Seren Posted June 16, 2021 Posted June 16, 2021 (edited) Hi all, I signed up here a few months ago but haven't really posted much recently as I've been working on a tarot deck. Not for any reason other than I'm a freelance graphic designer and I wanted to try and create my own deck. Illustration is not my forte, and I have a very distinctive cartoony type style of drawing, but once I came to terms with that and accepted that any deck I created wasn't going to be a great work of art, then I started to make progress. After faffing around since the start of lockdown in March last year, I finally finished a few days ago! There are still a handful of cards I'm not entirely happy with, but I just came to the point I had to stop somewhere. My business has totally tanked since Covid and so working on this deck has been a Godsend - something to keep me occupied in the absence of paid work! No plans to publish it as a deck at the present time - it's more the sense of achievement of having actually completed 78 illustrations. As a cheap way of seeing them in print, I've created a huge A0 poster (just under 4ft x 3ft in size), on which the cards are printed at approximately the size they would be if printed as a deck. I'm not after approval or criticism. The whole concept of this deck was to keep it very light, accessible and non-Woo! The colours are bold, the fonts, the whole presentation and style of the thing is deliberate, and I do appreciate it may not be everyone's cup of tea. But I'm just happy to have finished and happy to share what I have done. Diolch x Seren Edited June 16, 2021 by Seren
Niobium Posted June 17, 2021 Posted June 17, 2021 Congratulations! Honestly, I'd be more than happy to hear if you DO opt to publish it--I really like the look of the deck! That said, it's a HUGE undertaking, so I understand a lack of desire to go down that road. Thanks for sharing the end result of your hard work. 🙂
gregory Posted June 17, 2021 Posted June 17, 2021 Why NOT publish it with a POD place like printerstudio ? Or at least get yourself a printed copy that way.
Seren Posted June 17, 2021 Author Posted June 17, 2021 Thanks both for the responses. Very kind of you to comment. At the moment I'm just happy to have finished it, but as I mentioned previously there are a few cards I'm not entirely happy with so will probably revisit those at some point and then maybe I'll look into getting a deck printed, even if it's only for myself. It's more the sense of achievement of having done it to be honest. When you're working on a card at a time it seems never ending. I remember counting 5 done, 25 done, 40 done and so on. 78 seemed an impossible target. Then I found myself with 11 cards left to do, so I set myself a date to get them finished by and I did! And I seemed to get better as I went along. The later cards are better than some of the earlier ones, as I found my 'style', so it's a few of the early ones I'd like to revisit - maybe. Not just yet though lol!
Seren Posted September 25, 2021 Author Posted September 25, 2021 (edited) Hi everyone, Well I've had a few months to reflect on my deck and I do think it is rather naive and basic and over time, as I look at it, I see everything that is wrong with it. Having said that it does have a certain charm. At the moment I am torn between sticking with what I've got (it's my drawing style and my first instinct and I did put a lot of hours into creating it) or starting again and trying to do something more elaborate and sophisticated. The whole point of creating my own deck was to be able to illustrate my website, blog, Instagram, twitter, YouTube, Facebook etc. without having to worry about copyright issues. What I have now are 78 unique cards created by me .. and so I think I will probably stick with them for the time being. As my written work progresses .. who knows, I might try and create another deck, but for the now, these are my cards. From the Major Arcana I think this is one of my better efforts .... Edited September 25, 2021 by Seren
Seren Posted September 25, 2021 Author Posted September 25, 2021 And say hello to my teacher ... aka The Hierophant
Seren Posted September 25, 2021 Author Posted September 25, 2021 One of my favourite Tarot cards is 'Strength' I hope I've done it justice ....
reall Posted October 4, 2021 Posted October 4, 2021 Congrats! You Did Great job! Creating 78 original images is big feat! as pro art critic (& selfpublished deck creator!;) I say it looks OK to publish!:D p.s imo it may look even better with black border instead white considering general darker colors you use? + it's a quick art fix=everything looks better with black background!:)
Recommended Posts