Friendly tip on finding imagry for your custom cards.

[CrystalMusic]

let me give you some friendly advice: use google image search, pintrest, look for pages on facebook that upload stuff, etc.

heres some idea of what you can search to find some really cool imagry like the imagry i use on the cards i create (note im not talking about the effects, etc, im talking about the art i use on the card)

include "Fantasty" OR Art" in the search Example: Fantasy Elves
OR
Include words like "Epic" "Cool" "Awesome" as the first word then continue typing what it is you're looking for. Example: "Epic Zombies" OR "Cool Swords" Or "Awesome Spellcasters"

List of Key Words I use when searching for art to use for custom cards:
Cool, Epic, Awesome, Fantasy, Art, Beautiful, Stunning, Amazing, Dark and Evil. If you include one of these in your search you're bound to find some really good imagry for your custom cards.

below are just some of the imagry i have found and used on my cards
https://www.duelingbook.com/card?id=1282049
https://www.duelingbook.com/card?id=1326971
https://www.duelingbook.com/card?id=1154018
https://www.duelingbook.com/card?id=983703 - I included this one because many ppl who have seen her have said that the image itself is beautiful. I always say: Yup, as to be expected of a goddess.
https://www.duelingbook.com/card?id=922572

[Neo_Fire_Sonic]

Or just go on furaffinity

[james123]

Or just go on furaffinity

or KrysFun's DA

[LightCaster]

Or just make balanced cards first worry about art later.

[Renji Asuka]

But CrystalMusic! You can't use those images for they are copyrighted! LOL

[KTeknis]

So, when you make cards, do you find the effect first, or the artwork first?
Just asking

[| Hanverid |]

So, when you make cards, do you find the effect first, or the artwork first?
Just asking

For me (at least) the most important part of the creation of a card, is the artwork. Then i make the effects, strategy, atk/def, type, etc.

[CrystalMusic]

So, when you make cards, do you find the effect first, or the artwork first?
Just asking

i find the art first, then i think of the names. some effects i tend to repeat such as my counter traps that pay LP to negate monsters, summons, effects, spells and traps. but thats because i love counter traps. plus its kinda a basic for my decks. i always run counter traps that stop cards. even in the TCG i run them, cards like: Solumn Warning/Judgement, Dark Bribe, 7 Tools, Cursed Seal of The Forbidden Spell, Magic Jammer.

Some other common effects i tend to run are level 8s that have the ability to negate spells and traps (just like horus the black flame dragon LV8's ability to negate as many spells a turn as its controller desires)

One other effect i tend to put into my decks is a copy of Stardust Dragon Assault modes effect. In most of my duels, this monster has proven to be very useful and thus it has earned a spot in most my decks.

One otehr thing i always put into my decks is a 1 turn stun continuous trap that require me to pay 1000 LP or letting my opponent gain 8000 LP. its a 1 turn stun, basicaly meaning: u cant do anything with a monster during the same turn in which you summoned it.

but over all i do tend to mix up effects. when it comes to some of my deck that are based on real life (like my US Armed Forces Deck) or video games like Zelda, i try to make their effects as accurate to how they would work in real life but in a yugioh point of view, for example: a stealth bomber, its invisible to radar so you cant see it coming till its to late, thus i made a US Armed Forces Stealth Bomber monster who has 2300 ATK and 1200 def with the following effect:

If this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate any cards or effects till after the damage step.

Once per turn: Negate the effects of 1 face-up field spell on the field during your battle phase (this effect lasts until the start of your main phase 2)

(Fun Fact: This Stealth Bomber was first deployed in 1989 and is still in service today)

basically making it as realistic as possible but in a yugioh standard. as for the field spell negation? in case of a clock tower prison is out, it can negate that for the duration of the BP allowing battle damage to be inflicted

overall the process of how i make cards goes like this:
1: I figure out what the Archetype name is going to be
2: I start looking for imagry first, this helps me name the cards and think of their effects
3: make the card
4: check the card for spelling errors, etc
5: finalize the card

[LightCaster]

basically making it as realistic as possible but in a yugioh standard. as for the field spell negation? in case of a clock tower prison is out, it can negate that for the duration of the BP allowing battle damage to be inflicted

