When someone sees Wild Realms for the very first time, invariably, they say something to the effect of, "Oh wow! The art is amazing," or "These animals are beautiful!" They utter this even if they've seen the images on our website (DaywalkerSyndicate.com) or social media channels (Facebook, Instagram). There is something about seeing the wild animals of the world printed on physical cards that really pops visually.
There are several things that contribute to this effect. One factor is the quality of the cards themselves. Another is the the size of the cards. At 4.75" tall (standard poker-size is 3.5") the art is larger with more visible detail. But mostly, it is thanks to Jeremy Gulotta's unusual Modern Mehndi art style.
If you are familiar with henna tattooing, then you probably have heard of Mehndi. Mehndi is the art style of such tattoos. One day Jeremy, was looking through different art styles on the internet and happened upon henna tattooing. He instantly loved the detail in the Mehndi style. The graphic swirls and repeating patterns captured his imagination and he thought, "What if you utilized the same concept of swirls and patterns, but applied them to different subjects?" With this driving thought, he set-off to find a subject matter that worked.
It wasn't long before he landed on Animals. Maybe it was their organic forms or something else, but animals seemed a perfect canvas for the style. He created his first illustration (the Sea Turtle pictured below) and Voilá! the Modern Mehndi art style was born!
If you read our preceding blog article (Wild Realms: Shiny New Game, Years in the Making) you'll know that this process of illustrating animals has been years in the making and even Modern Mehndi has evolved during that time. We are thrilled to have Wild Realms as our premier game and can't wait for you to see it in person! Vorp!