Making a deck of playing cards is not a simple task, but it is an exercise in creating many illustrations in a theme. This is the thought process I went into the project with.

The project of course began with ideation, coming up with a theme that would both look good, and would be reasonably doable in a relatively short amount of time.

Ultimately I picked the theme of "Melting Death". It came up by complete accident, but looked good and was reasonably achievable, and so it stuck.

I originally wanted to do the entire project in Adobe Illustrator, but after a quick test I realized I wouldn't have been able to do a single piece in the time allotted. I instead used Adobe Fresco to draw each card.

 I would start by drawing the suit icon (eye for spades, skull for clubs, etc.) and I would copy and it around to start the design and get the layout I was happy with. I would duplicate the layer and draw over top it to add on the melting parts.

Each Work in Progress made me understand what was and wasn't working about the designs. I feel like my work was vastly improved by the critiques and help that the other students gave me. 

This project helped me really understand what goes into card production. I already had a little experience with my personal work, even having the cards printed from the same service, but I had never made more than a handful of cards, and certainly never a full playing card deck. Because I have plans to make other types of cards in the future, having this experience helped me to better prepare for my hopeful future.