The Green Man by Jocu Playing Cards *UPDATED*

[Jocu]

Hi guys!

As Fillide nears fulfilment we are ready to share early images of our next project with you. We would really appreciate your honest feedback on these drafts, as your help was invaluable last time in making Fillide a success.

We introduce to you - The Green Man

***

Take a closer look at ancient architecture across northern Europe and you’re bound to see the ancient and mysterious face of The Green Man. From Catholic cathedrals to pagan monuments, aristocratic villas and Christian chapels this strange character appears in many forms, adorning everything from the most prominent tower to the tiniest tucked-away corners.

Often simply a man’s face made from leaves and plants, other times depicted somewhat unnervingly as a human being almost devoured by branches and vines, the origins and meaning of the Green Man remain a mystery. Was he a pagan deity? Is he the male representation of mother nature? Or is he a warning for man that nature will always prevail?

Main Premise and Themes

Continuing where Fillide left off, we have gone further into the theme of plants and folklore this time to explore some lesser known characters throughout Europe. We won't reveal too much for now, but the central design focuses on the Green Man himself, a character who appears regularly in architecture throughout Europe. There isn't actually much mythology surrounding him - his origins are still a mystery, and this is what made him so endearing. Because of this the deck will explore folklore relating to the forest, trees and plants.

The plants and leaves depicted are crucial to the story of the deck - each one is a real plant with a deeper significance. The back design pulls all the key themes of the deck together along with a nod to Fillide.

Back Design

Here is our plan for the 'Autumn' Themed deck. We'd love to know your honest feedback! We've been quite bold with the colours I think, in the sense that they are a departure from other decks that are out at the moment. Much more muted and desaturated. Anyway, over to you!



Here are some real Green Men where the inspiration for this deck comes from.

[theCapraAegagrus]

Wow. I love it.

[STLBluesNut]

I do like the design of the back. It does appear a bit too faded for my tastes.

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[Harvonsgard]

F**k my life... I'm in; regardless!

Wow. I love it.

I can't believe I'm reading this!

[Bradius]

It reminds me of this artwork from "Fairies of the Faultlines" by Iris Compiet, which was a Kickstarter book a while back. This creature is also entitled "Greenman".

[TheGentlemanWake]

This is shaping up nicely. I would however make one suggestion regarding the face. The three physical examples shown have a high degree of “flowing” lines be it the leaves Into the mouth or the flowing beard. I think that element is missing still. Regardless I like it. Colors are nice for me.


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[Decknowledgy]

I took some time to let the artwork sink in and first of all, this is absolutely an intricate and detailed artwork! Over time the design grew on me and I'm looking forward to how it develops. There are a couple of things that I'd like to point out:

1. Layers

My first impression of the design is that the layers felt thin and flat for the outer floral border. Even with so many details, the leaves on the outer rim all seem to fall on the same surface and lacks the depth perception that you get when peering through a bush or forest. Maybe it's because the leafy characters are bluntly cut off by the thin black border at the edges, diminishing the effect.

2. Colors

Even though there's olive, yellow, orange, and red, the color tones are leaning towards mellow, which makes the different colors all seem too similar. The eggshell background is enhancing that mellow effect even more. The face of the green man is most evident in falling victim to this coloring choice, losing its distinction from other blank spaces in the design.

3. Choice of vegetation

This might go along with Omar's feedback. Like many Green Men depictions, the plants forming his face are mostly moss, lichen, fern, or aquatic plants. Here, it's more of ginkgo and maple which are more inclined towards broad-leaf vegetations. It may take away some of the flowy touch that the original has (as following), but this is just a subjective view and you may create your own version of the Green Man.



I think to fix the issues raised by Omar is to redo the mouth section of the face especially with a more recognizable jaw, and a half-opened mouth with plants growing outwards.

[Harvonsgard]

I love the mellowness and the faded colours especially. The market is over-saturated by cards wth bright colours.

The three physical examples shown have a high degree of “flowing” lines be it the leaves Into the mouth or the flowing beard. I think that element is missing still. Regardless I like it. Colors are nice for me.

