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montecarlojoe wrote:Awesome - except she's popped back into her frame

Haha you win.....um...I was testing you all! No, I just totally left it out!

See this is why I need all your eagle (raven) eyes

Queen of Clubs finished, 2 to go

One to go....

REALLY starting to shape up to being a classic deck! Nice courts, and they are much improved, frankly. I've seen several bird-themed decks lately, but this one is superb.

I still think your court cards can be bigger. Lets test the waters. Even with you extending the head of court you can still go higher up. This could be a really good deck. Just remember you can only go half into the dotted line in no mans land. As for the right and left of court if you want to keep it separate from the indices that is fine. Just trying to make you a better deck. Hell, whatever you have right now will make it on Kickstarter I think....

And here is the Jack of Diamonds. I think she has a fuller figure compared to the others but hopefully it won't stand out too much

I'll collate them all into one image so that they can be compared and you guys can pick away at anything that I haven't spotted.

Great job on the design. Do you use Adobe illustrator?

OK, I'm sold. I was kind of burnt out on 'dark' theme decks, they are almost 20-25% of my current collection. However, I can't look the other way on this one. Must have. Dang it!

Levereno wrote:Great job on the design. Do you use Adobe illustrator?

I was thinking that I saw somewhere that Photoshop @ 1200 dpi is being used... correct me if I'm in error.

ecNate wrote:OK, I'm sold. I was kind of burnt out on 'dark' theme decks, they are almost 20-25% of my current collection. However, I can't look the other way on this one. Must have. Dang it!

Good to hear thanks!

StanKindLee wrote:

Levereno wrote:Great job on the design. Do you use Adobe illustrator?

I was thinking that I saw somewhere that Photoshop @ 1200 dpi is being used... correct me if I'm in error.

Levereno, I use Illustrator for the flat design in black and white then bringing it into photoshop and use it as a mask to colour the textures.

StanKindLee, I vaguely remember there being a mention about 1200dpi and thinking thats totally wrong, I looked back over the posts briefly and couldn't see anything, we both must be thinking of a nothing forum topic haha

The Bicycle templates are 300dpi at 100% size, but for me, all my artwork at 600dpi at 100% size. As I'm going from vector artwork to pixel artwork I thought it was best so if the worst happens at least I can enlarge my pixel artwork to 200% at 300dpi without losing any detail. I can't see why I would need to but I don't fancy doing all the artworks again if they are required to be larger. Always has a back up plan

This is all the court cards and I'd really appreciate any feedback, I'm kind of looking for mistakes or ideas for tightening these up. I think JoD needs a total redo, with them all side by side like this I think this one stands out too much. And I think the JoS, JoC, QoD and QoH need some tidying up, the details seem a little small compared to the others. But apart for that, let me know what your eagle eyes spot!

Thanks

The best have to be the Kings. They're awesome!
Compared to everyone else, the Jack of Clubs could use a slight makeover. The mask is rather plain and her expression looks just very sad.

The King of Diamons kind of looks like a two headed hexagon. Quite flat compared to the rest. Perhaps angling her right shoulder down considerably.

I still think the Queen of Hearts could benefit from some more hair. Maybe even a different style. The shortness of her cut doesn't make enough sense that it will cover her ears from view. So it only makes sense to either give her longer locks of hair or draw an ear.

Overall just fantastic!

I try not to say anything about the art inside a person's cards. If the deck is functional, It's up for the people to decide if they want your deck or not, but since you asked. I do agree. the QoD is the only odd ball one. I see what your trying to do, but you may want to give her a bigger head and maybe more of a left profile to keep with the traditional theme. In fact, it looks like the only card that doesn't go with the traditional theme is the KoC which has the face pointed left. Also by seeing all the cards side by side you might want to consider going with this additional theme. Like make all the Spades have a dark hood and all the clubs have a light hood and do the same for the Hearts and Diamonds. You pick which is dark and light. Notice your JoS and your JoC. That works pretty well I think. Now notice your QoS and QoC. They look a little bit to similar.

Eoghann wrote: The King of Diamons kind of looks like a two headed hexagon. Quite flat compared to the rest. Perhaps angling her right shoulder down considerably.

Do you mean the Jack of Diamonds? Because I think that it looks like a two headed hexagon, too. The king looks fine, though.

Whoops. Yup, Jack of Diamonds. The kings are perfect IMO.

The Red Kings are far and away my favourites.

I agree with the JoD being the one that needs a revisit - hiding her face behind her hair doesn't quite work, she could stand to lose a couple of pounds and needs a bigger crow lol.

