Development and Design Process of the Reverse of '3rd Place Cards' (28/04/2020)

The reverse of 3rd place cards depict a rough wooden background upon which lies several bullet casings and splashes of fresh blood, indicating that a gunfight has taken place. The player in 3rd place has won the gunfight, but does not walk away unscathed.

As is the case with all of my reverse card designs, I have tried to make the designs look as realistic as possible. Because I am using a very basic piece of art software, I always have to make textures and intricate details myself. This could be anything from the fine hairs on a rope to the ribbed texture found on corrugated metal. I also have to bear in mind what condition the material I am drawing is in, and what colours they should be. For example, if I am drawing a plank of wood, I need to remember whether the wood is new, old, rotten, natural etc. and select the appropriate colouring. For this design, I had to consider whether the blood sprayed across the background would be fresh or dry. I settled for both, reflecting the dangerous setting of the saloon.

Before anything else, I had to design the wooden background. The scale was important, as planks that are too small or large would ruin the illusion of realism. I also generally work better with smaller-scale drawings, because I can add the right amount of detail.

I took a series of natural wood images from the internet, because natural wood would have been used in the American frontier for a large number of purposes, such as building the very framework of a building in a frontier town. I carefully made sure that each ‘panel’ looked as realistic as possible.