a thought on this tarot deck

[ partially excerpted from some email ]

I'm at the point in the deck where I can really see the end, and this is making me realize how HUGE and tiring a project it's been. It's like when you're walking home and have to pee, and a couple blocks away your bladder just starts screaming. Except with drawing instead of urination.

62 done out of 78 and they haven't really gotten any easier, or faster. Or much more complicated. I must be a grumpy old pro now. I've managed a piece every third day for something like half a year now.

After I finish this deck, I think I'm definitely going to look into getting some large canvases and doing stuff in paint, because I don't think there's much more for me to learn about using Illustrator. I won't quit using it - Absinthe, for one, is still gonna be done in that, as will many other things - but I need to keep myself learning. I need to find out what I can do with a completely unrelated medium, and how that affects what I produce.

sketchbook

I went out on the back porch with my reference and struggled with the last few cards. I now have a sketch for every single remaining card. (Well, I still need something for the 99 of Swords, and possibly for the VOID courts, but that'll come sooner or later.)

Some of these sketches still need revision, mind you. But. I have done a rough for each of 78+ damn cards. Sheesh. That's a lot.


Chevalier of Pentacles, and Prince of Cups. These correspond to what the RWS deck have as the Knight of Wands and the Page of Cups. The face on the action drawing of the Chevalier is overworked; I had a good initial scrawl then erased it and tried to "fix" it - bad move. I'll be scribbling something over that in Illustrator when I do her.

Having her stick a credit card in your face down at the bottom really makes me happy.

The Prince, meanwhile: trusting emotional warmth in the middle of ice.

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The most significant things left for re-draw are all the Kings - I'm not really happy with any of them as is - and the High Priest. I'd been stuck in thinking about contrasting it to the High Priestess in terms of direct vs. mediated experience of the Divine; sitting out there on the porch after roughing out the Querent, I decided to just throw that aspect away. I opened up my reference and one thing leaped out at me: Teacher. I'm gonna have to ponder that for a while but I think that's a theme I can relate to in a way I could never relate to 'the immense system of the Church'.