The Art Direction of

Legends of Gadia

“LoG” for short, LEGENDS OF GADIA is an original fantasy card game sprung from the pages of the GADIA fantasy novel series.

Tauted as “The Most Epic Game You Can Play in 20 Minutes,” LoG lives up to the claim not only through its engaging, strategic gameplay but through its vast lore and the compelling, character-driven story of the 12 heroes depicted on the cards.

The 12 Legends of Gadia are historical figures from the world of GADIA whose renowned final quest saved the world from an interdimensional cataclysm that would have ended all life in their realm—though, sadly, at the cost of their own lives. Their heroic actions incidentally raised the titular island of Gadia into the air, where it remains floating—an unreachable beacon of hope and intrigue—for the next 499 years until the start of the GADIA novel series.

Art Director: Su Mon Han

Project 1: LoG Frame Artwork

Artist: Reine Beammer

Project Duration: 10 weeks

Project Briefs:

Feedback & Communication

As the artist I worked with for the frame artwork was located in Thailand, speaking directly was difficult and also indicated as something my artist preferred not to do, as English was not her primary spoken language.

So to give feedback, I relied on a smaller amount of written text and relied on graphic representations/ examples whenever possible. The image to the left is an example of one of my feedback sheets.

Artist: Cyvii

Project Duration: 7 months

Project Briefs (excerpted):

Project 2: The 12 Legends Card Portraits

Feedback & Communication

Cyvii’s preferred method of communication was through detailed text/written notes with detailed and expressive feedback.

Accordingly, I sent her five pages of detailed, written notes on each character’s demographics/external appearance and also included notes on personality, anecdotes, and relationships with others among the group to help her quickly learn and be able to express the nuances of the characters from her initial sketches. This helped keep the project moving at a good clip & accomplishing the monumental project in a relatively tight 7 months.

I also utilized my comfort with graphic design software to create mockups like this of her initial Maid sketch within the card frame to give Cyvii a sense of the kinds of poses/ dimensions she should work within to optimize the artwork within the card frame.

Her initial sketch:

The edit I sent her w/ frame:

THE JESTER: Brief/Character Design to Finished Portrait Process

Character design sheet I provided:

  • male; 

    age around 25;

    skin: dark brown; his face is covered in old burn scars that have healed but left his skin a mottled, rubbery mess that he keeps concealed behind his tragedy-comedy mask more often than not…

    hair: indigo and straight;

    bodytype: he has a robust and adult-sized upper body and arms, but his legs have some dwarfism that makes them disproportionately short. He tries to hide this by wearing baggy pants and lots of excess material that he swishes around a lot to take attention off of his stature.

    Dressed in the silken/shiny clothes of a court jester in “motley” diamond designs; holds up a comedy/tragedy mask to hide his scarred face behind.

    -  for The Jester (depicting a famous Fool of the Sorannian Court, Maccus), I sort of had an idea of him standing in a somewhat energized posture that gives both a fun/mischievous sense and somehow also slightly threatening air to him, which would be aided by the fact we can't see his face at all (he should be holding up that mask in front of his face so that it obscures his eyes and mouth but some corners of his face should still be visible that show he has some pretty extensive burn scarring all over his face...)

  • I’d like him to be a darker-skinned man of African appearance (though with a lighter skin tone than The Archer), with very close-cropped, coarse hair like in the attached reference pic. His upper body is robust and sized like a regular, grown man, but his legs have some dwarfism that make them a little disproportionately short, which he tries to hide by wearing super-baggy clothes with excessive amounts of drapery. As noted before, he has very old burn scars that are healed all over his face (and I'd like us to see some of it around the edges of the mask), but which have left the skin a mottled, rubbery-looking mess.“

  • For his pose, I'd like to have a full profile/side-view of his face, in which only one expression of his split tragedy-comedy mask is visible. I'll leave it up to you which side you want to depict (though I do have a plan to do the "flipped" version for the dark-framed cards that will show the other half of the mask. I think I can manage that modification myself down the line, as I don't want to burden you with extra work/art for my little whim~). Regardless of which expression you choose to show on the mask, I'd like you to show that his real mouth beneath the mask is grinning a very wide, somewhat unnatural smile, as in the reference pic. However, unlike in my reference pic, I hope you'll be able to work in a good deal more movement/energy into his portrait, as he's a weird, wiggly creature who is constantly moving/bouncing around and has this playful, clown-like energy... but which is also slightly menacing. ;-) As for how to incorporate the Innocence House flowers... maybe he could be holding a small, either somewhat comical or actually mournful, little bouquet of flowers in the hand that is not holding up his mask to his face?”

Keeping Cohesion Across the Project

As the project progressed, I also edited together mockups the finished portraits/cards to help my artist keep cohesion between the individual portraits.

I also guided her to include unifying visual/thematic elements between the four cards in each of the three “Houses” (a gameplay element of LoG). Since I knew the thematic significance of the three Houses and what was appropriate from both a character and game/thematic viewpoint, I was able to guide the creation of the artwork to have unity between the four characters in each House—both in more subtle ways as well as through the particular House “gimmicks” I prescribed:

INNOCENCE House (Cards 1-4): each portrait should include a flower, reinforcing the simplicity/“innocence” and natural world connection of these characters; we also favor brighter, more nature-reminscent colors.

EMINENCE House (Cards 5-8): the opulence of the royal court should be reflected in the style of garments each wears (despite hailing from different kingdoms/cultural traditions within the world of GADIA, as I had previously described in detail on the individual character briefs), and a rich crimson red should be used prominently in each portrait. The weakest of the EMINENCE House cards (Card V. The Herald) was given lighter/pinker shades to reflect his relative lack of eminence compared to the higher cards in the House.

TRANSCENDENCE House (Card 9-12): these cards have moved beyond the petty, materialistic echelons of human existence and strive for spiritual and martial transcendence. As a result, their color palettes should reflect a cooler, more ethereal coloring (blues and crystalline tones). Each character should wear a certain aquamarine gem stone to reflect that crystalline quality of their House.

Project 3: LoG Companion Book Cover

Artist: Olha Hyshchak

Project Duration: 4 weeks

Project Brief:

Reference Images Provided:

A rough mockup sketch I provided to Olha of where major elements of the cover image should go (in anticipation of the book’s title and other cover text:

Finished Artwork with Cover Text:

Contact Su Mon

As a lifelong storyteller and lover of fantasy worlds, I’m eager to find my next, lush world and project to immerse myself into now that LEGENDS OF GADIA has been completed and released into the world.

Let me bring my unique blend of grand-scale vision and minute logistical precision to your next project as your passionate and rock-solid Art Director or Brand Manager with a proven track record of bringing projects from any stage to final delivery.

Contact Me