Shuffle unleashes blades from her magical deck of cards!
My wife encouraged me to re-design Shuffle because she thought she lacked a classic superhero look. The design elements were right, but the execution was off. I grudgingly agreed and went back to the drawing board.
Below is my original concept for Shuffle all the way back from 2017. She was supposed to be more of a magician, so she was going to have a wand. As time went on, playing cards became her primary weapon.
The Shuffle re-design below felt slightly like a lady Sentai hero to me, but I don’t mind that. This might sounds silly, but one of the toughest parts of this design was figuring out the pattern on her collar and on the card backs. Those standard blue and red card backs are lacey and beautiful, but I am not going to draw those! Did you ever notice that the Duel Monsters cards in Yugioh are 2-3 tones max and have none of the swirling vortex details of the Yugioh TCG? I sure did and I get it. Why would you want to animate that? I settled on the checker pattern because it is simple and classic. Shuffle is supposed to be a “Queen of cards” and I think the red and black checkers help to convey that.
Keep coming back as I tackle the rest of the prompts throughout September. I am determined to make it every day this year!
Looking over all these prompts has my wheels spinning and I really want to make a little toku-inspired project for kids. I am thinking something about health. Maybe three little adventures in a single book with a team composed of an homage to Sentai, Rider and Ultra. I don’t really draw cute, so I would love to chat with a more versatile illustrator who would be interested in working together.
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MJ Muñoz 