+1

I don't know how detailed cold foil can be applied by Cartamundi, but as a possible strech goal i would love to see some yellow leaves highlighted with gold foil. Subtle not all of them (best would be asymetric, imo). Of course I would prefer this done with hot foil, but regarding the price I bet it can't be done economically. In my dreams I see a Jocu x Lotrék ...

[Magic Tapp]

Jocu - thanks for sharing this. It is shaping up nicely and I actually like the subtle, subdued colour palette here.

[Jocu]

Wow. I love it.

Are you feeling ok? Thank you!

Ok first I'd like to thank everyone for the feedback so far. Interesting that there are some different opinions on some of the design choices as I think we realised that a couple of things (such as the colours) might not be what people expect. I'll try and address everything below.

Firstly, here is the second back design that we are playing with. I should admit that this is Alessandra's favourite, whereas I'm leaning towards the original one.



So regarding the colours - we don't think this is ever going to be a deck for the cardistry crowd, because it's more about the theme than the style. Not that Fillide was either, but with our first project we were keeping an eye on all potential backers. This one is mainly for collectors and magicians, so we've focused more on doing something different and unique than something 'sellable'. For this reason we've focused on keeping the theme very natural, so at the moment there are no plans for foil or metallics and so on because it we want everything to be colours you'd find in the forest. This may change if we can find justification, but hopefully this explains the colour choices.

Regarding the green man himself, here are some other images that we have been working with, from a more contemporary portrayal.





The Green Man on the back of the deck is meant to be more along these lines - friendlier, more like a man made of plants than one being consumed by them. He is more aligned with the belief that he is a pagan god, rather than some of the other theories. It seems odd that a pagan God would appear in Christian architecture, so the stone variants are different in style.

However, as we want to include all styles, the Aces will be where you will get larger, more ornate versions of the green man that will represent the four seasons. They will also be present in their more scary form in some of the courts...

The leaves and plants have all been selected for their folklore properties and also to tie them in with the stories that are told through the courts. Here, for example, you see Olive, Elder, Oak and Murple.

Hopefully that helps explain some of the design choices and the fact that whilst the back design is a central piece of the deck, he won't be the only 'Green Man' I'd love to hear more thoughts and suggestions and if more suggest the same things we can address them

Thank you!

Edit - a couple of things I forgot to mention.

1. This is part of a series which includes Fillide, so stylistically its also important to retain some things from that project.

2. What do you guys think about the white border? I’m wondering if it’d be better with a full bleed back.

3. Thanks Bradius for the image of the Green Man/Faerie/Pan above - that book looks really nice! Great artwork.

[Harvonsgard]

Awesome background infos Anthony. I always love to read stuff like that.

I would tend to the first back aswell. With the gold foil highlighting some of the yellow leaves, I imagined to recreate the reflections of sunlight on wet autumn leaves. Just my thoughts. I like to dream .

I can definetly imagine these as full bleed. If I had to pick either or, I imagine I would tend to borderless/full bleed.

[MagikFingerz]

Definitely the first back. The second one isn't bad, but the background color is almost grey'ish, and I have yet to see a deck pull off using grey successfully. BUT, I would be interested to see a mashup of the two, basically the second back design with the off-white background of the first back. Might work, might not.

And definitely go for a full bleed, at the very least with only the background color. I also think removing the outer frame/line to let the swirls etc flow freely would look great.

[Harvonsgard]

...I have yet to see a deck pull off using grey successfully.

There you go; thank me later!



Sorry, I couldn't resist...

[theCapraAegagrus]

I like the 1st shared back design more than the 2nd one.

[Jocu]

I like the 1st shared back design more than the 2nd one.

Me too... why do you think that is?

We want one deck to have an Autumn/winter theme and one to have a more spring/summer theme so we can have the two colour schemes that plants tend to have, but I'm finding it tough to settle on the green/spring one.

[Harvonsgard]

Me too... why do you think that is?

As Magik stated, I too would say the green is way too grey-ish. It doesn't really give me a spring/summer vibe.

[Decknowledgy]

Makes sense to me! Thanks for the elaborate explanation, Jocu. The only issue that remains for me is the black line border that cuts off the leafy pattern.

