Dog Breed Playing Cards

hand-illustrated playing cards

These playing cards were painted with watercolor and details were done with colored pencils. After this I cleaned them up digitally and created the suite icon and letter. I based these designs on American Dog breeds with the four suites being herding, toy, terriers, and hounds.

When the project was presented, I decided to go with a dog theme, so I started by sketching a dog from each suite. These pencil sketches were then turned into thumbnails for how to frame the dogs and present them overall as a card. After these were approved, I started creating the original pieces. I put in base colors and larger details with watercolor. Then I added the final details with colored pencils. Once all the pieces were finished, I edited them using Adobe Photoshop and placed them into my playing card template adjusting the font, colors, and symbols to fit the project.

Below you can see some of my original sketches.