If I were being harsh i'd say that the queens are in danger of looking like a diagonal patterned strip with the heads painted on. The shape is very linear compared to others; - the QoH and other cards get away with it because teh crow perching that side beaks up the line - especially the really dynamic ones like the KoD and JoC. (Though I understand why - the queens hold flowers on that side and teh theme for the queens and their crows is very demure)

(And give one of them a third eye as a little easter egg for GoT fans! )

Joe makes some excellent points. The look very geometrical. And on the ones I've highlighted it's more apparent. The crows on the others break the line as he said. Your eyes force you to see a shape there.
Also, not entirely sure how to express what I'm trying to say but: make the robes look like the courts are actually wearing them over their shoulders?

The other ones look like human busts wearing intricate robes, but the other looks like patterns with human parts over them. Does that make sense?

Agreed with all the people here. One thing that you should open up a room for improvement is the JofC. With all the courts detailed, the emptiness of the hood just doesn't chart. But if you are going along the way to keep the empty space, make sure you make a detailed outline. The hood outline of JofC specially the back is just too plain and simple. Add a secondary line or a detailed outline to make it pop out.

Also, bad choice on the angles of QofS, QofC and QofD. If you look closely they are all facing the same direction with a slight different angle. To me personally this needs to be spiced up! To add some variety, mirror the QofC just the sameway QofD is mirrored in direction to QofS, because they just look too similar (QofS and QofC). Them all 3 cards facing the same direction just doesn't bring it (QofS, QofC, QofD).

Thirdly, if you notice clearly, KofC and JofC have empty hoods, to me that's quite distintive and it matches the suit row. BUT! in order to match it all you MUST give QofC a white hood as well. Same goes for Spades row. KofS has a black beak and JofS has a white beak. Give JofS a black beak as well, in attempt to match the suits distinctively. Again, KofS has a white hood and JofS has a black hood, you've switched colors in the suit now. So we're looking at giving KofS a black hood with a black (darker, to pop it out) beak similar to it's counterpart KofS. That should do it.

Lastly, I want this deck to be even more aesthetic so I will urge you to change your back design as well. It looks wonderful but the black spatter look just gives it a messy dirty unkept look. Completely take it out and replace the white with a newer design, maybe a flourish? similar to the courts but with dark brown. That will give it a much cleaner look. All in all, this would really make a great deck if you do what I told you.

That's not a spatter though. That's a murder flocking to form a raven. I kinda like that. If anything I'd like him to go full bleed with that murder of crows so when you fan it, looks badass. but that's just a suggestion.

Agreed - that crow pattern was the standout feature of the original design - definitely don't lose it!

For the record I like JoC as she is. Reminds me of Assassins Creed

Eoghann wrote:That's not a spatter though. That's a murder flocking to form a raven. I kinda like that. If anything I'd like him to go full bleed with that murder of crows so when you fan it, looks badass. but that's just a suggestion.

Whops. Gave it a quick glance never realized it wasn't a spatter Looks unique but dirty. Doesn't really look like a murder flocking (unless you look really closely). He should make it stand out if he's going to keep it.

montecarlojoe wrote:Agreed - that crow pattern was the standout feature of the original design - definitely don't lose it!

For the record I like JoC as she is. Reminds me of Assassins Creed

Agreed, but outline should somehow be improved.

montecarlojoe wrote:Agreed - that crow pattern was the standout feature of the original design - definitely don't lose it!

For the record I like JoC as she is. Reminds me of Assassins Creed

Agreed with the rest on the general consensus. I also like the JoC, maybe make the QoC's hood white as well so that all clubs have white hoods?

Haha ive got nothing left to say ! But yea the JoD could really do with less hair in the face. I too like the formation of the large raven with the murder of smaller ravens. I think its a consistent theme and it really should go.

Another little suggestion - sneak a raven on the number cards too - then there really will be 52 ravens

Redo JoD. Also make mask on JoH bigger. And maybe make all the black cards have black masks, it looks funny just having the KoS have a black one.

Wow, thanks for all your feedback, having them all side by side has really helped to spot anything outstanding.

I'm taking all the ideas on board and will post the major changes soon (JoD) but I think by that point they will be good to go

Stay tuned

Thanks for all the feedback, I've taken onboard a lot of it and the amended designs are below. I think these are pretty much there now, I'm just looking for any mistakes that anyone can spot.

Try making them more even, so all the spades and and heart have white masks and black hoods and the clubs and diamond have white hoods and black masks. The hoods now fit into the robs better a we now have a new JoD.

I do like "The Ritual" for the name of this deck but maybe it's evolved in "The Coven" or "The Covenant", what do you think?

One step closer to going live

Everything looks incredible! And I agree on the name change - "The Ritual" is sounds like a single event, The Coven sounds better to me.