Inside Stories, Part VII
Some little-known factoids and trivia about Dragon
Cards (and perhaps "little known" for good reason!)
Designs That Didn't Make It
Sometimes it's because I find something I like better,
sometimes I show it to my friends and they don't like it, sometimes
it's because I've done a "mock-up" or "dummy" with the stamp
and cancel and discovered it just won't work.
Here are some examples from 2011 and 2012.
Art Deco Bird
This is an example of finding something I liked better, after my
friends were lukewarm on this one. Eventually, I found a photo of the
actual art deco design used for the stamp, and obtained permission to
use it.
Save Vanishing Species
I couldn't get permission to use this photo. I had already extended the
zoo habitat on the right to acccomodate the stamp and cancel. It was
the first time a photographer had turned me down for use of a photo I'd
found on Flickr. I probably should have gone ahead and used it, but
after asking for permission, I figured the photographer would check.
Year of the Dragon
I decided to do a few additional designs for Year of the Dragon, since
this is Dragon Cards, after all. I started work on the design
on the left, but didn't like where it was going, and never used it. I
don't recall why I never used the one on the right, except it may be
too busy.
Girl Scouts
There are two problems with this early design: One, there's no room for
the stamp and huge Digital Color Postmark. ("Huge" and "Digital
Color Postmark" in the same sentence are becoming superfluous.) The
other is...I forgot how to
"tint" a black-and-white photo with PhotoShop Elements! It looks
awful, and I knew it. So when I had
to go back and reconfigure the design into a vertical card that would
allow the DCP, I scrapped the earlier version (usually I just resize
it) and pulled out The Missing Manualfor
PhotoShop Elements. By the way, if the earlier design had been
used, it would have been the first Dragon Card to "break" out of the
quarter-inch white border. The Scouts' feet would have extended into
the bottom margin.
Cherry Blossoms
And here's another example of where producing a "dummy" told me the
designs wouldn't work. Again, the DCP and pair of stamps won't fit, and
it would be silly to service this issue without the DCP.
Here's the design, as submitted for servicing:
The two pictures are much smaller and their relative height has been
cut, too.
