Artist Illustrates Card Decks Inspired By Famous People Or Characters That Pose As Dogs Or Cats

Artist and illustrator Chet Phillips is reinventing old, boring card decks by creating beautiful masterpieces. A few sets caught our attention as they feature famous people or characters depicted as cats or dogs. They are called: "The Fetching Deck" for dogs and "The Cat's Meow" for cats. Each set has 52 illustrated cards for an even more fun playtime.

Whether you're a dog lover, a cat enthusiast, or simply a fan of unique art, Chet Phillips' playing card decks offer a fresh and entertaining way to enjoy your favorite games.

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Pictolic reached out to Chet, who shared more about his art.

First of all, the artist commented on what inspired him to transform traditional playing cards into a celebration of pets with The Fetching Deck and The Cat's Meow.

“For the Fetching Deck, it began a few years ago with a series of trading cards that I created. The cards were fashioned after vintage cigarette cards and each had a bit of writing on the reverse side.

One Example: For Edgar Allan Pug the reverse side text reads: “American author who contributed to the horror genre. He wrote 'The Pit Bull and the Pendulum,' 'The Fall of the Doghouse of Usher' and 'The Tell-Tale Heart Worm.'

The playing cards are a compendium of some of my favorite portraits from over the years from sets for dogs as authors, artists, and musicians. A suit of dogs as film stars was added to complete the four suits. For the Cat’s Meow, I also brought together a series of cat idioms done as illustrations over the years along with many new cat illustrations to round out a complete deck of 58 illustrations.”

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We were wondering how Chet chooses famous authors, artists, musicians, and movie stars to represent the dogs in The Fetching Deck. He wrote: “First starting with my favorite authors and many that stand as icons of writing, I worked out puns for their names that included something dog-centric. Then the challenge was to choose a dog breed and expression that might reflect some of the facial and hair characteristics of the writer.”

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No creative task comes without challenges, therefore we asked Chet to share his process when creating unique illustrations.

“After creating the sketch, I bring it into the digital illustration program that I use. I’ve worked with Corel Painter (and all the predecessor companies that owned it, beginning with Fractal Design) since 1992. The basic challenge is producing a high volume of images to create a complete deck with over 50 individual portraits. Working with the playing card printer to get the right colors for a vintage feel is something of a challenge,” shared Chet.

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We asked the artist to share his opinion on how his artistic touch enhances the experience of playing card games with The Fetching Deck and The Cat's Meow.

Chet replied: “I would hope any additional touch I can bring to the theme rests in my efforts to create humorous expressions and attention to small details that help with the overall humor of the portraits.”

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And lastly, Chet shared whether he has any plans for future projects that involve reimagining pets or other themes in creative and playful ways.

“No immediate plans but throughout projects I always come back to the enjoyment of translating some form of humor with the pets that we all love. As an aside, the dogs' trading cards were instrumental in a partnership with author Jessica Swaim and publisher Gibbs Smith to create “Why Do I Chase Thee?” I created a series of illustrations to go with Jessica’s more robust writing skills to create a truly silly volume.”

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