modern tarot

[Guest]

I really like the backs! I had a tablet for many years but I never really got the hang of digital art so I sold it - I'm too fond of the physical aspects of traditional art. There's so many brushes and cool textures you can use though so hopefully you can emulate drawing on paper.

 

thanks. I use sketchbook with a Surface pro 4. The reason I went with it was I use Copic markers and Pigma Micron pens for my traditional work. Which was becoming rather expensive....Sketch book has tools that work just like the real ones. The pencils and pens are amazing, they work like pens and pencils do....I also have Photoshop it is just 10 bucks a month now, and it is the most powerful tool there is for art.

 

 

I have been running way behind...at this current rate this deck is three years out  ::)....so no point in rushing now right?

 

here is the 7 of water  a week or so late...

 

 

 

King Cephus. I was really building this sketch up with division of the laws of seven and three through out it. Three tiles on the floor, seven steps tot he king, surrounded by three windows to the world surrounded at the top by a lattice of 7 bars and 3 bars to represent the matrix of all  creation that hangs over even the heads of kings

 

There will be far more imagery of this sort of course, in all the images actually.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

here is Andromeda the 8 of water. This one was a challenge and a lot of fun. We have Andromeda just moments before the arrival of Perseus, her self-sacrifice to save her people is the crux of this card and how it is to this story. She willingly was chained up to be sacrificed.

 

 

in order to stick with my progress i left out tons of details I will have to work in on the next pass. i still want to put thought into how to configure her hair to exhibit symbols indicative of 8 when the card is read upside down...

 

but this one was fun with all of the tentacles and splashing water for sure :)

[Guest]

i have just been doodling around and made a few cards for 1 of Fire. this is a special card I suppose. it is the FIRST of the minors it represents the first of the year all of that jazz and yet ...the constellation is just the humble triangle.

 

In order to signify the law of three foldness permeating all of everything that is and everything that takes place they chose the triangle. There are so many ways to use a triangle that i have just been having fun trying out all the different ways I can cut up a triangle.

 

i like the first one myself. it is simple and intriguing

 

 

 

[Page of Ghosts]

I like the optical illusion of the 1st card too. That one and the 3rd card, which makes me think of dominos, are my favourites, they are both simple in execution and get to the point. The one in the middle I think is a little too busy for me, personally

[maenifold]

I like all three of these, but the first one is especially striking!

[Guest]

yup you guys are right I am sure, everyone else I could find thought the same thing. it is funny how i can spend hours and hours on something and feel so much pride for it...but it is the warm up melody or the doodle i made that really says what I wanted to say in the first place.

 

been going through some kid stuff lately, but I am staying ahead of schedule and accelerating ;) I should have the second Minor of the year Eradinus and the fountain of youth sketched out in a day or so.

 

 

[EmpyreanKnight]

The Andromeda looks marvelous, whatsawhosit. It's pathos looks very real, and it's the one I like best of all the cards you've drawn so far.

 

Regarding the Triangulum, I knew we studied that Escher-like triangle in your left-most pics! It's called a Penrose triangle, Penrose tribar, or the impossible triangle. Tbh tho all the options that you presented are equally good.

[Guest]

The Andromeda looks marvelous, whatsawhosit. It's pathos looks very real, and it's the one I like best of all the cards you've drawn so far.

 

Regarding the Triangulum, I knew we studied that Escher-like triangle in your left-most pics! It's called a Penrose triangle, Penrose tribar, or the impossible triangle. Tbh tho all the options that you presented are equally good.

 

lol RIGHT ON!!! yeah I actually found that triangle as a small etching That M.C Escher made next to his signature in one of his tessellation of a surface. I never thought it might be a famous triangle.

 

Andromeda is a very dynamic image compared to the others, not so many of the constellation stories have such action going on. Then again I spent a massive amount of time pondering this one. The classical images of Andromeda are of a beautiful girl chained to a rock  and they were usually a vehicle to paint naked girls in a time when that wasn't an ok thing to do. So I really wanted to do something very different that was still obviously Andromeda.

 

I wonder if I should tone that one down a bit? there is almost no way to make all of the cards exciting....for instance we have a triangle two cards later  :)

[EmpyreanKnight]

I understand if you want to make the Andromeda a bit more staid so that it fits well with the overall feel of the deck, whatsawhosit. It's just so very beautiful tho.

[Guest]

I understand if you want to make the Andromeda a bit more staid so that it fits well with the overall feel of the deck, whatsawhosit. It's just so very beautiful tho.

 

i'm going to get them all laid out first and then decide, I think the others will have more pop when I actually make them look nice.

