52ravens Posted January 19, 2018 Posted January 19, 2018 I love the texture you are getting from the mix of the water colours and the paper, I really hope the scanned versions hold this delicate detail. The gold is a great addition, keep up the good work, 72 to go? ;)
Saturn Celeste Posted January 19, 2018 Posted January 19, 2018 Seems like I'm starting a tarot deck project for 2018! The working title is The Page's Tarot, because of my name on this forum and since I feel a bit like a small Page embarking on this long journey. That is a lovely way to look at your journey! Best wishes for your project, you're off to a great start! :D
Page of Ghosts Posted January 19, 2018 Author Posted January 19, 2018 I love the texture you are getting from the mix of the water colours and the paper, I really hope the scanned versions hold this delicate detail. The gold is a great addition, keep up the good work, 72 to go? ;) Something like that, yes, unless I have to redo a card. I have a scanner but I'm not very good with editing photos as I know they can come out a little weird compared to the original. Will probably have to learn how to do it later ;) This paper is not as textured as I like it but it's glued on all sides and I grew a bit tired with trying to prepare the loose paper I prefer so it's a nice compromise :D
Page of Ghosts Posted January 19, 2018 Author Posted January 19, 2018 That golden Moon card is so lovely, Page of Ghosts. I'm at a loss for words! And now we see you beginning to come to your own style with the 3 of Swords. I'm curious as to how you'd pull this off. I got excited when you used the term oversaturated. My favorite 3 of Swords cards always have the rich, bold, bloody reds that I prefer. Thank you! That red is already pretty intense. Strangely I seem to be pretty good at mixing up blood red :o I actually really like the way this looks without the black fineliner, much more than the paintings I'm made with it, so I'll stick to painting this way for a while and see how it goes.
Page of Ghosts Posted January 25, 2018 Author Posted January 25, 2018 I'm a bit lazy with updating my thread so if you wanna follow my instagram for some more art photos and wips my handle is merlins_scraggly_beard over there :)
Page of Ghosts Posted February 3, 2018 Author Posted February 3, 2018 Long time no new posts! I'm working on colouring this Page of Cups. Not too pleased with the lineart but she deserves a chance. Sometimes I don't like them before I put on colours, art is not easy :(
Page of Ghosts Posted February 3, 2018 Author Posted February 3, 2018 I did finish off the Three of Swords a while back. I haven't decided if I wanna use metallic ink on just the Majors + courts or if I wanna do it to all the cards so we'll see. This card has no sparkles and I probably should add some rain in the background at some point too.
Page of Ghosts Posted February 3, 2018 Author Posted February 3, 2018 And at last I started on the lovely Nine of Pentacles! Then I realised I don't know how the heck grape vines and leaves work so I put this on the back burner for a while as I do other stuff to procrastinate learning how to draw that stuff :P I'm very happy with her face and obnoxious loud bird!
Page of Ghosts Posted February 9, 2018 Author Posted February 9, 2018 So that Page is being worked on. She had a very bright orange-y face that didn't really work out so I had to remove some colour. I still think she could be a little darker and warmer... just have to be really careful if I try to do that again. Her outfit is a little intense already but I should be able to work something out. My plan for arting around this year was to avoid painting people as pasty as me, but I might need to challenge myself since it's not very hard - I usualy glow ghostily in the summer sun after all... Really like how she's having a conversation with the fish ^-^
Page of Ghosts Posted February 19, 2018 Author Posted February 19, 2018 Has been some developments recently. I'm done with the Page of Cups. Feel like I went a bit overboard with my shadowing (where I try to use a different colour rather than a darker version of the same colour, it looks a lot more interesting imo!) but overall I'm pleased. I did the Two of Cups this week, had so much trouble with that lion and the mans foot but I think it came out alright in the end :)) He doesn't look like he is falling over anymore, haha, and I loved making his patterned outfit and puffy shirt. Right now I'm working on The Devil which might be my favourite so far. He spooked my mom so I guess I'm doing something right. Went with some creepy goat eyes for him that I'm thinking about painting red or another weird colour... One thing I've started to pay more attention to, now that I'm actually painting a lot and have dealt a bit with my inner critic, is my art lean. I lean my head, maybe my whole body, over to one side when I draw (I suspect it is the right but I'm not 100% sure) so things on the right side is usually a lot higher up than the left one when I'm drawing something that's supposed to be the same on both sides. When drawing a face from the front the right eye can sometimes be the height on an eye in difference! I'm glad I'm able to see it at least so I can try to deal with it. The mirror trick, where you use a mirror to see how your image is looking in it and how straight and proportionate everything is, is something I've never been able to do properly, but lifting the paper up vs. looking at it on a flat surface like my desk is helpful, as well as turning it upside down and using my ruler to make some guidelines. I've always thought everyone who knows what they do don't use rulers but it's super helpful so I'll just keep using it.
Page of Ghosts Posted February 19, 2018 Author Posted February 19, 2018 A picture of the Two of Cups, by the way!
