Queen of Hearts is the first playing card I designed for a deck of Indian-style Kamasutra-inspired set of poker cards. In this card, she has elements showing that she's a healer and associated in some way to the house of Diamonds. She has tattoos of the seven chakras on her left arm and is a keeper of the secret keys of the house.
Reading through the palace intrigue that accompanied the usual Indian royal household, it's amazing how much power the queen held. I wanted to capture some of that grandeur in this card front. Interestingly, the jewelry she's wearing is very similar to jewelry I already own, so I guess there's something to be said about being inspired from life!
This is a digital painting created using:
- - GAOMON M106K
- - Krita
Because I wasn't really sure what I had in mind, the concepting phase took much longer than I thought it would but the first one of a series always does take the longest time. Most of the digital brushes I used were oil painting style, keeping the blending tools at a minimum. I created a timelapse video showing my entire process.
I want to work on my lighting and textures as I keep working on these realistic pieces. I also want to get better at drawing metallic structures like the jewelry in this piece. Having said that, though this was one of the longest artworks I've ever worked on, I'm excited to continue this series.
