SNAP CHANGE

Beauties, hope you're all doing well. I've been racking my brain for days, thinking about what new details I can add to the court cards to make a new deck even more interesting. It's always a fine line between customization that enhances the design and customization that goes too far, potentially ruining the court card.

At the moment, I can't tell if the adjustment I made to the King of Hearts crosses that line. My perspective might be a bit biased because I'm really proud of the idea right now - the King performs a snap change.

The empty hand the King holds in front of him was perfect for drawing a playing card into his hand. I’ve done this before, and I wasn’t the first to think of it. It's not a bad idea, but over time it felt a little too plain, lacking creativity. The snap change gives it a fresh twist with the disappearing finger.

Initially, I just wanted to redraw the hand because it seemed pointless to hold out a flat hand for no reason. I came across a vintage court card where the hand was drawn differently, but I couldn’t apply it to the newer, more minimalist court designs.

So, to make a subtle change, I decided to hide the thumb behind the fur collar. It at least makes it look like the thumb is hooking onto something, which feels more natural.

That led to the idea of making it look like the hand was pulling a card from behind the fur collar. But there wasn't enough space to implement it properly, as the hand would cover too much of the card, especially if the other end of the card is supposed to be behind the collar.

Then I thought the card should be held only by the thumb and index finger. From there, the idea of the snap change came naturally.

I took a photo of my own hands holding a card in the snap change position. This helped me realize that a flat, outstretched hand wouldn’t work, as the wrist bends outward in this position. The new hand drawing looks a bit strange to me because it’s so different from the traditional court card look, but since I love the idea so much, I’m willing to overlook that.

Hope you like the idea. Feel free to let me know what you think.

Yesterday, I discovered an old deck design that, like the Dondorf deck, I would like to reprint. I already restored the back design yesterday. It's absolutely insane that I could just find 2 photos of it online. And I'm sure that, like me, you'll fall in love with the back design when you see it. I’ll share more details with you very soon.

Much love

Daniel