BULLSHIT

[CrystalMusic]

and see what i get for being friendly? a bunch of pricks who cant let their tiny ego go, so they have to be jerks and comment negative on a positive and helpful post to feel better about themselves and their miserable lives. SMH GTFOH

[LightCaster]

and see what i get for being friendly? a bunch of pricks who cant let their tiny ego go, so they have to be jerks and comment negative on a positive and helpful post. SMH GTFOH

THEN STOP BEING A LYING SACK OF SHIT

[Debt]

So, when you make cards, do you find the effect first, or the artwork first?
Just asking

In a normal setting artwork is secondary.
Primary is either flavour or mechanics, which ever comes to you first.
Art should reflect mechanics. Flavour should inform art. Art is subservient to both facets of design.
But DB customs isn't a normal setting because most people here don't create or commission their art but lift it from online sources.

[Neo_Fire_Sonic]

The artwork of my Alpha Ninja archetype are custom

[KTeknis]

For Debt:

In a normal setting artwork is secondary.
Primary is either flavour or mechanics, which ever comes to you first.
Art should reflect mechanics. Flavour should inform art. Art is subservient to both facets of design.
But DB customs isn't a normal setting because most people here don't create or commission their art but lift it from online sources.

This is also my current way of making custom archetype. I usually make archetype because i have an idea of a mechanic. The exception is when i tried to port card from other card-based game (Unfortunately, that ported card doesn't look balanced.).

For CrystalMusic:

So, when you make cards, do you find the effect first, or the artwork first?
Just asking

i find the art first, then i think of the names. some effects i tend to repeat such as my counter traps that pay LP to negate monsters, summons, effects, spells and traps. but thats because i love counter traps. plus its kinda a basic for my decks. i always run counter traps that stop cards. even in the TCG i run them, cards like: Solumn Warning/Judgement, Dark Bribe, 7 Tools, Cursed Seal of The Forbidden Spell, Magic Jammer.

Some other common effects i tend to run are level 8s that have the ability to negate spells and traps (just like horus the black flame dragon LV8's ability to negate as many spells a turn as its controller desires)

One other effect i tend to put into my decks is a copy of Stardust Dragon Assault modes effect. In most of my duels, this monster has proven to be very useful and thus it has earned a spot in most my decks.

One otehr thing i always put into my decks is a 1 turn stun continuous trap that require me to pay 1000 LP or letting my opponent gain 8000 LP. its a 1 turn stun, basicaly meaning: u cant do anything with a monster during the same turn in which you summoned it.

but over all i do tend to mix up effects. when it comes to some of my deck that are based on real life (like my US Armed Forces Deck) or video games like Zelda, i try to make their effects as accurate to how they would work in real life but in a yugioh point of view, for example: a stealth bomber, its invisible to radar so you cant see it coming till its to late, thus i made a US Armed Forces Stealth Bomber monster who has 2300 ATK and 1200 def with the following effect:

If this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate any cards or effects till after the damage step.

Once per turn: Negate the effects of 1 face-up field spell on the field during your battle phase (this effect lasts until the start of your main phase 2)

(Fun Fact: This Stealth Bomber was first deployed in 1989 and is still in service today)

basically making it as realistic as possible but in a yugioh standard. as for the field spell negation? in case of a clock tower prison is out, it can negate that for the duration of the BP allowing battle damage to be inflicted

overall the process of how i make cards goes like this:
1: I figure out what the Archetype name is going to be
2: I start looking for imagry first, this helps me name the cards and think of their effects
3: make the card
4: check the card for spelling errors, etc
5: finalize the card

So i short, your archetype always consist of the following:
- Counter Trap (With LP cost)
- Boss monster that also floodgates either Spell or Trap
- Extremely hard to summon Boss Monster
- Archetype Specific Lose 1 turn, that only affect the opponent, and ALWAYS have the same cost (Either pay 1000 LP, Or the Opponent gain 8000 LP)
- Other effect, based on the card artwork.

