Colours of the Four Seasons
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52 cards + 3 jokers in sturdy tuck box. |
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This collaborative pack of playing cards involves the work of 26 artists. The list starts with Arnell Ando and ends with Peter Wood 55 pieces of beautiful art a stunning showcase of versatility and creative design. Many of the cards are semi-transformational: they are all highly aesthetic in a variety of ways. The art - and the dominant colour in each suit - is based on the temperature of each of the four seasons. The deck is poker sized and is designed functionally as well as artistically. Indices are placed inside the corner pips, and the colour for each season is incorporated into the design of each card. It is perfectly usable for play, but it's main attraction is the sheer wealth of imaginative expression and originality. Techniques used to create the cards include watercolour, acrylic paint, pen and ink, line drawing over colour washes, silver pen, collage, markers, metallic pens, textured iridescent papers, rubber stamping, coloured pencils, water soluble crayons, polymer clay which has been treated with rust and patina, embossing powder and cut out - to mention just a few! Several artists availed themselves of Adobe Photoshop, using the tools, layers, transparency, masks, textures, filters, blending and so forth. The chequered border acts as a frame to unify the whole pack. | ![]() |
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By Simon Wintle
Member since February 01, 1996
View ArticlesCurator and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.