[STLBluesNut]

I guess my tastes are pretty much contrary to almost everyone on this.

I don't think the color selected are bad but I think they do need to up the brightness a bit. When I think of autumn and fall, the trees and woods are filled with bright, vivid colors as opposed to looking like everything has been covered with a thin white mask. I can appreciate the not wanting to go full saturation but maybe there is a middle ground between full and this faded.

I am typically a full bleed kind of guy, but I think with all of this small detail that bordered would be better. I suppose I would have to see both. I think having just the background color extending to the edge of the card wouldn't add much.

Also, I prefer the green background color better if you are going this faded. I would probably like the first background color of the colors were a bit more bright.

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[Bradius]

For spring colors, I like the Faunae Vibrant deck, especially the back of the cards. I know it is green man, but he can have more than just green I think.

[caniveski]

Wow. I love the artwork, 1st class. I like the seasonal colours. Would like to see full bleed image.

I am seeing an inner rectangle also, wondering if it would look better without that....just noticed something similar on Fillide, so imagine it fits with series

Looking forward to getting Fillide

Ps. There is a green Man festival ( in mid to North Wales) I'm guessing it's related to "The Green Man".

[theCapraAegagrus]

I like the 1st shared back design more than the 2nd one.

Me too... why do you think that is?

We want one deck to have an Autumn/winter theme and one to have a more spring/summer theme so we can have the two colour schemes that plants tend to have, but I'm finding it tough to settle on the green/spring one.

I like the subtle border color difference between the light-green and white.

[Jocu]

I like the 1st shared back design more than the 2nd one.

Me too... why do you think that is?

We want one deck to have an Autumn/winter theme and one to have a more spring/summer theme so we can have the two colour schemes that plants tend to have, but I'm finding it tough to settle on the green/spring one.

I like the subtle border color difference between the light-green and white.

Me too. I have to say I quite like that the Green Man's face isn't necessarily the first thing that jumps out at you. After all, once you know of his existence in architecture you'll start noticing him all over the place even in rooms and on buildings that you've seen dozens of times.

That's the way he seems to be, just hidden there, no explanation. The first colour scheme has really grown on me.

I think at this point we'll finalise the box and the rest of the cards around these colours and work on a bolder variant to pair up with it.

Alternative back variant. Thoughts?

EDIT - REMOVED FOR CHANGES

Thanks for the input so far guys! Should hopefully have a few courts to share in the next few days and some more details about theme.

[Adonael]

Looking forward to seeing some courts! I really like the first back design, but am not a fan of the other two.

[Harvonsgard]

I would rate the backs coincedently in their order of appearance. First one the best and I really do love it. Second one okay-ish, but needs to be worked on colour-wise. Third one is too plain for my taste. The green looks fresher, more summer/spring like but the white background takes away exitement for me.

[Jocu]

I would rate the backs coincedently in their order of appearance. First one the best and I really do love it. Second one okay-ish, but needs to be worked on colour-wise. Third one is too plain for my taste. The green looks fresher, more summer/spring like but the white background takes away exitement for me.

Apparently I should have waited as it's not ready

I'll post an amended version soon.

Thank you!

[Jocu]

Ok guys! So we were toying around with a honeycomb design earlier in the project which has returned for the green version to add some variety to the leaves without just making the whole thing look too green.

Let us know what you think - we realise this is not your typical deck colour scheme but that's kind of the point We are also going to see how it looks without the border but as the artist formerly known as twopiece pointed out it adds a nice contrast.



And autumn for comparison

[Harvonsgard]

Way better now. With Fillide, I only picked the Aqua decks instead of both. In this I would definetly take both versions. I like the subtle honeycomb pattern. Works for me.

I would be interested to see a borderless draft .

[theCapraAegagrus]

[Jocu]

Way better now. With Fillide, I only picked the Aqua decks instead of both. In this I would definetly take both versions. I like the subtle honeycomb pattern. Works for me.

I would be interested to see a borderless draft .

Great! We're going to see how the original colour scheme works with honeycomb too. Will update when ready

[STLBluesNut]

I still like the green better. The white is growing on me. I think what is holding it back, for me, is that it is to faded and muted.

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