Artist Trading Cards

After a month or two of working on them, I completed my series of 5 artist trading cards. I based each of mine of the name of a different devil or demon and tried to come up with an original, non-cliché representation of each of them (except Lilith, she was my first card and not very well done compared to the rest of them). For those that are interested, I'll give a brief explanation of why I chose each specific image.

For Satan, I originally wanted to stay away from goats, hooves, tails, and most of the traditional images associated with him. Originally, Satan was an angel who was cast out of heaven, so I designed him with that in mind. He is a corrupted version of the Cherub described in the first chapter of Ezekiel, "As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle."(Ezekiel 1:10) So, only 3 faces are shown here, but they are a goat, a crow, and a dog. The rest of the image (wings, hands, etc.) is straight out of the description. The book at the bottom doesn't have any significance, sorry. I needed something to put there, and the book seemed visually pleasing.

Mephisto is the shortened name of Mephistopholes, which wouldn't fit on the small width of the card. He is usually desrcibed as being human in appearance, but that would be very boring to draw. He usually plays the part of the trickster, convincing people to sign away their souls in his red book. I went with a cuttlefish for this image because of their high intelligence and ability to blend in perfectly in any surrounding, two traits also associated with Mephisto. The aquatic theme of his border is only to match his design.

Lucifer's name conjures up images of fire and the phrase "Lucifer's Hammer," which is the name of a science fiction book I read as a kid about a comet colliding with the earth. I like the idea of Lucifer being Hell's blacksmith, so I gave him a hammer, and an anvil.

Beelzebub is also known as "Lord of the Flies," so he's a collection of fly parts. Sorry, nothing too complicated with this one.

Lilith was the first card that I did, and the one that I took the fewest risks with. In Christian mythology, she is supposed to be the first woman that God created, alongside Adam. However, she viewed herself as an equal and would not submit to his will, so God sent her across the sea and created Eve from one of Adam's ribs. I took a very literal view of her, drawing a seductive, forward woman with horns to signify her new alignment. I might redo this card, as the border is very bland, and the typography is pretty bad as well.

If you line up the cards next to each other, the vines all interconnect from card to card. Fun!