Creating my cards in a different style than usual, would love your feedback

[James Johnson]

Hi everyone!

Always loved playing cards so I decided to design my own finally. As I continue to work on them, would love your feedback, suggestions, etc... anything that will help me make this the best deck I could ever create.

Sorry about the blurry image, my iPad is on the fritz lately. Hope you can get the general idea what I’m doing

[Don Boyer]

It looks like you're on to something interesting.  Just be cognizant of one very important fact - your "artist's canvas" for these playing cards is a whopping 2.5 inches wide and 3.5 inches tall, period, and some of that area has to be left empty if you have a border or it may get cut off in the die cutting process - or you can make a design that's printed into the bleed, naturally.  Details that are really tiny on a large screen like your iPad (large compared to a playing card, anyway) will be EXCEPTIONALLY TINY when printed.  Your printer might be able to print all the teeny, tiny details, but that doesn't mean that your potential customers will be able to SEE all those details because they're just so teeny and tiny!

But like I said, your art is off to a good start so far.  More power to you!

Does the deck and the art have some kind of theme?  While it's not mandatory, it often does help for there to be some kind of theme, something that people can associate the overall design with.

[Illusionist 24]

Very nice details. I am also curious as to the theme of the deck. Some are very simple like the snacker decks to the more intricate like the orbit v4. Your art style could always be the theme of the deck. You have a very nice style.

[James Johnson]

It looks like you're on to something interesting.  Just be cognizant of one very important fact - your "artist's canvas" for these playing cards is a whopping 2.5 inches wide and 3.5 inches tall, period, and some of that area has to be left empty if you have a border or it may get cut off in the die cutting process - or you can make a design that's printed into the bleed, naturally.  Details that are really tiny on a large screen like your iPad (large compared to a playing card, anyway) will be EXCEPTIONALLY TINY when printed.  Your printer might be able to print all the teeny, tiny details, but that doesn't mean that your potential customers will be able to SEE all those details because they're just so teeny and tiny!

But like I said, your art is off to a good start so far.  More power to you!

Does the deck and the art have some kind of theme?  While it's not mandatory, it often does help for there to be some kind of theme, something that people can associate the overall design with.

Thank you Don, so sorry it's taken me a bit to get back to you to respond.

Yep, one of the benefits of what i do and where I work at is I at one time set up the digital printing production (wide format Rolands and Mimaki's) as well as created the ICC profiles, blah, blah, blah...allllll the bugger stuff needed for printing, LOL... so I have been testing a bit of the image loss once scaled down while I develop the artwork.

 It's a bit of a tradeoff, as I'm sure you well know, getting as much detail into something before it's not a benefit anymore. I've been drawing all these traditionally on A3 size paper hoping to possibly offer posters of the art as goals or at least add ons for the kickstarter launch once I get done with things.

The cards actually have 2 uses...I created a hybrid Rock, Paper, Scissors game as well as making a traditional deck so there will be more juggling with what I create. The feedback at the moment from some recent friends I've made in the card art world is to make the Rock, Paper, Scissors game first as it's a unique game and I might make more on kickstarter with that first, and then create the traditional card deck as it's own product, mostly for collectors. Still up in the air with that...

[James Johnson]

Very nice details. I am also curious as to the theme of the deck. Some are very simple like the snacker decks to the more intricate like the orbit v4. Your art style could always be the theme of the deck. You have a very nice style.

Thank you for your kind words, i really appreciate it!

I currently have a Rock, Paper, Scissors unique game i created as well as wanting to make a traditional deck with a fantasy theme background of a story I came up with for the characters. Will have to see as I get closer to finishing up the artwork, what way to go to kickstart this.

[James Johnson]

Another little update...

I have been working on 8 cards at the same time, all at different states of finish at the moment, so I figure I would spare you from having to see them right now. Hoping that a visit to the Renaissance Festival this next weekend will give me some of the reference images I want for a few of the characters... but in the meantime, an update with the King of Hearts.

Once i get all the background details finished, Ill be rim lighting the vines and the King to make him pop to the front more... going for just a tad of Frankenstein lighting, if that makes any sense 

This image is a bit brighter than the actual image, just so anyone with a dimmed screen can see as much detail as possible...

[bethsobel]

These look very interesting! Your art style is lovely. A note about the RPS game; as someone who's main work is board / card game focused, be sure you get your game reviewed and submitted on boardgamegeek.com before you go to KS with it. It's an easy process to submit, and gives folks a place to find more info. Board and card game folks expect it.

Reviews / previews are trickier, but people usually expect at least one written and one video review, if possible. Having those done before you go to KS will be super helpful.

[Don Boyer]

Another little update...

I have been working on 8 cards at the same time, all at different states of finish at the moment, so I figure I would spare you from having to see them right now. Hoping that a visit to the Renaissance Festival this next weekend will give me some of the reference images I want for a few of the characters... but in the meantime, an update with the King of Hearts.

Once i get all the background details finished, Ill be rim lighting the vines and the King to make him pop to the front more... going for just a tad of Frankenstein lighting, if that makes any sense 

This image is a bit brighter than the actual image, just so anyone with a dimmed screen can see as much detail as possible...

Looks good.

Which Ren-Fest?

