing the colors. Yeah each walker has its own color so they are in shades of that color mostly. But still there are so many shades of that particular color....in the end I made a list of 30 colors I'd like to use and bought those. I used all of them except one color (I actually used it as a shade color for yellow red something but primary use was meant for Chandra's 'armor'). Believe it or not but this took me few hours. Coloring the drafts took me about 6 hours (SFM) and 8 hours (Walkers) respectively.
Stoneforge Mystic
Girl Planeswalkers
Step 3 - Measuring
After doing a A4 draft I had to figure out how big this should be on a mat. The size of it should have been something like 23.9 x 14.1. But in the end it was a bit smaller (I compared it with the other Ultra Pro mats that I own and it was the actual mat being smaller not the measurements being wrong). Anyway I created the playmat size version of the draft and wondered how the hell I should place it on the mat. My 'walker girls were not really placed well in the draft so I had to change that and had to place them at a very specific place. It took ages to figure out but in the end it worked out well. (The primary problem was that I don't have a scanner nor printer, that is why I did everything in hand and had to use rulers and such^_^).
After drawing these...it seemed that it would take me ages when doing it 'for real'.
Step 4 - Playmat and pencil, playmat and copic marker
After this I decided to take a mat and try to do some strokes with the copics and pencil. I was scared! The colors were extremely bright and I couldn't take the pencil out of the mat! Also the copic marker left TOO much color on the mat and I had no idea how to work with it not causing stains, smudges and simply not precise lines. It was really frustrating. Also I realized that I won't be able to do the lineart with copic marker as it is 'soluble' (or rather the colors mix up) by another copic marker. So I had to try my luck with multiliners. And with these I encountered another problem....I started doing a line and then the tip ended deep inside the textile. Fortunately there is a brush tip multiliner as well and that does NOT have this problem.
Step 5 - Playmat and pencil, playmat and copic marker
The real thing! At this point I was almost ready to start working on the actual thing. But I had to buy the playmat. I got it along with Gatecrash booster boxes. (First I had to open the boxes, sort the cards, write down what I have, the prices etc etc...). Few hours later I finally grabbed a ruler, pencil, multiliners, copic markers and THIS shiny white Ultra Pro mat.
I started measuring and made few dots and lines. They weren't that precise as I wanted them to be. While doing this I managed to smear something on the mat. I was enraged. I tried to get it off with water, soap ... simply anything but it did not work that much and I knew that it was in the place of Tamiyo's face. I was wondering if I should abandon this mat or not. But I continued on. The part I started on was relatively wet so I had to wait quite some time till it dried. Some parts were still wet and the colors went in all the directions they could. This was NOT good. Anyway I started doing a pencil sketch, then multiliner one and finally started using copic markers.
I almost managed to overcome the multiliner problem. I had to use much less force than I'm used to and then it was quite fine. I had to be doing the strokes also from certain position. That meant that I had to be moving the mat all over the table (wasn't fun as there's hardly place for it - especially when there are cards everywhere all over it). Next time I should also start from right to left. I noted that the color gets on my hand and then when I put my hand on something not dry it makes the colors blend together and when it is a combination of a very light color and dark one there's nothing you can do with that. It also leaves marks on the blank mat. So as I use my left hand to draw I should start on the right side. It would avoid at least this problem. It annoyed me MANY times. I started to use local game store's life tracker 'notepad' so this wouldn't happen again. Not sure what paper was used for it but it sucks color pretty well unlike any kind of anything made of paper I have in this flat and does not let it soak back to the textile.
After finishing coloring Elspeth I realized that the pencil drawing is hardly visible. At least that was a good news. Actually it felt really good after I finished Elspeth. She looked good.
Also encountered many more problems. But the one that bothered me the most is that. If I want to achieve something and make it look the way I want the color needs to be quite wet. When it dries it is not possible to make any other changes. So next time I need to be more critical during the coloring process. There are many things I'd like to change on the drawing but I couldn't as it dried in the meantime.
The finished product is somewhere on this blog.
It felt good after finishing that. I was smiling! Today I used it in two events. It was so nice...
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