Clow Cards Revisited.

PapaWolfie

I just found this thread and I think it's awesome! I've always wanted a Clow card deck! :D I wish I had more constructive feedback to give about the layout of the cards. They are just so fantastic, I don't know what to say.
 

Stagecraft_kid

the V5 backs are hard to get used to.
I am with you there. I just can't figure it out. I'm still in love with the simple brown back.

If you make it symmetrical, you can keep the simple back and still allow for reversals
I've toyed around trying to do that, but I must admit I'm a bit too attached to the original design. It's a mod of Sakura's crest that I found online, and as soon as I finished it, I loved it.

Thank you claire1805, I will definitely be checking out PrinterStudio. I still haven't had too much of a chance looking for a good printing option.

I've been reading through the comments again, and am finding them very helpful, so thank you all again. I found I missed some of the post when I was reading through it the first time. I really appreciate you guys taking time to look, and also to comment and suggest. I'm back on it, and am hoping to work more consistently on it than I have been. I get so busy that the cards get pushed too far back into the work pile. I think, though I've said this before, that things will calm down enough for me to finish this soon.
 

Stagecraft_kid

New Cards

I've decided that the cards will be V2 cards with a lighter background. I took down the other versions from the site. I'm pleased with this decision, and I am liking how they look together.

I also had added some cards to the site I was working on the past few months, but did not list them here. So I'm adding the following 9 cards here:
The Shadow, The Shield, The Shot, The Silent, The Sleep, The Snow, The Song, The Storm, The Wave.

Only 10 left!

I wasn't sure if I should add Sakura's hope card, created when The Nothing card is merged with Sakura's nameless card. I like the card as it changes the Nothing into something good, I don't know though. It would give me 33 cards. I saw somewhere, when I first looked into making this deck, that they could print 54 cards, which would leave room for the nameless card too. What do you guys think?

I also created a page on my own computer that allows me to see all the cards next to each other in random order. It's allowed me to see inconsistencies. I wanted to create new ones, but I need to unify the ones I have. Some have backgrounds that really don't match the others. I also had to change the size of the circles in the corner to the same size, as half of them had a different size than the first half, as I thought I was going to change it. In the end I liked the original best.

I'm once again hoping to finish these up soon, but we shall see. I get busy.
 

Stagecraft_kid

I've wanted to work on creating new cards, but I spent the time I had to work on them, normalizing the backgrounds and fixing some other inconsistencies. It took a lot longer to do these things than I thought it would. I also worked on Sakura's nameless card and the Hope card.

I was thinking about them and thought I would make them to see how I felt. I'm not pleased with the hope card, and I don't think I'll include it or the Nameless card. For those that don't know, the Hope card is created when Sakura merges her Nameless card(the only card she creates) with the Nothing card( created by the reincarnation of Clow Reed.). I'm not sure how to work with the three extra cards, as they are not part of the original set. We'll see what I do with them.
 

Alta

I meant reply yesterday, still loving what you are doing. I have a copy of the commercial Clow Cards, goodness knows which version, but I always found the art too hard edged and much prefer what you are doing.
 

Stagecraft_kid

The Sword, Through and Wood

This weekend I made a few more cards: The Sweet, The Sword, The Through, and The Wood.

I jumped ahead and did The Wood today, because I knew it would be the most challenging card I would create. I expected it to take me a while, but it still took me longer than I thought it would. Part of me loves it, and the other part is not too sure. I think I've been looking at it too long, and it's making it hard for me to judge one way or the other. I'm also not sure if it goes with the simplicity of the other card images. Maybe when I look at it tomorrow I'll know for sure.

I'm hoping I can make at least a card a day, and finish by this Sunday. Then I'm going to have to really look at them objectively and see what needs to be altered or redone. I'm also going to have to look into the printers you guys have recommended then. Wish me luck.

I'm a bit disappointed by the sword card, as you cannot see the chains clearly. I guess I made them too small.
 

Stagecraft_kid

The Erase: she's missing the poofy frills on her neck, some patterns on her jester hat, and the diamond on her cheek.

The Firey: she's missing her long pointy ears, and some lines for her arms.

Though I originally liked the two the way I had them, and didn't want to mess with them, I added them in this weekend to see how they looked, and I'm glad I did. Thanks for bringing this up, and for keeping me thinking about it long after I had made them.
 

karen0205

I like how you have interpreted the cards. I like the colors you
used and the placement in the cards. My only concern would be
that the broken black line used in the figures is more broken than
showing and some of the cards are hard to read because of the
broken black line. If you look at the third row of cards on your
webpage, I feel you have left out too much on the Erase and Firey.
Just my opinion. I think that the soft effect is nice but too much
of it and you lose the image to the point where you have to really
look at it to see what it is. Is that something you are changing on
the cards because I see a lot with a darker black line and some with
the broken line. I am not sure if you are in the process of changing
that or if you are leaving those cards alone?

I like the cards, the original are nice but I think this is a really great
interpretation of the Clow cards.
 

ueI

I think the sword suffers from the same problem that karen brought up. I agree that the faded look of most cards is distracting.
 

Stagecraft_kid

...My only concern would be
that the broken black line used in the figures is more broken than
showing and some of the cards are hard to read because of the
broken black line...

I'm sorry for being dense, but I'm unsure of what you mean by broken black line. I'm looking at The Firey and Erase, and I think I can see what you're saying by broken. Do you mean that there is no black outline around the colored parts? If so, I looked into it now, and I can see that it is hard to tell what's going on sometimes. The lack of outline is a hold over from the first version, where there was no color, simply black. All the colored parts where originally solid black, so I didn't need any outlines. When I added color, I left it out as I didn't like the way it looked with the distress - I wanted it simpler, and when viewing them blown up on a computer monitor, I didn't need the extra outline. When looking at the new cards, the ones I forgot to remove the black outline and the inner detail lines, I've liked the way it looked, so I'm debating adding them back in. If that is not what you meant, can you please explain?

As for what ueI said, I've noticed too that the distress texture was distracting. The cards look fine when I view them on my 27" screen, but when viewing them actual card size, I can see that you can't really see what the image is, or you have to strain to see it. I'm actually in the process of removing the distress texture from the characters in all of the cards. I'm finding though, that I have to adjust the colors to accommodate this change. I think it's the right way to go though. I first noticed this problem while saving the thumbnails. I started adding them to the atlas by hand, and noticed that you couldn't make out what was going on in most of the cards - it was just noise.

I'm still trying to work out the exact styling. I'll have to keep re-tweaking all of the cards, every time, which I'm getting used to. I keep making changes, and have to propagate it through all of the cards to really see if it works consistently. I'm finding out that what looks good on one or a few cards, looks bad on some of the others. The only way to see it is to change all, and view the result, which is why on my computer, I have a program set up to randomly arrange all the cards on a single page, making it easy for me to see how they look together, and find inconsistencies.

We'll see what comes of it all, and what the final look is. Updating the cards again, has unfortunately kept me from actually getting to create the last few. Still, should be done soon.