As far as making a separate rock-paper-scissors game and a traditional deck, I'd say that if you can combine them, it wouldn't hurt you to do so.  You'll likely get more synergy/greater numbers on the combined project than you would on the two projects as stand-alone projects.

[RandCo]

To combine the RPS game mechanic into a standard deck you will need to incorporate the 3 game elements of the RPS game into the 4 suits, 13 ranks, and 52 cards elements elements of a deck of cards.  If you include 2 jokers to make 54 cards, you could have 18 rock cards, 18 paper cards, and 18 scissor cards (54 divided by 3).  You could also put the R, P, and S on 12 ranks of the 13, 16 of each card (48 divided by 3).  You could use the 2 through King ranks, and have the 4 Aces have a special function as well as the jokers.

[RandCo]

You could also divide the 12 face cards into 3 by having the Kings, Queens, and Jacks combined with the rock, paper, and scissors.

[James Johnson]

These look very interesting! Your art style is lovely. A note about the RPS game; as someone who's main work is board / card game focused, be sure you get your game reviewed and submitted on boardgamegeek.com before you go to KS with it. It's an easy process to submit, and gives folks a place to find more info. Board and card game folks expect it.

Reviews / previews are trickier, but people usually expect at least one written and one video review, if possible. Having those done before you go to KS will be super helpful.

Thank you so much for the advice Beth, I will definitely do that! So sorry it's taking so long to reply to everyone, my stupid luck kicked in a couple weeks ago... my garage ceiling crashed to the floor so I've been working on card art AND doing massive clean up. Well, I'll post some new art updates in a couple moments, still have a ways to go on things, but have received wonderful support so far😊😊😊

[James Johnson]

Another little update...

I have been working on 8 cards at the same time, all at different states of finish at the moment, so I figure I would spare you from having to see them right now. Hoping that a visit to the Renaissance Festival this next weekend will give me some of the reference images I want for a few of the characters... but in the meantime, an update with the King of Hearts.

Once i get all the background details finished, Ill be rim lighting the vines and the King to make him pop to the front more... going for just a tad of Frankenstein lighting, if that makes any sense 

This image is a bit brighter than the actual image, just so anyone with a dimmed screen can see as much detail as possible...

Looks good.

Which Ren-Fest?

As far as making a separate rock-paper-scissors game and a traditional deck, I'd say that if you can combine them, it wouldn't hurt you to do so.  You'll likely get more synergy/greater numbers on the combined project than you would on the two projects as stand-alone projects.

Thank you Don, sosorry it’s taking a bit of time to get back to respond, my stupid bad luck kicked in 2 weeks ago and my garage ceiling caved in, so been working on cleaning up the mess while trying to get more artwork done.

The Renaissance festival was the Michigan one, although, again, my bad luck came to full power when we got rained out, so didn’t get photos I needed, so on to doing it the old fashioned way, guessing what things should look like, Lol

Definitely thinking I’ll do both decks, but will have to do the Rock, Paper, Scissors game first, the additional cards I’ll need to make to create a full poker deck will take quite a bit longer, and as the company I work at is balancing on a knife as it were, if I can make enough on Kickstarter to start up my own company, I would be in heaven!

Will be posting more art updates in a few, hope you like

[James Johnson]

You could also divide the 12 face cards into 3 by having the Kings, Queens, and Jacks combined with the rock, paper, and scissors.

Once I get everything squared away, eventually I will have cards designed specifically for the traditional deck as well as the specialty cards I have for the RPS game. Added in quite a few extras, so it’s kind of RPS meets Uno and of course some crazy cards I created like a war card, (that one is hilarious watching people play that card with the test deck I created, so far not one person had a bad comment on any of the mechanics of the game, thank god )

[James Johnson]

Some more updates, I’ve been juggling working on a collapsed garage ceiling while trying to work more on the deck art, hope you like so far...

[James Johnson]

More...

[James Johnson]

Still more...

[James Johnson]

And more...

[Lee Asher]

Wow! Lovely!!! Excellent work, James.
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[Don Boyer]

It looks like you're on the path to a very attractive design here.  Keep up the good work.

[James Johnson]

Wow! Lovely!!! Excellent work, James.
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Thank you so much Lee! More on its way soon

[James Johnson]

It looks like you're on the path to a very attractive design here.  Keep up the good work.

Thank you so much Don, should have some more updates soon

[cardinistry]

Really looking forward to seeing where this project goes in the future. The theme is savage and attention to detail is stellar.

[Evgenya]

I remember you on instagram, I really like the design)

[James Johnson]

Been awhile... busy with working on 12 different cards at the same time I’m designing the tuck case AND having to still do my day job, whew.

Anyways, an update with a few of the pieces, hope you like. Situating myself to be able to ramp up on the card art side of things during and after the holidays, fingers crossed.

[Don Boyer]

Been awhile... busy with working on 12 different cards at the same time I’m designing the tuck case AND having to still do my day job, whew.

Anyways, an update with a few of the pieces, hope you like. Situating myself to be able to ramp up on the card art side of things during and after the holidays, fingers crossed.

You're not the first deck designer who did his work at night while holding down a day job.  It's not easy.  But if you're really, really fortunate, you might be one of the rare few who gets to say sayonara to the day gig because the card designing work becomes so successful.  Judging from this art, you're on the right track so far.  Keep us posted!