[Christen57]

So, when you make cards, do you find the effect first, or the artwork first?
Just asking

basically making it as realistic as possible but in a yugioh standard. as for the field spell negation? in case of a clock tower prison is out, it can negate that for the duration of the BP allowing battle damage to be inflicted

overall the process of how i make cards goes like this:
1: I figure out what the Archetype name is going to be
2: I start looking for imagry first, this helps me name the cards and think of their effects
3: make the card
4: check the card for spelling errors, etc
5: finalize the card

I usually do step 1 first, then step 3, then step 4, then step 2, then step 5.
Making sure that your customs are balanced is more important than their images. Not only that, but designing the effects first, especially for pendulum monsters, allows you to gauge how much you should crop the artwork, since the size of an image slightly changes for pendulums when the amount of text they have changes.

[Play2X]

How to find images for cards? Do them yourself. Thats not fast, but it makes your card unique. But it takes a long time, if you want to do it well. Probably going to use my next university break for some drawing.

On that note, since IT let us look in his ways of creating cards, lets respond to that as well.
Just like Debt, KTeknis and Christen57 already said, there are more important things to a custom card than its art.
A friend of mine used to do characters that way, looking at anime character pictures and coming up with ideas and skills that way, so I'd definitely say it is possible to do that with cards as well, but for me personally it feels way better adding the images last.
On my last custom cards I started with the archtype Idea (character, not effectwise, even though I think both is possible)
Then I created the Main card for the deck, went over the effects multiple times,
did the other cards, went back to the effects to see if it is balanced, tested it against friends,
went back to tweaking the effects and texts, more testing, more tweaking.
You might've noticed, there is still not a single word about pretty pictures. Yes. Because they aren't really important.
You can do pictures first, or last, but in the end, they are not really important.
I mean, look at ITs cards. They are horrendous to look at, because either he takes some RL pictures and just pastes them in, or he uses google image search, AND his cards have horrible effects, have writing errors even though he says he'd check for spelling errors (not like he ever lies or something) AND are completely unbalanced monstrosities my sister would design, because she has no clue on how Yugioh works.

[KTeknis]

How to find images for cards? Do them yourself. Thats not fast, but it makes your card unique. But it takes a long time, if you want to do it well. Probably going to use my next university break for some drawing.

On that note, since IT let us look in his ways of creating cards, lets respond to that as well.
Just like Debt, KTeknis and Christen57 already said, there are more important things to a custom card than its art.
A friend of mine used to do characters that way, looking at anime character pictures and coming up with ideas and skills that way, so I'd definitely say it is possible to do that with cards as well, but for me personally it feels way better adding the images last.
On my last custom cards I started with the archtype Idea (character, not effectwise, even though I think both is possible)
Then I created the Main card for the deck, went over the effects multiple times,
did the other cards, went back to the effects to see if it is balanced, tested it against friends,
went back to tweaking the effects and texts, more testing, more tweaking.
You might've noticed, there is still not a single word about pretty pictures. Yes. Because they aren't really important.
You can do pictures first, or last, but in the end, they are not really important.
I mean, look at ITs cards. They are horrendous to look at, because either he takes some RL pictures and just pastes them in, or he uses google image search, AND his cards have horrible effects, have writing errors even though he says he'd check for spelling errors (not like he ever lies or something) AND are completely unbalanced monstrosities my sister would design, because she has no clue on how Yugioh works.

While it's good to make your own artwork, unfortunately, not everyone can draw their own cards. Some might try anyway, but it ended up like a scribble or an MS-Paint drawing. Another way to do that is by using some avatar maker app, i recommend Picrew, but Gacha Life and other might works too.

[Renji Asuka]

I honestly have 0 artistic talent, so I can't exactly make my own artwork, though I guess if I really wanted, I can make my own childhood drawings again and put them on paint then make a deck around it. But...they'd be worse than how it'd look in real life.

[Play2X]

I don't really have much artistic talent myself, but I found that, with a few simple cheats and quite the timeinvestment, everyone can get somewhat decent pics. Because I can't really do poses and angle yet, I usually just use a picture someone else made, and draw my characters over them. Over time, I hope that I get better so that I can do the drawings completely myself, but thats a question of dedication. Humans can usually do everything, given enough time and effort. But as I mentioned as well, in the end the Art is probably the least important thing, and if you already have some kind of illustration in mind, you can just as well use that. Or even use no pic at all (my cards are in that stage right now).

[Christen57]

I drew one of my own artworks for a duston support card in microsoft paint, but it took me like an hour or two.