Wicked Kingdom Playing Cards by Wylie Beckert - Funded

[ecNate]

NOW LIVE!!!

After a year and a half of painting, I'm finally launching the Wicked Kingdom deck! This is my first playing card deck, and I'm insanely excited to be putting it out there. The deck is currently live on Kickstarter (http://tinyurl.com/wickedkingdomlaunch) and will be printed by the USPCC.

The layout/card design is still a work in progress (and the art may need some tweaking as the layout develops) but here are some samples of the overall direction I'm heading in.

The tuck case:

Number cards/card back:

Face cards/aces:

A big part of this project is storytelling, and the narrative behind the characters. Each face card has a backstory:

A preview of the basic reward tiers - I'm also making the original art (drawings and oil paintings) and limited-edition prints of the card art available through the Kickstarter.

This deck has come together with a lot of helpful suggestions from the forum - and I'm definitely interested in continuing to improve the project, so feedback is welcome!

WICKED KINGDOM is a series of traditionally-painted playing card illustrations by fantasy artist Wylie Beckert. The card art is still in progress; the complete, playable Wicked Kingdom poker deck will be released via Kickstarter in late 2015/early 2016; in the meantime you can show your support on Patreon, or join the mailing list above to get updates on the project as it unfolds.

https://www.facebook.com/wyliebeckertillustration
http://wyliebeckert.tumblr.com/
http://www.wickedkingdomdeck.com/

[Eoghann]

Woah. Those are nice!

[cherrynukacola]

Really, really nice!

[ecNate]

While we haven't seen much else, including tuck, back or with pips/indicies, I'm all in on this one. It's the creepy and fully custom stuff I love, seriously, look at that King of Spades. Creepy as *&$#, almost like a Smeagol / Gollum from LoTR.

[Collector]

Yes, nice cards. I remember them
http://playingcardcollector.net/2015/06 ... ing-decks/

[th4mo]

Awesome!

[NineLives]

Very cool, these look great!

[wyliebeckert]

Just registered for an account, and lo and behold my deck arrived here before me. Thanks for the mention, ecNate!

As soon as I have image posting privileges, I'll be setting up a thread in the deck drafting board to chart the progress on the deck. I just wrapped up the Queen of Spades (posted here: http://www.wickedkingdomdeck.com/?show=gallery), and the paint is drying on the Queen of Hearts - she'll be up before the end of the month.

Anyways, it's really cool too see that there's some early interest in the deck. Thanks guys!

[volantangel]

Welcome ! Dont worry a good deck will always get attention from us =)

[WillHart CthulhuWho1]

I'm liking what I'm seeing so far...

[sprouts1115]

wyllebeckert - I like cards that tell a little story. Meaning the reversible courts don't have to be the same. What are your indices going to look like? I see you didn't leave enough room for a suit indicator on the courts, but I do see hints and hints my be enough... I like people who break the rules.

[wyliebeckert]

wyllebeckert - I like cards that tell a little story. Meaning the reversible courts don't have to be the same. What are your indices going to look like? I see you didn't leave enough room for a suit indicator on the courts, but I do see hints and hints my be enough... I like people who break the rules.

Thank you! I liked the idea of having two distinct faces for the royals... twice the painting to do, but I'm having fun with it so far. There's a written narrative developing for each card, and connecting them all; I'm trying to build on it as I go so that there's a larger storyline interwoven with the elements of each card.

From my cursory mockups, there should be room in the borders of a 2.5x3.5 poker card for indices (since the characters spill out of their borders, there will be a pretty substantial white border on all sides - more so than in the cropped versions above). I haven't decided exactly what they're going to look like, though... with such busy illustrations, I'm thinking the simpler the better.

[shermjack]

Love the artwork! Can't wait to see more! Will the cards come with the narrative/story behind the cards, as that will make the deck even more interesting!

[wyliebeckert]

Love the artwork! Can't wait to see more! Will the cards come with the narrative/story behind the cards, as that will make the deck even more interesting!

Thanks! I've started posting the bits and pieces of the narrative that are coming together as I finish the cards in the online gallery; basically a one-paragraph backstory for each card, but I might expand on this as the project develops. My eventual plan is to release an art book alongside the deck, with large versions of the card art + the backstories.

[sprouts1115]

wyllebeckert - 2nd look. I see you are a true artist who wants to make a good deck of cards. JUst try to put a suit indicator in any courts cards you have not drawn yet. I see you are making crystals for the diamonds. That is good. People can make that association for diamonds. Your KoC could have been a little better, but I know you can't make changes. It looks a upside down to me. Also, you could have made three smaller clubs to make one big club suit indicator. You have let enough white space for your indices. Oh crap, here we go. I like the way your story comes out from the court border. The border should not define your art... So, what are you thinking about in your indices?

Screenshot 2015-07-23 17.56.23.png (38.26 KiB) Viewed 7086 times

I'm curious to see your Jokers. You can really do anything just about, but somehow people mess them up.

[JacksonRobinson]

I think the art for this deck is some of the best art on playing cards sense Vladislav Erko decks. Most definitely on kickstarter.

[wyliebeckert]

I think the art for this deck is some of the best art on playing cards sense Vladislav Erko decks. Most definitely on kickstarter.

Damn, that's some high praise, Jackson - I love his work. Thank you!

I'm curious to see your Jokers.

I haven't made it quite that far on the planning yet - not sure if I want to do something reversible for the jokers (like the rest of the royals), or the more standard single-sided portraits to set them apart. Or maybe something non character based. Still waiting for inspiration to strike on the that... also on the card backs, which will have to somehow unify a lot of disparate visual elements from the faces.

[Bruno]

That which is really unsettling is the possibility that you might consider Tarot as a platform.
Please.
One day ....
Not that I'm into Tarot as such, but they are cards and would give you a somewhat larger 'canvas' for to fascinate/enrapture.
Aye.

[ecNate]

The artist posted this on Facebook a few days ago, still assuming it's on track for 'early 2016' whatever that means.

The latest for Wicked Kingdom (http://www.wickedkingdomdeck.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)...
THE JACK OF CLUBS: a deserter who, having lost his taste for war, finds himself exiled and disgraced - condemned to live as a recluse and poach the dark forests of the borderlands for whatever prey he might find there.
There are few enough left now who remember his time at the right hand of the king who fostered and trained him; but for his own part, he still he dreams of blood, and smoke, and his lost place in the walled kingdom - a position to which he has not entirely abandoned hope of restoring himself. His final hope: a treasured and elusive prey, the hunting of which will require all the skills at his disposal...

[Justin O.]

Just want to add my voice to the choir on this one, astounding artwork, great realization of theme, fantastic dark/light dichotomy in the images. I have so many suggestions and recommendations and much advice but don't want to put any thoughts in your head on this, a sure win with a good printer and hopefully the first of many decks to come!!

[sms69x]

So when will we have the privilege to buy these? Really love the artwork!

[wyliebeckert]

Things ended up taking a little longer than I'd hoped, but I'm finally getting ready to Kickstart this thing later this month. Just started a thread over in the Custom Deck Drafting board to give everyone a look at the deck-in-progress while I iron out the layout kinks and double-check the details - I'd welcome any input you guys might have before I make things official... viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8748

[sarone13]

Beautiful work Wylie! Looking forward to seeing this one come out.

[soryunjin]

Now live:

[wyliebeckert]

After a year and a half of painting, I'm finally launching the Wicked Kingdom deck! This is my first playing card deck, and I'm insanely excited to be putting it out there. The deck is currently live on Kickstarter (http://tinyurl.com/wickedkingdomlaunch) and will be printed by the USPCC.

The layout/card design is still a work in progress (and the art may need some tweaking as the layout develops) but here are some samples of the overall direction I'm heading in.

The tuck case:

Number cards/card back:

Face cards/aces:

A big part of this project is storytelling, and the narrative behind the characters. Each face card has a backstory:

A preview of the basic reward tiers - I'm also making the original art (drawings and oil paintings) and limited-edition prints of the card art available through the Kickstarter.

This deck has come together with a lot of helpful suggestions from the forum - and I'm definitely interested in continuing to improve the project, so feedback is welcome!

[Justin O.]

After a year and a half of painting, I'm finally launching the Wicked Kingdom deck! This is my first playing card deck, and I'm insanely excited to be putting it out there. The deck is currently live on Kickstarter (http://tinyurl.com/wickedkingdomlaunch) and will be printed by the USPCC.

Hey Wylie I think we already have a topic with lots of excitment for your deck here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7375" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. I'm sure Mods will merge.

I am really excited for this one, already backed and can't wait to see what unfolds for stretch goals and features. Beautiful art and an amazing theme

[Bruno]

Funding freight train WaaHooooooo !!

[wyliebeckert]

Thanks for the thread merge! I'm really thrilled this project has gotten so much traction on Day 1 - I'm sure you guys are responsible in no small part

Looks like I'll be approaching stretch goal territory soon, if anyone has any thoughts on what sort of upgrades they'd like to see...

[JuFiN]

I'm always a fan of embossed tuck boxes as a stretch goal personally.

[ecNate]

Embossed tuck for sure, then foil, but not sure how that would work with this theme. So double embossed?