Saturday, February 8, 2014

Aces High: The Ace of Swords


Thanks to Carrie Paris for steering me in the right keyword direction for this one. Honestly, finding the right keyword was the second toughest part of designing this card, a process of groping and fishing in my thesaurus. Thoth is no help even for a starting point when it comes to keywords for the Aces. I think I started with RESOURCE, which I just hated, and went through about five alternatives from there.

The hardest part was in finding a sword swallower to model the image upon. Most performers of this act seem to have their pictures taken from dead-on front and center, which gives us a perfect view of their chins... and nothing else. I needed something from this angle. And I didn't want it to be a woman. Or a child. Sorry. 

So -- with his Fabio haircut this performer is a bit more modern than his fellows in this deck. I can live with that. After all, men didn't start wearing short hair as an Unwritten Law until around 1900. Buffalo Bill? Long hair. General Custer? Long hair. Abe Lincoln? Okay, whatever.

-- Freder
www.ducksoup.me