Chaotic Trading Card Game: Vlaric Shard, Relic of the Past

While working on props for the Chaotic Animated show and Trading Card Game I was assigned a Crystal shard. Since crystal shards are the most common props in the Chaotic Universe, I was challenged with the task of illustrating one without it looking like you have seen it before. To do this I referenced my left hand holding a cell phone while painting on a Wacom tablet with my right hand, then spent time focusing on trying to capture the transparent qualities of crystal. I looked at Broken Glass and gemstones for additional ideas until I finally finished the piece as shown above. I painted the crystal texture with around 40 to 50 different layers to capture the effect I was after and completed this image in about 6 hours. I had fun demonstrating in this image how even the simplest card designs can look great if you pay attention to the details and differences in rendering surface textures and materials.