Emerson Wallace
BFA: Art with an Emphasis in Illustration - Webster LEADS Certificate
Artist Name:
Emerson Wallace
Work Title:
Kingdoms Apart (Deck of Playing Cards)
Medium:
Micron pen on mixed media paper. Scanned and edited in photoshop, then printed onto playing cards
Artist Statement:
As an illustrator, I feel like my work up until now has been more reflective of a studio artist's. There is a fine line between what is considered illustration and what is not, and I want to solidly establish myself in my chosen path. For my senior project, I have designed and printed a unique and fully functional deck of playing cards. Combining my skills in figure drawing, character design, and narrative world building, I designed and hand drew each king, queen, jack, and joker along with creating my own type font and card back. The idea behind the designs was to subtally show off a fictional world where the card suits are loosely representational of historical kingdoms and tribes from different reigons of Earth. Kings and queens refelct traditional rulers, while the jacks are advisors, elders, and sages. The aces are soldiers and warriors (as reflected in the weapons on the ace cards) and the jokers are dragons. The historical and cultural regions represented are: Clubs - East Asia, Diamonds - West Africa, Spades - Europe, Hearts - Central/South Indigenous America. Playing cards are something nearly every household has, and I think this is a great way to present my work and my stories in a casual and illustrative way.
Artist Bio:
Emerson earned her BFA in Illustration from Webster University in 2026. She works primarily with colored pencils, ink, and paint markers as these best showcase her refined and finished style emphasizing an attention to detail. With a general tendency to create based on her personal feelings related to subjects, fear and discomfort are usually at the forefront of her themes and are typically what drive her to create. Some examples of this are human interactions, particular visuals, sounds, and textures, and transforming negative feelings into aesthetically pleasing visual narratives. Illustrating around topics that make her anxious helps her better understand and cope with her reactions to them. Her pieces represent narrative qualities using organic subjects to convey stories. A vast majority of the techniques she uses come from figure drawing and character design classes and have technical but illustrative aspects. She enjoys combining the anatomy of living beings with narrative facets to design and relay information. Aside from personal work, she loves doing illustration commissions, creative writing, and swimming.
Feel free to contact Emerson at emersonangel124@gmail.com if you are interested in commissioning her or would like to discuss her work.
Artist Portfolio: