I have become fascinated with the Steem Monsters blockchain card-game project. My card collection is slowly growing and I'm looking forward to reaching my goal of owning at least 1 of each legendary, 2 of each epic, and 5 or more of each rare and common. And I really can't wait for the tournaments to begin!
In the meantime though, one must keep occupied... And thus, I decided to enter into the 
In the first half of the post, I address the questions posed in the contest post, and add one of my own. In the second part, I present to you all my own surprise contribution to the Steem Monsters community... Sigils for each element in the game: Fire, Water, Earth, Life, Death and Dragon.
I say surprise contribution and truly, even to myself, it was a surprise. I was answering the contest questions and when it came time to think of my own, the first one I thought of was "How best can you as a Steemian contribute to the Steem Monsters game/community?" ...
And as an artist, my answer was... Well, keep on reading and you'll see ;)
First things first, let me answer the questions as put forth in @buddyup's contest post:
Question 1: What do you like about the new Steem Monsters project?
The number one aspect of the Steem Monsters project that really tickles me is that it is yet another example of how wonderfully versatile the Steemit blockchain is. Yet another practical use-case for crypto, which has the potential to introduce thousands more people to Steemit and the possibilities of the cryptocurrency space.
Of course, I love it for itself too - I've always loved card games and being able to collect cards, and soon to play, right here on Steemit, is very exciting - but really, more than my passion for card games is my passion for blockchain technology, and Steem Monsters has the potential to increase adoption in a big way.
Question 2: Why do you want to get involved with Steem Monsters? To play? To invest? A little bit of both?
Definitely a little bit of both. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how the developers make the game different from (or similar to) cards games that I know and love, but no one can deny the exciting prospect of possibly opening up a pack and getting lucky with a golden Selenia Sky, which is currently worth a LOT of money. My intention is to collect as many cards as I can afford.
This is something I think is lacking though, on the website: Nowhere does it state how many cards is the minimum to be able to play once the tournaments begin. I'd assume there are many people who are only in it for the fun and would like to know what the bare minimum is that they need. I realise it is necessary to buy the starter pack in order to be able to buy booster packs, but what about for actual gameplay? A few monsters and a summoner? Can you mix elements in your deck?
Question 3: What experience do you have with any previous card games in existence?
Like many, my first experience with card games was back in the 90s/early 2000s, with Magic: The Gathering. I still remember the utter thrill when I received my first cards and started constructing decks. I always went with a combination of green and black. Sadly, I lost all the cards I gained when moving cities. Some of them might have been worth a lot now.
After the complexity of M:TG, it was a relief when Hearthstone came out and I didn't need to spend hours pouring over a rulebook ;P ... I never played World of Warcraft, but soon found myself addicted to the card game. It has been over a year since I played it though.
Question 4: What are your thoughts about the artwork in the game? What's your favourite card?
Simple answer: I really like it. It is colourful and attractive.
The style is game-y without being too childishly cartoony, perfect for the purpose for which it was designed.
As for a favourite... I'd have to go with Spirit of the Forest. A beautiful nature nymph with the power to enchant you... Yes, thank you ^^ ... My birthday is September 8th, hint hint ;P
Question 5: If you had to promote this game outside of Steem, what would you do to attract people to it?
One word: Front-end. I believe the key to making this project successful will be in making it indistinguishable from any other game, so that people are not intimdated by the crypto aspect of it.
Similarly to how so many people get on Steemit and yet know almost nothing about the crypto space. 10 year-olds should be able to make an account quickly and be able to start playing, with minimal help needed from their parents.
So this means a clean website with easy-to-follow instructions and a game user-interface that feels familiar to your average gamer, no matter how the actual game-play differs from, for example, Hearthstone.
Then, the next step is marketing to the right audience. I would use something like Facebook ads and also mobilise the Steemians that already own cards to spread the words out into their gaming circles, off-platform. Also, are there any "crypto-games" on Steam yet? Being the first one on there wouldn't hurt either ;)
A Question of my Own: How do you think you, as a Steemian, could best contribute to the Steem Monsters project/community?
As I am an artist, I would try to think of some way to lend my skills to the enrichment of the game. And after much frustration, I was suddenly hit with an idea...: Sigils for each Element in the game!
The results of which you can see below... ;)
I have spent the last 6 days working on these elemental sigils. Using the technique I usually employ for creating mandalas, I looked at each of the summoner cards from each element (Malric Inferno, Alric Stormbringer, Lyanna Natura, Tyrus Paladium, Zintar Mortalis and Selenia Sky) and drew inspiration from them as I worked.
I also used the colours from each directly in the designs.
Fire
I really wanted to capture a feeling of smoldering flames here. The background I made dark, for ashes. The two shades of the fire itself is from Malric's skin and flaming hair.
Water
It was difficult finding formulae to produce a flowing water feel! I threw in the purple and white to represent Alric's beard and purple flame.
Earth
For Earth, I wanted growing greenery obviously, but also some earthy brown to represent soil. The shapes in this worked out perfectly, with the green looking like it is growing/spreading over the earthy surface.
Life
The colours here are obvious... The main thing I'm proud of here is that I used the same formulae as from "Death" - Notice the edges are very similar to the shapes in Death. Meant to represent Life in the center, keeping Death at bay, but really only temporarily, because in the end, Death always triumphs.
Death
Death! Classic thorny blackness with the red and green from Zintar's robes and emerald flames..
Dragon
The purple from the card, and the green from Selenia's dragon... The main thing I was going for here was dragon scales. The bits of gold are meant to represent the supremacy but also the rarity of dragonkind.
The creative process:
First, here is a screenshot of the program I used, to prove that this is my original work:
With some of them, I didn't need to do much after-work in photoshop. "Earth", for example, was perfect as it was right out of Mandelbulb 3D.
Others, however, like "Water", "Fire" and "Life", needed two or three layers to be saved first, and later combined in photoshop:
"Life" and "Death" needed particularly detailed attention:
The sigils I am sharing here in this post are "sticker size" images, and I'm giving them to the community. Feel free to download them and use them as you wish =) (excluding direct commercial use - that it, please don't sell them. They can, of course, be used to promote the game.)
The original images, which are between 4600x4600 and 4800x4800 pixels in size (can be printed in high-res. up to half a metre squared), I am thinking of either making them available in limited edition series prints (5 each), or else putting them up on SuperRare, which I have yet to sign up for. If you are interested in buying one, please get in contact.
Finally a big thank you to 
Thank you, Cal. This was an awesome opportunity to get my creative juices flowing ;)
Thank you for your upvote 💖
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A few recent posts of mine:
No Man's Sky - Art and Science Melded into a Beautiful Game | The Mandelsage Challenge! - My Most Precious Possessions | "Snowflake" - Gallery: Motifs
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If you'd like to support me further, or follow me elsewhere, I'm on these social media:
Patreon | Instagram | Facebook
My Bitcoin wallet address:
1DPGX72eQj5TNVpSG1grRMxVAaDuqGG2RL
All images licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Before using bidbots, consider that they are bad for the long-term health of the Steemit ecosystem, and that many manual curators will not consider posts using bidbots for curation. Instead, try joining communities, engaging authentically, and earning more and more organic votes over time =) ... The best post I've found explaining the terrible bidbot situation is by Luke Stokes - click here to go to his post.
