The art behind Rusałka

Wow, thank you so much for your support so far!! I'm wildly excited to know this project is going to come to life now, and that more people will get to experience this wonderful game! I thought as a thank you I'd give some detail on how I approached making the art for the game, and where i took my inspirations.

First, reading through the game and talking with NessunDove, I had a very clear idea of the kind of aesthetic we wanted to pursue with this. Colour was going to be quite important, not just in creating atmospheric artwork, but also in making the suits of cards in the game easily distinguishable at a glance. Colour is also very important when trying to depict water, and obviously the setting in pools and other watery environments is a huge part of the game atmosphere.
 
So I made myself a little package of photo reference, most of which was found by browsing the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year website, which I highly recommend if you want to find beautiful composition, colour and atmosphere inspiration.

We'd also spoken about decorative motifs that could be used to mark each suit visually, and the close connection of nature to the Rusałka in the game inspired me to think of different water plants for each, to give a sense of a different kind of watery landscape for each suit and make their atmosphere feel unique. 

You can see the different plants in each piece of artwork, and they often have symbolism in folklore to link them to the themes of the suit. For instance, the willow trees in the Mysteries suit are associated with sleep and dreams, and also the weeping willow in particular with obscuring and hiding secrets. The ferns in the Sacrifice suit, on the other hand, are poisonous, and various ferns have been used in mysticism and ritual to induce altered states or as a purgative.

With the general vibes and palette figured out, I could get into the fun part, sketching out what these suits would actually look like. There are 8 suits in the game, each with a different theme and aesthetic for the Rusałka, so I took some time to sketch and think about what they should each look like.

The main artwork required was a set of 8 card backs, and the box art itself. I'd never designed for a box rather than a book cover or the like, so this was a fun new challenge, especially in making a design that would flow cohesively onto the sides of the box without being too busy to lay text over.

For the card backs, I went with a lot of quite upright compositions, both to work with the dimensions available, and also to communicate the other-worldly power of the Rusałka. You'll notice they are mostly looking down at the viewer, and also that each Rusałka has her face obscured in some way, to add to that eerie otherness, in contrast to the mortals.

From here it was a process of drawing things more neatly and adding colour and polishing everything up nice, so there's less to see, but I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse at the process of making the art that's in this game! Thank you again for your support, I hope you love the game when it arrives!