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    Inside Stories, Part VI
    Some little-known factoids and trivia about Dragon Cards (and perhaps "little known" for good reason!)

    PhotoShopping the 2011 Designs

    I find the original illustrations for Dragon Cards from a number of sources, but few of them are exclusive. It's possible other cachetmakers will use the same art. However, I try to modify the art before using it, both to make it more unique, but also because it doesn't quite meet my needs. Here are some examples.

    For the Indianapolis 500 Dragon Card, I found a black-and-white high-quality digital illustration of a poster from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the Library of Congress online site. It's shown on the left:


    I didn't think the gray illustration would make a very attractive Dragon Card, so I "hand-tinted" it on the computer, using PhotoShop Elements for Macintosh. The result is seen in the middle picture, and in the actual Dragon Cards. About a month later, Dragon Cards collector Frank Kohut showed me a collectible card showing the same image, possibly as originally produced (shown on the right). Immodestly, I like my version better.

    Both Jazz designs are from clipart. One was used pretty much as supplied, but I made some changes to the other.

    The original clipart is in the top picture.

    The second shows the art "sized" to leave enough room for the stamp and postmark, and the blocks of color extended into the stamp/cancellation area.

    But I decided the orange was too dark to show the Digital Color Postmark to best advantage, so I changed it to a a lighter color. At this stage, I also added the Dragon Cards logo.

    However, something was still missing. The other Jazz clipart illustration included a trombone; this one didn't. I play trombone, a noble instrument that is too often overlooked.

    When we were booking a band for my son's bar mitzvah (1998), I mentioned to the contractor (a trumpeter) that I played trombone, although I wasn't interested in playing wakes, weddings and bar mitzvahs. He replied, Mr. de Vries, if it's a three-piece band, it's piano, drums and bass. If it's four-piece, we add saxophone. Five, a singer. Six a trumpet. I'm sorry, but we don't get to a trombone until seven or eight pieces."

    Or the old joke, "What are the lyrics for a trombonist on his regular gig? 'Would you like fries with that?'"

    So my Jazz Dragon Cards had to have trombones in their designs. Iin picture #4, the final design, I added a "sackbut" that I think matched the modern-art feel of the original illustration.


    For the Helen Hayes Dragon Card, I found a publicity picture (not quite a photo) of her about 1923, but no theater marquees showing her name, from that or any other period. Although Hayes won awards in television, movies and recordings, she was primarily a stage actress. I did find a picture of Times Square from about 1923, and that's the background of the card:


    With a cop or nightwatchman sitting on a crate in the middle of the picture. That would never do; he had to go away, so he did:


    And here's the finished design:


    Inside Stories I • Inside Stories II • Inside Stories III • Inside Stories IV • Inside Stories V

    © 2011 Lloyd A. de Vries.