โฃ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐ โฃ A love letter to the card printing history of the city of Thiers, which has been largely forgotten - Following the regional Auvergne Pattern of cards printed in France in the XVI and XVII century. โก โก โก - โฃ โฃ โฃ - โข โข โข - โ โ โ
And here are the original queens of the portrait - Inspired by the ones in the top right, i gave her a sprig of lemon verbena, well known in the region for the alcohol made with it.
The printing process of these cards made use of engraving, meaning each color was applied to the cards separately (more well-aligned colors showing a card of higher quality).
They used 3 to 5 colors, something i followed in my drawings (A dark pencil color for the lines, a deep red, a yellow and a pale green !) though i used gradients, which could not be achieved with the engraving used - and might not have been in style back in the day !
Though you might notice that i only use 3 out of my 4 colors on some cards (like on this queen of clubs without yellow !)
This is a little nod to both very recognizable lower quality cards (with bright blue lines - unsure if they were originally blue or if a black ink of poor quality faded over time... Note the rougher drawings - often quickly modeled/copied on higher quality decks !), and aged cards, with oxidized colors that turned darker and gave the cards a more monochrome look. (This beautiful QOS gave me the idea, she was the first card i drew with only 3 colors :) )
Left - Lower quality cards with blue lines (Pierre Place) Right - Cards with faded or darkened reds/blues