 

trying to stay ahead of schedule here is the second card of Fire represented by Eradinus the river. in the night sky the river eradinus has Orion upon the banks , and Cetus is emerging from it, Phaeton crashed into it, it is a very large constellation that works it's way through the stories of many others. It is the wellhead of life and it is the source of the Fountain of Life to many. The Chinese referred to it as the Golden Well Head.

 

I find it difficult to just slap the idea down and move to the next, but I think i am getting the hang of being completely sloppy

 

 

[maenifold]

I love the depth in this

 

P.s. I always enjoy your text descriptions too, you're going to write a really interesting guidebook.

[Guest]

I love the depth in this

 

P.s. I always enjoy your text descriptions too, you're going to write a really interesting guidebook.

 

thanks, i try not to talk too much...and I am really sort of just re-telling the story of the stars.

 

eradinus is a neat constellation, the next card finds Perseus with medusa. Perseus has to cross the river of Oceanus/Styx (eradinus) to the underworld to find medusa and kill her. He will have traveled from the zodiac of pisces and aries to cross this river and return to save Andromeda and destroy Cetus. One may wonder as they study these constellations in Pisces who and how will all of that drama play out, and at that moment far on the other side of Eridanus is the epic hero of all Perseus gaining the strength and tools to overcome. Eradinus is a huge hurdle to clear, a few heroes confront this crossing to the underworld such as Hercules, Prometheus, and Odysseus. This river represents that energy of life that flows through us and how it can be tapped into and at times it churns out of control and gives us animistic desires and thoughts personified by Cetus and Medusa or it can be empowering as it is expressed flowing through the aquarius signs where man conquers nature with knowledge, or filling Orion with confidence

[Guest]

I thought i might just try making the cards more dynamic. which requires more sketch ups before hand.

 

So here we have perseus, as he has just crossed back over the river Styx (Eridanus) headed back to the world of life. Pegasus  who can not cross this river is arriving in the distance to carry our hero back to Cetus and Andromeda.  The golden attire are his gifts from the gods. his helmet a gift from Hades to make him invisible to the negative thoughts of others, Hermes gave him sandals that allowed his mind to stay quick of thought and understanding, zeus gave to him an adamite sword to separate the true from the false, But the greatest gift he had for this adventure was the shield Athena had fashioned for him the shine of which was so bright is the reflection of it one could perceive the illusions of life. This shield allowed Perseus to counter Medusa's falseness.

 

So I will be working those four items into the image

 

I also did a bit of planning to have his leg bent into a triangle with him lifting medussa's severed head high to show Perseus as an inverted stance to the 12 card of the major arcana the hanged man for he is overcoming the sacrifice of Andromeda in his master ship.

 

once again just a rough lay out, the more plans I have for a scene the more i have to work out ahead of time.

 

[Guest]

here we have Lepus, the first card of Taurus. I had a bit of trouble with this one, at first it jus seemed like i should draw a rabbit....on the other hand, that is boring.

 

Before the advent of the christian era, the rabbit Lepus was a snake. They both rest under the Feet of Orion being smashed by him and chased by his dogs. Seemingly more opposite creatures could not have been selected. Why such a change? For Easter!!! Here is the Easter bunny.

 

The story of Lepus picks up on the banks of the river Eradinus, where near by Perseus has just destroyed medusa and her temple is falling. And lepus makes his escaped from destruction. Anyone that has seen a rabbit escaping knows nothing seems more determined to survive in the face of overwhelming danger than a bunny rabbit.

 

As Lepus rises Aquilla the eagle is setting, hence the tails of old that the eagle and the hare hate one another. Then as Lepus the hare sets we have the raven rising,  hence the tales that the hare dislikes the Raven and it's endless talking.

 

As a snake Lepus makes for one of three snakes that man is battling with in the constellations. A constant reference to the enmity between the serpent and man. The snake is a a portion of Medussa escaping to find a new way to burden man...and that subject would require some study of what Medussa represents...

 

[maenifold]

Great card for Easter, thanks for posting it! I loved reading about the enmities between them all, and the reasons, and how you've represented them.

[Guest]

Great card for Easter, thanks for posting it! I loved reading about the enmities between them all, and the reasons, and how you've represented them.

