Chimera Collection

For this project, I designed a creature and illustrated it on a playing card. This was made for a group project in my Foundations for Communication Design class at UNT, where we combined all of our illustrations to create a full deck of cards.

Deck box design by Whitney Holden.

Queen of Spades (left) designed by Elmer Ramirez. Card back (middle) designed by Whitney Holden.

The forms of my two assigned animals have an interesting contrast. The macaw has long, elegant wings and feathers, while a Tasmanian devil is small and has short, stubby legs. Combining these two was challenging, especially with such a simplified, geometric style.

I decided the detail I wanted to focus on the most was the beautiful plumage of the macaw. I also turned the striking white stripes of the Tasmanian devil into diamonds to match the suit I was assigned.

In this project, I struggled most with sketching on a grid with a ruler, but I pushed through and felt more confident after moving to digital.

Brainstorming