After becoming Baronial A&S Champion, I had the motivation I needed to devote the necessary time to exploring my favorite medieval arts. When planning my first project, I wanted to achieve a couple things in particular. First, I wanted practice. I wanted to learn more about painting and layering techniques, I needed to practice using my brushes and crow quill pen, and I especially wanted to practice painting people. Second, I wanted to work on building proper documentation. I was used to researching for school papers, but it was more difficult dealing with museum websites and obscure books instead of articles and easy-to-find supporting evidence.
I decided to do a reproduction project so that I could focus on achieving my specific goals, knowing that my "creativity" points would be impacted. But I view these Faires as a shared learning experience, and I really just wanted to get some feedback about my techniques so that I could continue to improve and eventually be able to create award scrolls and other items.
My inspirational Baroness Eleanor helped motivate me to create a full set of 15th century playing cards. It was stressful and repetitive (especially when making the pip cards). I allotted weeks to actually produce the cards, and spent more than 80 hours actually drawing, painting, and cutting them out. For the pip (number) cards, I hand-drew one of each item and used it as a stencil outline to then go back and hand-draw each and every hunting horn, dog collar, etc. That was the most time consuming part of the project. However, I did get to practice my people-drawing skills when I got to the Kings, Queens, and Knaves. That was my favorite part of the project, although I now want to work on medieval face designs for people. I also did my first "real" set of SCA project documentation. Working at a university helped me secure the books I needed, and I even contacted the museum that houses the cards to make sure there was nothing on the reverse side of the cards.
The day of my Regional Faire, I was sooooo nervous. I had butterflies in my stomach because I know we've all heard the horror stories of A&S judging. However, I was fortunate to have a fantastic set of judges who were able to sit down with me and talk about the project for hours. It was a very positive experience, I learned a lot, and I received helpful feedback and encouragement. It was everything I had hoped for! I did some tweaking with my documentation with their recommendations before I went to Kingdom A&S. I also created a progression set of the jester knave card to show the design and painting process I used when creating those cards. (And I was able to give those progression cards a great home with the ever-inspiring, ever-conspiring Dr. Henry Best!)
My first A&S faire experience was a very positive one, and I cannot wait to start working on another project with this scope. Having painted a full set of playing cards is not something that everyone can say that they've done. My card set helped me achieve what I wanted, and the whole set is framed and on display in my home. They were never meant to be played with, because that wasn't one of my goals. But maybe one day I'll get to work on my "creativity" and make another set.... you'll just have to wait and see!
In the meantime, here is the final documentation for the playing cards.
I decided to do a reproduction project so that I could focus on achieving my specific goals, knowing that my "creativity" points would be impacted. But I view these Faires as a shared learning experience, and I really just wanted to get some feedback about my techniques so that I could continue to improve and eventually be able to create award scrolls and other items.
My inspirational Baroness Eleanor helped motivate me to create a full set of 15th century playing cards. It was stressful and repetitive (especially when making the pip cards). I allotted weeks to actually produce the cards, and spent more than 80 hours actually drawing, painting, and cutting them out. For the pip (number) cards, I hand-drew one of each item and used it as a stencil outline to then go back and hand-draw each and every hunting horn, dog collar, etc. That was the most time consuming part of the project. However, I did get to practice my people-drawing skills when I got to the Kings, Queens, and Knaves. That was my favorite part of the project, although I now want to work on medieval face designs for people. I also did my first "real" set of SCA project documentation. Working at a university helped me secure the books I needed, and I even contacted the museum that houses the cards to make sure there was nothing on the reverse side of the cards.
The day of my Regional Faire, I was sooooo nervous. I had butterflies in my stomach because I know we've all heard the horror stories of A&S judging. However, I was fortunate to have a fantastic set of judges who were able to sit down with me and talk about the project for hours. It was a very positive experience, I learned a lot, and I received helpful feedback and encouragement. It was everything I had hoped for! I did some tweaking with my documentation with their recommendations before I went to Kingdom A&S. I also created a progression set of the jester knave card to show the design and painting process I used when creating those cards. (And I was able to give those progression cards a great home with the ever-inspiring, ever-conspiring Dr. Henry Best!)
My first A&S faire experience was a very positive one, and I cannot wait to start working on another project with this scope. Having painted a full set of playing cards is not something that everyone can say that they've done. My card set helped me achieve what I wanted, and the whole set is framed and on display in my home. They were never meant to be played with, because that wasn't one of my goals. But maybe one day I'll get to work on my "creativity" and make another set.... you'll just have to wait and see!
In the meantime, here is the final documentation for the playing cards.