 

thanks, i din't really realize how much i could blabber about each card  :-\

 

 

Orion is surely one of the oldest constellations. The Arabs called it al-jauzah meaning brilliant spot and in the winter sky nothing attracts one attention quite like the radiance of Orion. For it contains two first magnitude stars and four second magnitude, other than the Big Dipper Orion’s belt is the most recognizable feature of the night sky in the northern hemisphere. The Egyptians held Orion in the highest honor for the soul of Osiris rests there, to the Babylonians He battled with Tiamat across the sky, to the Hebrews he was the fool that would become our beloved fool card, the Chinese believe the belt is the three kings that damned up the waters and gave them the Changes, the Irish called him the “armed King,” he is Nimrod the great hunter of Babel, Jason of the Argonaughts. Orion is littered through literature for the last 4000 years Hesiod and Homer call upon him, Tennyson recalls Orion regularly, all the way to modern works such as Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Ford prefect is from Betelgueze 5 which is the “martial star” the star of Orion’s shoulder)…

 

I could really go on. The history to this constellation is long. But the story how does that go? There are many layers to Orion’s story everyone has a finger in it now.

 

In this image we have Orion jumping from the moon which is associated with the Hare,this is a bit of that Easter tradition from the Lepus card prior that I didn’t get into...he is standing upon the feminine principal, the moon, of life using it as a foot stool to chase after the virgins of the heavens the Peleides which are most often referred to as the Doves. The bull of Taurus, who has much stubborn will power ruled by Venus doesn’t so easily succumb to desire,  is charging to prevent Orion form capturing those Doves and grinding the moon down in to the banks of the Eradinus river (the unrelenting energies of life). Orion has no fear of course he is a great hunter he has a lions head in his hand, how can a hunter be overcome by the prey of the foe he has already overcome? Orion succumbs to his desires of course, he is a braggart and a fool, but he is by far the most amazing of all the constellations when they are before your eyes.

 

 

[Guest]

i have been doing little bits of this and little bits of that lately...I laid out canis minor long ago but I thought I would start pecking away at the border for the water element

 

i am going to have to decide what to do with my font soon

[Guest]

my daughter liked that idea so I spent the morning working it out. I really hate the fonts...

[Guest]

4 of water re-visited. i have been so busy lately, that i have not been drawing much. So i sort of went in a different direction when i sat down. the border is taking shape, i put it off for so long, ya know.

[gregory]

I like fonts... What are you trying to achieve with them exactly ?

[gregory]

Oh oops - the word Struggle on Orion is spelt wrong, by the way... in fact there are several spelling oopsies; happy to PM with you about these... I used to proof read as part of my job...

[Guest]

I like fonts... What are you trying to achieve with them exactly ?

 

Thanks so much for the typo. I have fixed it. It would be an honor to have you eye balling my cards, I haven't had too many people familiar with the Brotherhood of Light decks helping.  so yeah PM away, or tell me here I am not embarrassed easily...I type like I am wearing mittens at times :o

 

I suppose my main issue with the font is that I have not truly chosen how I am going to handle working them into my workflow.

 

If i leave them as fonts like they are now, the Space and Astronomy font, i will have have to re apply all of the fonts with In-Design so i am using the same platform as the print shop. This means I have to actually design the border to fit the font. For instance if you look really closely this last border it is drawn uneven and crooked, it has better feel and look to it that way...but using a straight font doesn't read right. I almost have to paint the words in so they look like the are actually part of the stone.....

 

which brings me to...should I just paint every word by hand? This is obviously the way to go if time was endless...this is the way I would like to do it...but I have to wait until the last moment every card has to be finished first or I am just wasting my time.

 

so i am putting off the font thing until the last possible moment...and I have to just look at my slightly goofy fonts until then.

[gregory]

OK - I will happily proofread for you. But I hope you won't be finished any time soon; I am about to travel, and may be extremely busy with STUFF till July !

 

What I wondered was if there might be a font that looked more chiseled into stone - like on steles. I found a few so far but they were all rather CELTIC, which isn't right. But I do think that it could use being a bit smaller. Where you have two lines of text it looks - like a mistake, to be honest !

[Guest]

OK - I will happily proofread for you. But I hope you won't be finished any time soon; I am about to travel, and may be extremely busy with STUFF till July !

 

What I wondered was if there might be a font that looked more chiseled into stone - like on steles. I found a few so far but they were all rather CELTIC, which isn't right. But I do think that it could use being a bit smaller. Where you have two lines of text it looks - like a mistake, to be honest !

 

no rush, thank you, i have till December to finish my first proof of concept and even then that is a milestone I created just to keep me moving towards the end.

 

I will start making the words smaller, I have given so little thought to fonts. More energy into what the words will be, so i am finding i have too many words...i jsut doubled the lines when they didn't fit definitely a lack of any planning

i still hve about 28 cards to figure out the scene construction for. I was going to wait until that point to really attack the fonts, then I can see how they stack up on every card at one time with In Design.

 

here is the the border without that distracting incomplete picture inside of it

[gregory]

You know - I think it's perhaps a bit fussy. But I am a clean-nik - what do others think ?