For myself, and my group, I am about to look for and or make new artwork for a lot of the new cards, and if it works out I may be looking for new art for all cards.

my goals are:
1. a universal look of all cards
2. a picture that really expresses the card
3. a picture that expresses the age in which the cards regularly made


In the first place, I'm doing this for my own group. (In the Netherlands) But offcourse I am eager to share this with all Civ-players all over the world.

I hope you have some ideas I can use. I want to use the style of art of the original game. get rid of the gradient and low-res pictures.

Let me say I am not the best drawing artist in the world. Bu I can handle pen and ink. More important to me is a general look. Maybe when I'm finished some professional artist feels like drawing mine all over. Before that, I'm happy with my style.

I was reading some more on ancient seafaring, when I came accross this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_Mechanism

I concluded that this device might be an option image for "calander" as it was a highly developped device for using astronomy on seafaring.
the card defends against cyclone which destroys ships.

what do you think?

by the way, the recent image on calander shows a south-american (maya or somehting) calender, which has nothing to do with the mediteranae

This is the first picture drawn by me. THis may not be the best example, because there is nothing wrong with the original art for Theology. But I want a universal look, so I decided to (re)draw all 51 advances and when I'm finished I'm starting with the calamaties.

What I've done:
I drew this with drawing ink on paper, than scanned the drawing, did a little Photoshop and put it in the lay-out for Theology.

This was actually a test. I think I'm redrawing this picture cause, I didn't pay much attention to this.

I am still doing some research for the images to be included, but I just wanted to share this test with you people.

What do you think?


p.s. For my personal gameset I'll be including a short historical text on each card to explain what the card means, and especially what it ment in human history. What's your opinion about that?
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Here are my findings. I looked it all up in history to find what image would be best for each card.

I'm adding a short description of each advance on the back of each card to explain what the card ment in history and in the game.

This might not be the final. I'm putting it all here, so that people can react.

Let me know what you think.

Trade Empire
Trade Empire represensents the dominating Silk Road and the east-west sea routes.
A market and or Silk

masonry
With mud-brick and stone architecture, masons built towns and fortressed walls and left giant pyramids .
A Mason at work

library
Initially the Library was closely linked to a "museum," Libraries were important for textual research
library of alexandria

empiricism
It is a fundamental requirement of scientific method that all hypotheses and theories must be tested against observations of the natural world, rather than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition, or revelation.
Aristotle founder of empiricism

fundamentalism
Fundamentalism represents cultures that were antagonistic and not tolerant of other religions.
Original art to be redrawn

cultural ascendency
Even during the time of Roman Empire Greek culture was widely assumed to be superior.
A greek temple

diplomacy
Kinship Diplomacy is the very origin of ancient diplomacy, The Greek made alliances with tribes that shared the same religion and ancesters.
An agreement

rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art or technique of persuasion through the use of spoken language
Rhetorica (Greek god for rhetoric)

sculpture
the Great Hierakonpolis Palette contain some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. 3100 BC
the Great Hierakonpolis Palette

theocracy
Theocracy is a form of government in which divine power governs an earthly human state, either in a personal incarnation or, via religious institutional representatives
Pharaoh

monument
A monument is a statue, building, or other edifice created to commemorate a person, event or as an artistic object.
Parthenon or a Egyptain statue

wonder of the world
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and last remaining of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Piramids of Giza

urbanism
The Babylonian city Ur is the earliest example of deliberately planned and managed cities in history
Ancient map of Ur

monarchy
Monarchy is one of the oldest forms of government. The Monarch is president for life
A simple crown

provincial empire
Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient empires.
A satrap and or sevral different coins (other than coinage)

cartography
mapping represented a significant step forward in the intellectual development of human kind. the Babylonian World Map is the earliest surviving map of the world
the Babylonian World Map

anatomy
Anatomy is the branch of biology that is the consideration of the structure of living things. The study of anatomy begins in Egypt in 1600 BC
Drawing of Juan Valverde de Amusco (unskinned man)

calender
The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical calculator designed to calculate astronomical positions. 100BC
The Antikythera mechanism (100BC)

mythology
The word mythology literally means the retelling of myths – stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use the supernatural to interpret natural events
Poseidon

trade routes
Because of its strategic location Anatolia (Turkey) has been a cradle for several civilizations since prehistoric ages.
Current art to be redrawn

