Card Game Art

I think it depends on what type of game youre doing. But Me personaly like one artist and if you like the art the artist have made go for it.

(one of the fue times difrent artists are a good idea is for instans magic tcg, or when you have really manny cards then you may want to think about a second or third artist to spead up the art making process)

Mostly I would say it is all about the feeling you want the game to have (or comunicate).

In youre case I guess it is a card game onley? You said you hade 44 difrent types of cards. I would say going with one artist is to prefer. This gives the game a more solid feel I would say. But it can depend on wht types of cards you use also, for instens if youre cards have picturs of a "postcard" feeling (nice vjues) then it can be prity hard to tell artists apart so there you can use difrent artists. But if you have people, buildings, artifacts then it usualy becomes mutch easier to tell artists apart, due to the fact most artist tend to use one stile with one game. (the stile they fell is best suted for the game or the stile agreed upon). Here I would say atleast in my book it is better to go with one artist to give the game a more homogenic feel.

Also if you have a gameboard then it should also be the same artist I think. Or atleast the same type stile. I have seen some games that uses difrent stiles on both cards and board and to me that gives of a feeling that one does not belong. It can be a simple thing, take the game pillars. There the card and game board gives of the same feeling, a feeling of "thees people actualy lives here". But if you had used cartoony artwork for the caracter then there would have bin a clash of stiles and one hade to go.

So maby what I am saying is use the same stile for al components of youre game, easiest way to acive this is using onley one artist. Also I would presume it would be cheaper using onley one.

Yes and the pint you made about magic having 5 difrent collors, using difrent artist can, and I say can if done right, enhance that feeling.

Not to highjack this thread, but it was mentioned that a publisher will probably do their own thing with the art design when they produce a game, and that the art work of the prototype will be discarded. What about giving credit to the artist who did the illustrations for the prototype? Will they not get credit as one of the artists/ illustrators when the game is published?

I would use the Google image search to find pictures for the playtest cards. You won't be able to use them in the end because of rights issues, but nothing stops you from making a playtest set using them.

I suggest this because playtesting will probably lead you to change the distribution of cards, to drop some cards entirely, or add some that you won't think of until after you've playtested a lot. Whichever way you decide to get consistent art - by relying on one artist or by coordinating many artists - you don't want to have to go back later to add cards and make them fit the graphical style you've already established. It's better to make the art once you are pretty confident that those are all the cards you'll need.

All that said: I rarely follow that advice. I often draw or design components as I am thinking about the game. Sometimes, like with the Decktet, I make the cards before I even have a game for them. However, my cards are an art project for me. I enjoy drawing them. If I had to requisition art from other people, I'd follow the advice I've given above.