Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Treasures

Click these small ones to enlarge.

In case you aren't keeping count, this update brings the number of cards in the deck up to twenty-one. And I have good news for you.

I rarely use this kind of language to promote my decks, but in the coming weeks you have a real treat in store. The color illustrations that Arthur Rackham created for his edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream rank -- unquestionably -- as among the finest work in his entire career. I've scanned all forty of them from the first edition of the book, and all will be incorporated into this deck. The next update will see the first of these illustrations in use. 

You will be amazed. The play clearly seems to have ignited Rackham's imagination, and he has outdone himself both in vision and execution.

Together with twelve illustrations available to me from Rackham's illustrated edition of Ibsen's Peer Gint, I have enough material on hand to be able to announce that the finished deck will feature at least seventy cards, all in color by Rackham himself: I will not have to resort to coloring any of his black & white illustrations -- which comes as a huge relief to me, because I doubt that I could have done justice to Rackham's work. 

That's all for today. Remind to to yammer at you next time about the profound difference it makes to be able to scan Rackham's work from the original editions, as against modern reprints.

-- Frede