universal doctrine
Universal doctrine is a foundation of religion, binding people by means
of faith and traditions, and tending to spread.
dead sea scrolls

diaspora
The term diaspora is used to refer to any people or ethnic population who are forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands.
Current art to be redrawn

politics
The word politics regards power relationships as well as the processes by which groups of people make decisions. Aristotle(384–322BC) developped advanced politics
Plato and Aristotle

naval warfare
The first dateable recorded sea battle occurred about 1210 BC: Suppiluliuma II, king of the Hittites, defeated a fleet from Cyprus, and burned their ships at sea
A trireme in action

public works
Public works are the construction carried out by the state on behalf of the community.
Current art to be redrawn

advanced military
The Roman army was highly developed and structured. Auxilia were non-citizens recruited mostly from the provinces. At the end of their service they were granted Roman citizenship.
A group of auxilia

mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth. Mines in Hungary are believed to be sites where Neanderthals may have mined flint for weapons and tools. 4100 BC
An ancient mine or geological materials

road building
The Via Appia was the most important ancient Roman road. 312 BC
Via Appia

agriculture
Agriculture is the production of food, feed, fiber and other goods by the systematic raising of plants and animals. Developed independently by geographically distant populations, systematic agriculture first appeared around 9500 BC
Current art to be redrawn

metalworking
Metalworking is the craft and practice of working with metals. Metalworking had its beginnings millennia BC
Current art to be redrawn

pottery
The earliest pottery wares were hand-built and fired in bonfires. 25.000 BC
Current art to be redrawn

cloth making
The development of cloth making made it possible to make sails on ships which enormously expanded the habitat of civilizations
Current art to be redrawn

medicine
The rod of Asclepius is an ancient Greek symbol associated with astrology and with healing the sick through medicine.
Rod of asclepius

coinage
The origin of currency is the creation of a circulating medium of exchange based on a unit of account. These factors led to the shift of the store of value being the metal itself
Current art to be redrawn

astronomy
Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is a position fixing technique that was devised to help sailors cross the featureless oceans without having to rely on dead reckoning to enable them to strike land.
Current art to be redrawn

deism
The belief that God exists but is not involved in the world. Superstition in the religious sense means "fear of God"
Current art to be redrawn

enlightenment
Enlightenment is the release from the incapacity to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another.
Current art to be redrawn

monotheism
Aton was the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian Mythology. The worship of Aten was the first attempt to Monotheism. (1353 BC). Later forms of Monotheism were advanced forms of religion which could easily convert people with a lesser form of religion.
Pharaoh Akhenaten and his family adoring the Aten

theology
Theology literally means "the study of God." People without much knowledge of religion could easily be converted to a(nother) religion, while Theology made this a lot harder to do.
A man studying the Thora

architecture
Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. The earliest written work on the subject of architecture is the Roman "De architectura" in 23BC
Collosseum (unbroken)

drama & poetry
Poetry as an art form may predate literacy. The first Drama was developed by the Greek in theatres.
Current art to be redrawn

music
The history of music predatesliteracy and is tied to the development of each unique human culture
Current art to be redrawn

mysticism
the pursuit of achieving conscious awareness of ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience.
Current art to be redrawn

written record
The oldest-known forms of writing were primarily logographic in nature, based on pictographic and ideographic elements.
Current art to be redrawn

literacy
The ability to read and write. The history of literacy goes back several thousand years.
First poem in rock

philosophy
Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live, what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures , what counts as genuine knowledge, and what are the correct principles of reasoning . The Greek phylosophers are still famous.
Current art to be redrawn

mathematics
From the beginnings of recorded history, the major disciplines within mathematics arose out of the need to do calculations relating quantity, structure, space, and change.
Current art to be redrawn

military
Organized warfare in any form. Military has been around for millennia
roman soldiers

law
Roman Law begins with the Law of the XII Tables, when it was proposed that the law should be written down in order to prevent it from being applied discriminatively , 500BC
Lady Justice (Iustitia, the Roman Goddess of Justice and sometimes, simply "Justice")

democracy
The concept of democracy first appeared in Ancient Greek political and philosophical thought. Comes from 'Demokratia' and means 'People Rule"
Current art to be redrawn

Ok
here's the update of what I've made allready.
I'll redraw theology. that previous one was just a test.


CALENDER
ART EXPLANATION
The Antikythera Mechanism is a greek mechanism containg several metal parts and known to be the first device used for astronavigation. (100 BC). I could also have used this for astronomy, but in fact this IS a calander. Maybe I switch it later. Not there yet.



