Playing cards

For one of our final assignments we were creating a pack of playing cards. I was going to only limit myself to the face cards (King Queen Jack and Joker) but I managed to complete the whole deck :3

My first inspiration for my playing card designs were mainly dragons. The first reason is because I find dragons fascinating and always have. They have been one of the first and most favoured thing for me to draw throughout the years. Second is that dragons come in a large variety and each will be able to resonate with the face care they're depicted with. Third is that dragons are typically shown as belonging to the heavens or being symbols of wealth and power and after watching that documentary on the history of the playing card in class I appreciated the irony of choosing a symbol of power for cards who've been lauded as the devils work by the church and used in gambling to acquire wealth.

Likewise I investigated numerous other card designs, especially dragon-based decks, to get some ideas for my word-

Dragon Dynasty

Bicycle Dragon Tome

 I also looked up some more cuter/weird designs for my playing cards-

Alice and Wonderland playing cards

 

 Luminous playing cards

Royal dinosaur cards.

Dinosaur playing cards.

After a few initial drafts a lot of my dragons were extremely dinosaur like. Which is fine, since many people theorize that many myths about dragons come from civilizations uncovering dinosaur bones. Because of this, I based my King design largely on a Tyrannosaurus Rex (Rex being Latin for King) and added cute tiny wings to the design. That was also influenced by the fact Kings tend to be the most useless piece in terms of mobility and attack in Chess. I changed the colours, crown design and tails to correspond with each of their current suits (Spades, Diamonds, Hearts and Clubs)

Next I did the designs for the Queens-

The Queens have a far more serpentine and elegant form as befitting their Queenly status and they share many characteristics with an amphithere dragon. Like the Kings, the Queens have had their crown jewels altered to represent their suit as did the jewels on their staffs.

The Jacks-

I made them to resemble Jackalopes, which are antlered rabbit like creatures of mythology which plays into their "Jack" rolls. They are also the most physically unimpressive of the face cards, being small, cute and fluffy as benefiting their status as the least powerful face card. Like the previous cards, their suit is shown through the earrings and tail end, which is shaped as either a club, heart, diamond or a spade.

The Aces, meanwhile, resemble little fluffy ankylosaurus more than dragons; I designed them as such because they are one of the hardiest cards and can only be taken out by twos or by Jokers. Like the others, they have tails representing their suits rather than having the pattern placed upon their card.

Finally the joker-

The Joker is the most physically weird out of the face cards, having tentacles for arms, squid like tail and neck and butterfly wings. I wanted to make her as odd as I could as benefiting her status as a Wild Card. Also she has smoke the colour of space coiling from her nostrils since space is pretty and also plays in with her oddness and the dragons overall otherwordlyness factor.

Other cards-

They aren't exactly exciting, but they do the job. I kept the background red and black, while having the suits in gold (a symbol of wealth which the church apparently didn't like and also the cards history of being used by Kings via increased tax on a pack of cards)