Aces

Work is progressing, too slow as far as I'm concerned, then again I do not have that much time considering I also have a full time job and a serious lack of energy due to small medical inconveniences.

However, the Major arcana are done, I won't do a full res scan of the world though, I'm sorry. Against my own nature I decided to limit access to the full set to people I choose for now and people ordering the complete finished set later.

So on to the minors, here's the aces. Lots to do, but at least I made a good start and the concept and ideas behind the deck are gaining strength. All the known symbols are there in their traditional form, though it remains to be seen if this will be the case on all the minor arcana, still seeking the right balance between accessible, traditional without falling back to predictable and just downright copying the Rider. I want my vision my re-imagining to be key in this deck, there are enough Rider Waitte clones.

Strength, to go on...?

I don't know why but all of a sudden my passion for my project left me. I will keep going off course and I expect to rekindle the spark I had when I started out, but the last few cards somehow from one moment to the other seemed like something I would have done as a kid. I missed that something extra I found starting out, they seemed like pictures in a kids coloring book to me now. The negative feeling has ebbed away for the most part now but a lingering resistance still nags me.

Anyway, here is strength. The lion is a dragon now and even more than the traditional cards depicts it's not brute force that subdued the beast. Strong wits, subtle manipulation and charm has transformed the mighty monster into a pet. The sword echoes the traditional tarot symbol for intellect and a "sharp" mind.

Strength

So here's judgment, the empty horizon is a thing

Judgment, which I misspelled 'judgement' almost everywhere (hey I'm Dutch), was my card for today. I like how most of it turned out, though it feels exceptionally dark, which was not what I was going for. The souls really worked out well and the angelic face in the clouds also does the trick. I had to decide if the field, or graveyard itself should be a realistic depiction or something a bit more abstract. Since I have consequently used far horizons to symbolize the empty path, the open future, I have kept this up here save for some tombstones and graves. The empty horizon is now officially a thing.

Judgment

The Lovers, why a tree... not sure about this card

Okay so here's the Lovers card. I am not sure if this is the final product, though I will mostly likely stick to this concept. The lovers is a difficult card to deal with because of it's strong traditional imagery and it's double meaning. Both romance an synergy are important to the lovers. Not just love and passion but also opposites complementing each other are what the lovers stand for. I hope to have achieved this in my design. I added the tree because traditionally there is usually a third presence (Angel) in the image and I felt I really missed something. I didn't want to take anything away from the strength of the union depicted so I came up with the tree. Echoing  the world tree (Yggdrasil) which is also featured in several other places in the deck (or will be) it ads a hint of the divine, but also is a strong symbol of connecting earth and heaven, perhaps the greatest opposites after light and dark.

I am however not sure if this is the exact piece as it will be featured in the deck, some slight flaws bug me and I really want the contrast to be bigger. Maybe the border which will eventually be added to all cards will make the image stronger. However, right now, this is what we're going with if only to keep the thing going and keep me from standing still for too long.

I am already dreading the touch-up face of this process.

The Lovers

The Hierophant, a good day to pick up that one.

The Hierophant is a spiritual leader. The card is often even called 'the pope' so since pope Benedictus resigned today I thought this would be a good day to design this card. I really like this one a lot because I was able to break with some traditions but still very much kept the soul of the concept. The straight lines, like the way his robe hangs from his shoulder are also a strong sign of the feeling the card should give. There is a lot to tell about this card and it begs for it's own chapter but that's a challenge I will pick up when all the designs are finished. I also love how the Hierophant slightly resembles Aleister Crowley since he in many ways is the embodiment of the card.

the Hierophant

First bumps in the road, hit hard... (Tarot of the beckoning night)

Okay so I have been going forward with a vengeance with creating my Tarot deck up to last weekend. Being somewhat more limited regarding time this week is a drawback but that's no biggy. My first color try outs however got me down, hard. I have no clue what to do regarding technique and scheme. Every ouch of color seems to bring down the original design. I have done a few variations and the less color I use, the better it feels. But I was not planning on a deck in grayscale and color is actually important to the cards meaning.

I am even contemplating looking for someone else to do the coloring....

I have got some heavy thinking to do and apparently I was ill equipped for disappointment here, my ego got me thinking this was gonna be easy. Anyway, here are the color try outs, feedback it to hell if you want it's not likely to make it to the final versions anyway.

2 color version

color one-on-one scan

some color editing

the original

slightly enhanced color

new major arcana cards added, how dark will I make it?

Okay so here are two new designs. I am still not entirely sure what 'tone' I want to use. I want the deck to be slightly confronting, a bit dark, but not mean or evil. I am not for the unicorn and carebear type of deck, but I want people to be able to use it without their spreads feeling exceptionally dark. A thing to work on... here's the magician and the chariot.

the Magician

the Chariot

My project: Tarot of the beckoning night

So here's this thing I am working on, a Tarot deck. I have been planning on doing something like this for a long time and have even started on it a few times. Now I am actually going through with it. At the moment I have seven cards ready and my head is spilling with ideas for the rest of them. There are however a lot of choices yet to be made.

Am I going to do color, I think so but I am not yet sure how. I am planning to make specific drawings for all 78 cards, not just the greater arcana, but that is a massive amount of work, am I up for that? I am also trying to figure out how much of my own ideas I can put in, Tarot comes from a centuries old tradition, which symbols, which specific meanings am I going to out in, will it be accessible for all readers, beginners and veterans alike. And then there is the fact that some imagery might even be age restricted like the Devil.
Whatever outcome these questions may have there is also the actual getting the whole thing printed and if possible distributed. Right now I am thinking of pushing the black and white greater arcana forward and do a few cheap ass printouts and see if I can get a few people to review them in use and spread the word.

I will be using this page and my facebook artist page to promote the thing and get feedback, so keep an eye out for that. www.facebook.com/MayTheMoonLightYourPath

Now to find time between work, diabetus induced couchcoma and xbox to keep up my two-designs-a-day commitment.

Death

the Tower

the Hanged Man

the High Priestess

the Devil

the Hermit

the Fool