CARTOGRAPHY
ART EXPLANATION
The orignal art shows a globe when back then the earth was known to be flat. I've chosen for the first known Babylonian World Map dating 476 BC




ARCHITECTURE
ART EXPLANATION
The earliest written work on the subject of architecture is the Roman "De architectura" in 23BC. The Colloseum (Amphitheatrum Flavium) was built in 70-80 AD by the emperors Vespasian and later Titus using treasury gained from war-pillage. I couldn't imagine a better symbolic roman building which defines our card.



THEOCRACY
ART EXPLANATION
Theocracy is a form of government. and means "Ruled by God". The Egyptian pharaohs were known to be half god / half emperor, which is exactly what it means. It's not the first form of theocracy known, but in fact he largest period, and most recognized.

Seem to be I'm the only one here right now.

No matter, I still continue drawing art for my own group.

Here's some new art:

LAW
ART EXPLANATION
Lady Justice (Iustitia, the Roman Goddess of Justice) is an allegorical personification of the moral force that underlies the legal system. Still used in courts and as a symbol for law and justice. Nowadays there are several variants shown. (E.g. bare-breasted, blindfolded, etc.) This is the original Iustita. Isn't there a better image thinkable for law in general?



CLOTH MAKING
ART EXPLANATION.
The orignal AH-game used the word "Cloth" for both a trading goods and an advance. (could possible also work as a mining-function for 'Cloth')
This project removed Cloth as a trading goods. The orignal art showed people actually making cloth, when in the game it is only used for seafaring, not for cloth as itself. I found it more reasonable to show a sailed ship (the histroical importance) instead of the actual making (just the same for roadbuilding). (See also my description of the historical meaning above in this thread)

You are not alone. So far I must say I like your approach on the cards. When do you think that you will finnish this project?
If not to far in the future, I'll promise you that I will go for your cards.

(I had to put my "making the game" on ice untill Mark's map is updated or t'ill I get the other map out in one piece rather than the broken up pieces since I want the whole map on canvas in piece.)

Well I don't know. I'm not in a hurry for myself.
I wanted to draw at least one piece a day. But this week I drew 4 pieces on one day then 3 days nothing. We'll see

The cards shown here are just preview. I do some retouching in Photoshop when all is ready. That goes quicker when I just take an hour to do all rather than every single piece when it's done.

I'm also going to redo the layout of the cards. And at the back I add the right historical info. The info stated above is not the final version of this text.

Two new ones that I drew today.

Advanced Military and a remake of the first test for Theology.

ADVANCED MILITARY
ART EXPLANATION
The original art showed a roman helmet. It was too simple to me, cause it could also stand for military in general. What puts the 'Advanced' in "advanced Military" in history?: The Roman army was highly developed and structured. Auxilia were non-citizens recruited mostly from the provinces. At the end of their service they were granted Roman citizenship.
Just what it means in the game. So I drew an army of Auxilia.



THEOLOGY
ART EXPLANATION
A longer explanation is written here by me before somewhere in this thread. Just look. For short: Study on religion is the weapon to any religeous conversion based on lack of knowledge. Historically backed above or below, Monotheism converted people of a lesser religion, while theology stopped this. Just as is in the game. So I drew a new version of the original art which shows a man studying religion (that is the hebrew bible)

I really like your new art. As you can read in my earlier thread I've always felt that both Theology and Monotheism needed to be revised so I'm happy you have produced new Theology art and am looking forward to the new Monotheism as well.
Yes Calendar needed new art as well, since a Mayan calendar really didn't fit.

thanks

watch this topic, cause, I'll update every piece of image whenver I've finished one.

Just a note: it was suggested that Fundamentalism be renamed to Orthodoxy in another thread. Everyone thought it was a good idea.

Oh yeah, but that is maybe something for Jonno to decide when it comes to an official new layout and update of the cards.

These arts are actually in first place for my own group. I'm eager to share this with you all. I'd love discussion and tips. And when it's finished I'd like to make a new set for This site only. (whit my new art)

What do you think?

About the names. Orthodoxy might be a good name instead of Fundamentalism. (though for me I have no problems with it).
But i'd also like to change Astronomy to Celestial Navigation. (see my description above on all cards).

But I see this as a major Version Change. For my set I use the old names as we are used to for years. Maybe when THIS site decides to change all this, I change along