Sharing my deck in the works - The Braided Oracle

[keen]

Hi everyone, new to the forum!

 

I've been an on-and-off-again tarot reader for more than 15 years, but it's just in the past few months that I've found myself wanting to dive into the deep end of divination in general, and cartomancy in particular. I still struggle a lot with tarot, not gonna lie... and this project started off with the intention of drawing my own tarot deck. Well, it wasn't in the cards (pun so intended), so I'm doing an oracle deck instead and so far it's shaping up to be incredibly rewarding. I'd like to know what you all think of my work in progress!

 

Here are a few images:

 

 

 

 

 

The system has a particular way that it prefers to be read (in card pairs rather than singles), so I'm trying to keep the imagery simple and self-referential. As in, I'm trying to utilize a lot of recurring themes and symbols to help with the intuitive aspect of reading. The limited palette of blue/red/black should help too.

 

Thanks for looking, and apologies if this is sort of discouraged as a first post.

[keen]

More!

 

 

 

Here's one I had to rework:

 

 

 

[Raggydoll]

Thanks for sharing! I love that you have a very distinct style and that you seem to care a lot about how well the deck will work as a whole - a lot of creators go too much into details and lose sight of the big picture, in my opinion. Your style remind me a bit of decks like Holly simple, so I definitely think it would be marketable. I hope you will keep sharing your work with us  <3

[keen]

Thank you Raggydoll! It's just frustrating, using various divination systems for over a decade and not having a single one really click. Tarot came close... and I'll probably be able to take it pretty far once I sit down and do some proper study. But I don't know if they'll ever be truly intuitive enough for me. However, working on this is giving me a lot more insight into tarot than I thought I'd get - I may try my hand at doing a deck after this!

 

What I'm seeing of the Holly Simple deck is awesome, and the associated guidebook is amazing. I may have to get that on its own! I have pages and pages of notes and sketches for my deck too. They don't look quite as cool as hers, though. ;)

 

 

[DanielJUK]

this looks really fascinating, I hope you do more updates about it. Is the name Braided, because it's in pairs? What's the sort of general theme of it all? or maybe there is no theme but I like the artwork  :)

[Page of Ghosts]

I really like your art, simple and effective, and that you've given thought about how it's going to be read and stuff like that. Tarot is my favourite divinatory system, but if you're big on intuitive reading I'm sure creating your own deck of any kind is going to be very special for you  ^-^

[Lantana]

Ooooh, I quite like this! (and I'm a hard sell on oracle decks!). Is there anywhere we can follow your progress? :D

[Saskia]

I'd like to hear more about how these cards will work. As individual pictures, they don't necessarily give much_to _me as I'm used to tarot and more symbol-filled images. I'd like to know more about the meaning of each card, for example Triage - what does it mean for you or in this deck? I'm not sure what I'd think if I pulled it as an answer to a question.

 

However, I'm intrigued and hope to hear more! You have your own style and that's wonderful - always good to stand out.

 

I'm also curious, why 'Braided'?

[Styx]

I admire the tenacity for deciding to create your own system!

I'm looking forward to hearing more about how this deck might work.

 

I really like the artwork, the simplicity and the colour palette  <3