Page of Ghosts Posted February 21, 2018 Author Posted February 21, 2018 I am still working on our friend The Devil and I've just accepted that I can't make him not look a little bit like my dad, haha. My dad is not a spooky demon lord so I don't know what has happened... I even gave him some hair to try and correct it but he still is my dad combined with a Pan-like creature! And as I've worked a bit more on the devil I realise I have given him my own hair! Both style and colour! If this ever becomes a real deck that might give some interesting ideas for interpreting the cards, maybe? I don't think this paper likes all my layers and blending but I've just spoiled myself with some Arches 300 gsm rough texture paper which I think will give me about 4 card from the giant piece of paper I bought. Looking forward to testing out my new larger format on that paper. I don't think I posted about it earlier but I just upped my size of the cards. They used to be 2x2 Centennial cards (so 14x24 cm) but I realised I need to paint larger so these are 3x3 Centennial cards (21x36 cm) ^-^
Guest Posted February 24, 2018 Posted February 24, 2018 I am still working on our friend The Devil and I've just accepted that I can't make him not look a little bit like my dad, haha. My dad is not a spooky demon lord so I don't know what has happened... I even gave him some hair to try and correct it but he still is my dad combined with a Pan-like creature! And as I've worked a bit more on the devil I realise I have given him my own hair! Both style and colour! If this ever becomes a real deck that might give some interesting ideas for interpreting the cards, maybe? LOL that is great. All of this looks great! way better than that Universal Waite deck i picked up....which has become bookmarks and shims for a wobbly art table..
Page of Ghosts Posted February 25, 2018 Author Posted February 25, 2018 I am still working on our friend The Devil and I've just accepted that I can't make him not look a little bit like my dad, haha. My dad is not a spooky demon lord so I don't know what has happened... I even gave him some hair to try and correct it but he still is my dad combined with a Pan-like creature! And as I've worked a bit more on the devil I realise I have given him my own hair! Both style and colour! If this ever becomes a real deck that might give some interesting ideas for interpreting the cards, maybe? LOL that is great. All of this looks great! way better than that Universal Waite deck i picked up....which has become bookmarks and shims for a wobbly art table.. Haha, thank you! Dad approves of the Devil too ;D I think the world doesn't really need another RWS-clone but this is a fun project for me to do and as I do more cards I feel more of an urge to do more than just copy the exact RWS-image. There are still about 70 more paintings left so I'm curious to see what will become of it in the end as I'm open to changes in my plan. So far I'm more than happy to just aim for completing 78 tarot paintings ^-^
Page of Ghosts Posted March 6, 2018 Author Posted March 6, 2018 At last I'm done with The Devil! This painting took me a while because I was feeling a bit under the weather and I was doing so many new things here: a larger format of 21x36 cm / 8.2"x14.1" (I'm trying to break out of drawing tiny and this was a neccessary step up!), lots of hair and fur, capturing the male physique... and then the paper got overworked in some spots which put a bit of a damper on my excitement. In the end I prevailed and I think he looks pretty good!
Page of Ghosts Posted March 6, 2018 Author Posted March 6, 2018 Sorry about the flipped picture by the way - it's upright on my computer but it seems there are some issues with the new auto re-sizer. I'll try sizing it down in paint myself and see how it works out there. Seems that worked!
52ravens Posted March 6, 2018 Posted March 6, 2018 Looking really nice. Well done for sticking with it, sometimes you have to battle with your artwork, its good when it finally comes together 8)
Page of Ghosts Posted March 7, 2018 Author Posted March 7, 2018 Looking really nice. Well done for sticking with it, sometimes you have to battle with your artwork, its good when it finally comes together 8) Thank you! I'm focusing more on finishing things and sticking with it all the way through rather than obsess over what I could've done better, which has been a major roadblock in the past. Now I just gotta decide what I feel like creating next... maybe one of the Aces?
Guest Posted March 7, 2018 Posted March 7, 2018 wow. big difference when you increase the resolution of the images!! isn't it maddening how much longer it takes to paint once you bump up the size of the image? so much more detail and room for you to express the brush stroke.
Page of Ghosts Posted March 16, 2018 Author Posted March 16, 2018 Yeah it takes a while, especially since I'm so used to drawing tiny! For my own peace of mind I thought it better to make the images larger so I don't have to sit with my tiny #1 pointy brush all the time... it's kinda tedious to get such tiny, tiny details right. I finished up the Ace of Cups so I'll have it up here soon. I'll probably go back and make the cup itself more detailed as it's very simple right now, as well as add some gouache for the light coming from the hand. Forgot about leaving some white space for that :-[ Right now I can't paint since the drawing board I have been using is much too small and I just barely fit the paper on the back of it, so I have to wait till Monday when I have money to go buy a new one. Luckily they're not that expensive ;) In the meantime I will try to draw all the Aces. Drawing is actually my least favourite part of the process so I've been sketching straight on the watercolour paper, but since there is a break from drawing I'm drawing tiny sketches the size of the Centennials tarot cards in a sketchbook. I seem to have improved with sketching in general, it looks pretty good! Especially hands are getting easier, they're no longer claws, haha! My idea is that I'll try to depend more on my own sketch of Pixies art than go straight from it, so I'll be better able to develop my own style even if it is pretty much a clone I'm going for.
EmpyreanKnight Posted March 18, 2018 Posted March 18, 2018 Your Devil card is beautiful, Page. I think deep colors complement your art well.
Page of Ghosts Posted March 28, 2018 Author Posted March 28, 2018 Thank you both! I'm pretty happy with the Devil card too. It might be a while before I get to post any tarot cards since I'm working on a birthday gift, which is already well overdue (but luckily a surprise so the recipient isn't impatient) and there is another one coming up. In the meantime here is that promised Ace of Cups-card, which is a bit too simple I think so I'll go back in at some point to decorate the cup more. Will add the sketches in some separate posts since I can only fit one attachment of decent size and I'm too lazy to upload to any hosting service ^-^
Page of Ghosts Posted March 28, 2018 Author Posted March 28, 2018 More aces! I like how phallic the Ace of Wands is, haha! Didn't really see that before I was drawing it myself, which has been the case for a lot of details in the RWS.
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