Trading Card Game Art

     For Graphic Design I thought about discussing Card art. Card art are the illustrations a trading card game has for a picture in each card and believe it or not a lot of design goes into card games.

     One of the aspects to designing trading card game art is to of course capture a player’s attention with the art. The art in trading cards is no different to regular art and implements everything from anatomy, scenery, landscapes, perspective, reflections, etc. The examples I’ll be using are for a TCG that does not sell anymore, Chaotic. The art below is a creature/character card used to fight with but the art is what captures the player’s attention and provides a visual description to the character for the imagination of the player. What’s really interesting in terms of design for this piece of art is how the character is focus of attention in terms of size, subject, and contrast. The perspective of the picture makes the already large creature even larger, the subject being the scenery and effects circle and point towards the creature’s center focus, and the contrast in colors from warm colors surround the contrast of cool colors; green and purple.

     Another aspect in TCG art is to visually communicate a story to the audience. All TCGs have lore with many stories to tell from characters, locations, to even dramatic events. With trading cards not much writing about the lore can fit into the card without obstructing the necessary information for the card to actually be played in a game so the art must be able to portray as much of a story for the card. With these examples we see a singular type of visual storytelling where the characters are portrayed in skills. The lizard ambushing a creature from above in the night portrays he is an assassin, especially with dual weapons. The antelope is hiding in a thicket of tall grass and from her facial expression and body language she is seen as a type of spy or scout.

 

     The other aspect in storytelling art is using a variety of cards that pertain to the lore. For background information, the lore tells of a race of insects that had the power to infect other creatures causing them to turn insect-like as well. The example of this story telling is with Kolmo, in the first card he is seen being a spy to say insect hideout, but the next card with the same name offers a story the viewer can connect themselves. He is obviously different from before being insect like, but you can also see he is also spying on the lizard race as a spy for the insect race now. The final card reveals his liberation from the infection.

     While TCG are not everyone’s way to spend time, it does offer a lot of graphic design in terms of art. Being able to portray more than just a message through art so the viewer can follow up on their own is a way art communicates to people. 

Sources:

• http://art-of-chaotic.deviantart.com/art/Underworld-City-111888356
• http://art-of-chaotic.deviantart.com/art/Chaotic-Gnarlus-130452386
• http://art-of-chaotic.deviantart.com/art/Chaotic-Siado-161502888
• http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110429202709/chaotic/images/c/ca/Lomma.jpg
• https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEE6wM-InIVjq0APwo2L-bYuomXNIAbomttbinYgjUTM-pOjW-itD9zyXjURGhgY0yQwRlA0hacW8WE0lCU_ONDh38Cy-UPZGhpHtWkcIBrOyCGqWjhyphenhyphentvIAVuqyyCl8TkTHij5b4VPA4J/s1600/Komlo+Evo.JPG