I thought it had a happy ending, she became the wind and has the chance to enter into heaven which is partially why she sought the prince in the first place. Yeah sad she died and all, but how many folk can say they've lived as part of land sea and air? She's like a pacifist SEAL. I do believe late...

Eoghann wrote:@Galen: Tell me about it. A few months ago I bought a HCA story compilation. Suffice to say I'm sticking to the Disney retellings. The originals are depressing and gruesome.

Very much so. There is a morbid fascination I have in finding the original telling of the stories.

Oh, it's based on the little Mermaid of the original story? That's awesome. :) It would be great to know more about each court and where you got your inspiration. :) Some of them are deeply inspired by different stories of merfolk. But some of them are a visual exploration of some different ideas n...

That's great to hear. Indeed it is :) I would also like to assure everyone that the redheaded mermaid is not intended to be Ariel at all. :P Did any of you ever read the original story of the Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Andersen? My god, it is dark! Here's a link to the pdf of the story. It's...

Quick update on the suicide king. I got my response from Tiffany at USPCC saying they see no problems with the artwork. Look for a new update on the project tomorrow!

Howdy. First off thanks for all of the kind words and for backing my project. With the suicide king art , as necromanced said, its ultimately in USPCC's hands. I do want to point out that my statement about legal approval was that USPCC legal had reviewed the tuck art, card back, and a sample of the...

mmiikk wrote:i feel the blue need to be a lot lighter to make this practical. great idea though. and folio is nice touch.

if you look at the comments on the KS page, I brought this up to her. She was very quick to respond and said it could and should be lightened before sent to the printer

...I personally think the black background fits better with the theme than the white background, but it's always best to ask the backers' opinion because they're the ones who have a stake in the project. this. I agree to ask the backers first, but being stained glass, having the dark background sup...

Taking note and making the change I truly appreciate the input, guys.

I'm sorry I've been kind of MIA lately, but I've been working on the artwork for the court cards, the tuck box, and a few other goodies that will go along with this project. I still need to finalize the new silhouettes of the separate merfolk for their suits, but that will be done very soon. I would...

Malcolm K wrote:Hey Galen, what design software do you use?

I'm working with Photoshop cs5. These are all developed using the USPCC die templates, in CMYK @ 1200dpi.

I'd really like to see a version without the frame. It can still have white edges without being "borderless", but some designs look much better without the "hard" borders. I think this is one of those. I will work on a version of it like that soon :) Oh snap! Mirrored back! :lol...

also edited op with new pic

Finally got to finish up the artwork for the card back

Eoghann wrote:Maybe flip them over and have them holding the pip instead of swimming away from them?

I think I just might try that

:D I'm glad to see you all dig the concept. I'm working on the card backs right now, it's almost finished, just doing some fine tuning. Do you guys think it would look better without the small mermaid silhouette altogether? or perhaps just lighten the opacity by half or more? or maybe move the posit...

Thank you I'm happy you like it so far. I will make my main goal tomorrow to finish the aces, start sketching back ideas, and find a new font that works with the theme but isn't too hard to recognize. Thank you both for the input. I'm glad I finally posted here.

I haven't worked on the back yet, but I'll be sure to post what I come up with
but yeah, I've already gotten a few notes on the current font I've been using. I'm not overly attached to it, so I imagine it will change at some point once I find one that strikes me as the right one.

if you'll forgive the pun, this is all uncharted waters for me... first time deck, first time (eventual) KS project... I'm trying to get all my ducks in a row here. I heard through many many friends that this group is one of the most knowledgeable around when it comes to custom cards, so what better...

Hello UC :) First off, I'm incredibly nervous finally sharing this here, but I have been lurking for a few weeks and decided it's time to post. This is my first time working on a custom playing card deck, and is my first solo project of this type. The inspiration behind it is the hypnotizing beauty ...

Thank you! I am ridiculously nervous, but I'm about to post in the custom deck drafting board. It's my first ever solo project like this, and my first ever deck of playing cards... so *fingers crossed* I'm not going about it all wrong.

Thank you! I've got the numbered cards done, but the more artful cards are the aces and courts, as soon as I have a small group that will get the feel of the project across accurately, I will share them

Hello everyone! My name is Galen. I am a freelance illustrator, and a lover of all things magic. I recently was directed to this website by a good friend of mine, during my beginning steps of designing my own playing cards. He told me it would be a great place to get some outside opinions and though...