Ideas

I have been wanting to create a tarot deck for ages. Every now and then, ideas come to me for the artwork on specific cards. I haven't done anything with these ideas yet, mostly because I want the deck to be cohesive and I was having problems visualizing how to connect the ideas I have for specific cards to each other. I was also thinking I need some sort of theme. I know that's not necessary, but I think it's cool when a tarot deck conveys a specific perspective.

There are so many decks with really interesting or unusual themes/perspectives out there. Obviously, some work better than others, and some are very silly. I don't want mine to be silly. I want my theme to add something of value to anyone using the deck. For the longest time, however, I had a hard time coming up with any kind of theme that would be meaningful to me (and to others), and that I could execute well.

BUT NOW I've come up with a theme that I can get excited about. I will have to do some research to see if there are any similar decks out there already, and I will also need to do some historical research and figure out who/what gets assigned to which tarot cards. See, the inspiration for my idea came from reading about actual historical figures. There are two historical novels I read recently, which are really fiction but heavily based on the lives of real people whose stories are amazing and inspiring. And those novels got me thinking. I could incorporate certain elements of their lives into tarot. Plus I would love to draw the clothing they wore, the types of buildings they lived in, and so on. While making notes on my ideas, I came up with four prominent historical figures and matched them up with the tarot suits. That made me see that this idea could work! And not in a cheesy or hokey way.

The tricky part is the Majors. Do I have elements of each of these figures throughout the majors? Do I assign another historical figure to the Majors? Or do I create the Majors in sort of a generic way? I'm not sure "generic" is the right word, but I just mean less thematic, I guess. I'll just need to ponder this further and see what my imagination comes up with. Once I have the ideas for the theme and artwork solidified, then I will have to look into how to get the deck published.

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I just want to acknowledge that some folks here were expecting to see images of my artwork in this "Art Blog." I should have been clear when I created it, that it's mostly where I want to work out ideas and talk to myself about them. That's not to say that I won't post any pictures of my art, though. I'm just not feeling ready to do that quite yet. Thanks for understanding!