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