Royden Card was born in Cardston, Alberta, Canada on August 3, 1952. Raised in Utah, Card's main inspiration and focus had been the red rock landscape around him but he has also been rendering the landscape and adobe buildings of New Mexico. He captures the impact of the desert in basic black and white woodcuts and vivid acrylic paintings. Card received his BFA in painting in 1976 and his MFA in painting and sculpture with a minor in design from Brigham Young University in 1979.

Card taught printmaking part-time for sixteen years at Brigham Young University and has also taught drawing, painting, art history, or printmaking classes at the University of Utah and Utah Valley University. He was Artist in Residence at Capital Reef National Park in 1998 and in 2014 he was a drawing instructor at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah.

In 2002, Card was selected as one of the 100 Most Honored Utah Artists by the Utah Winter Olympic Art Committee. A retrospective of his work was mounted in 2004 at the Woodbury Museum, Utah Valley University, in Orem. He has an extensive exhibition history and his works are held in the Smithsonian Institute Library, Special Collections; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City; Latter Day Saints Museum of History and Art, Salt Lake City; ATK Thiokol, Brigham City; Ohio University, Athens; Museum of Art, Brigham Young University; and St. George Art Museum, St. George, Utah.

When asked about his woodcuts, Card wrote:

Most of the time I sketch, do drawings on location, sometimes take reference photos. Then upon returning to the studio, I do a series of drawings with brush and ink or very soft pencil to work out the design in black and white, reverse the final drawing, transfer it to the (preferably cherry) block and then spend up to 80 hours carving, making slight changes as I carve.