Hi all,

I've made a start on a new deck of cards, which I'm hoping to share with you as it evolves ... from inspiration, to drawings, to cards
At this stage, the deck doesn't have a name or a release date - though as things progress, both will hopefully become clear.

This design is all about faces and colour, where my aim is to create a fully custom, playable and surreally happy deck of cards.

Inspiration ...
I am fascinated by faces and love drawing and painting them in all shapes and forms. From detailed drawings to expressive paintings and colourful designs, faces have appeared in my work for decades ... While working in clay I developed a range of wheelformed pots with whimsical faces - bowls, mugs, jugs and teapots ... 





The ink drawings below are in part inspired by their old three-dimensional friends - and the starting point for new and colourful characters to emerge. Lines translate a multitude of shapes to bring out the essence of each individual face. Once painted, the colourful and segmented artworks bear a slight semblance to wood/lino-cut printing - with a nod to playing card history - as kings, queens and jacks face the same way as the (originally wood-cut) standard Anglo/American faces. Colour plays the role of connecting the 13 cards within each suit; where red is for hearts, yellow for clubs, green for diamonds and blue for spades.



Playing Card Design ... starting with the Courts

I always find that starting with ink on paper gives me freedom to translate the ideas in my head into something real and tangible. Once the drawings are finished and scanned, I continue working on them - making adjustments for symmetrical two-way artwork, painting the colours and adding indices.

The suit of hearts is starting to take form in the world of colour, design and indices. The courts feature a royal banner in the background reflecting the suit colour - where hearts are draped with red:







With the royal hearts on the move it’s time to visit the clubs.  As always, I welcome your thoughts and hope you enjoy the ride of following this new deck of cards!

Annette

Hello Everyone

Spurred on by this timely contest and the truly supportive feedback from you guys here - I am currently working on a Poker size version of my deck, which I would be most excited to enter in the 2nd Annual PCF Deck Design Competition.

About Nine Lives Playing Cards
Inspired by my love of playing cards and tarot, this deck features the royal families (sans Pages) from the tarot deck I illustrated and published in Nov 2013. Here, each character has been redrawn and fitted out in clothes to match their corresponding playing card suit. Through subtly combining suit symbols and colours; my aim has been to create a playable deck, which can be used for games, readings, collecting and enjoying any which way you choose.

• Colourful & original characters of the Courts
• Embellished Aces, combining the suit symbolism of tarot (or French suits) and traditional playing cards
• Traditional style pips with suit symbols I designed for this deck

All artwork is hand drawn and painted by me (using pen & ink and digital paint).
I have the required (standard) license for the Carbonium font - used in text elements (indices and elsewhere).

Poker size will feature:

• Squared borders on court cards
• Jacks - I discussed the predicament of indices with the Knights; and in the name of honour and valour at the gaming table - they have agreed to look on the 'J' in a more favourable light for this poker sized deck.
• Additional detail on some courts to make use of the extra canvas space
• Slightly larger indices (lettering and the smaller suit symbols)

I am also working on a slightly different back and tuck box design to allow for a subtle (yet connected) variation between the two versions... The Joker (possibly Jokers) will also receive a slight change, mainly due to the fact that my model has grown from kitten to cat in the last few months

I welcome your feedback and hope you enjoy

I will add more images as I go...

*wave*

Annette

Hello

I've only just joined and am still finding/browsing/discovering my way through this exciting place

Although these two decks are published and available (i.e. not in design & development stage) I thought I could start this thread by talking a little about the background for the artwork and process... and if it's okay I'll post a few images of my playing cards in the plethora thread as well.

Nine Lives Tarot
The artworks for my tarot deck are completed in pen & ink and hand-painted digitally - the 78 cards took just over 3 years to finish, including revising, extra detail and final touch ups.
For me, as an artist - the Tarot is a vast source of visual inspiration. A system where each card tells a story and conveys a meaning - yet, within the framework there are endless ways to interpret those stories.


The Tower, Chariot & Moon from Nine Lives Tarot

Nine Lives - neither deck is a cat deck per se - though the name is obviously 'cat' inspired (and I do love cats). I wanted to link the idea of life being cyclic (phases) rather than a straight line from birth to death. Cats are said to have nine lives, and in life we go through phases which sort of can be seen as lives within lives if that makes sense? The cats in my tarot deck are there as symbolic guides (there are nine in total), other guides include ravens, snakes and falcons ...

In 2013 KS wasn't available to Australian artists (a lot has changed in a short time), so before the artwork was completed I set about researching printing options and self-publishing. I had samples sent from MPC and PrinterStudio and looked into The Game Crafter (the cost of postage outside US was my main hurdle there ). I also looked at ArtsCow, Superior POD and a few more I can't remember. I sent emails to printers asking every silly question I could think of (about colour profiles, file types, manufacturing warranty, copyright...). Despite having to learn on my feet while discovering the joys of small print-runs, self-publishing has been immensely rewarding in that I get to 'meet' my customers.

I'm not sure at this stage what I will do for my next deck - especially considering that I am not one to complete a deck in a few weeks (more like a year or two), KS may not even be around (though I hope it will be)

Nine Lives Playing Cards

I grew up around playing cards - never been a serious player (unless you count matchsticks and loose change), though the lure and thrill of cards has been part of my life for as long as I can remember

After finishing Nine Lives Tarot, I was inspired to delve a little further and stay a while longer with the colourful characters of the courts...Playing cards felt just right, and so the Kings, Queens and Knights from my tarot deck came onboard to be redrawn and redressed to match their corresponding playing card suit.



I wanted this to be both playable and readable, in allowing the courts to retain some of their tarot symbolism and colours:

• Hearts (cups) * Colour = Red * Element = Water
• Clubs (rods / wands) * Colour = Orange/Yellow * Element = Fire
• Diamonds (pentacles) * Colour = Green * Element = Earth
• Spades (swords) * Colour = Indigo * Element = Air

The Aces combine the symbols of both card systems, while the pips follow a more traditional style with the suit symbols I designed for this deck.

Instead of Jacks there are Knights (Kn). The main reason for this is that they came across from my tarot deck as knights, and would have considered it a demotion to be renamed. Many cards I played with as a kid were Scandinavian, and they too use (Kn) for Jack, or 'Knekt'... After discovering that Knights were in fact present in early decks, but replaced by Jacks to avoid cheating (scratching away the 'n' to aquire oneself a brand new King), I had no choice but to let the knights stay...

The Joker is the signature card, referencing both artist and namesake cat ...

Coming from the tall and narrow (larger) tarot card size, these playing cards are bridge size to suit the artwork proportions... it's also (because of where I grew up) the size I'm most familiar with



Card examples from Nine Lives Playing Cards

Thank you for reading 

*wave*
Annette