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