Designing a Tarot Deck

The idea in regards to designing a deck of Tarot cards came about in August of 2009, slowly they are starting to be produced. Traditionally Tarot card readers used a deck of normal playing cards and the design of Tarot cards were often left to travelling Gypsies, who would quite literally draw their own deck. Rider-Waite is a combination of a traditional Tarot deck yet using the playing card idea for the suits. http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/rider-waite/

A Full deck consists of  56 Minor and 22 Major Arcana cards - 78 cards in all. The Minor Arcana contains 4 suits made up of Ace to Ten and 4 court cards: Page, Knight, Queen and King and the Major Arcana consists of 22 individual cards labelled 0 - 21 either in traditional roman numerals or standard numbering.

I always thought it would be fun to make my own cards maybe with the idea to have them published with a book for others to use. I have said once before that my paintings take on the 'Spirit' of the land I am in and as I reside in Australia, then the feel will represent many of the diverse cultures, landscape, flora and fauna of Australia. The Sun card from the Major Arcana is represents of the Boab tree seen in parts of Australia and the harsh sun, that many of the dessert areas endure.

The idea for the backing of the cards had not yet come forth, that would appear when it was time to contemplate the backing. In the meantime I progressed from The Sun card to The Moon. My affinity with the Moon and the Sun have always been strong. Many of my earlier pictures had either the sun or the moon featured with their reflection in the water, it was like a little trademark of mine. In the Moon, part of it's reflection can be seen in the water below and a slither of the setting of the sun just receding below the moon. The setting of the Sun and the rising of the Moon is a very special part of the day spiritually for me, it's a time for closure of the day and time to rest in preparation for the new day upon waking.

From here, I moved to The Star, again I have an affinity with the stars, often starring into the sky at night watching and looking at them. Keeping with the theme produced with the Moon - the water, the slither setting of the Sun and adding the reflection of light on the land as well as Giving the Star and almost spiral movement through the night sky before settling in its place.

I did attempt other cards from the Major Arcana, however, I wasn't happy with the results so they remain un-designed. For sometime I stopped designing the cards and worked on other projects. For those of you who have been following my blog from the beginning, you will be aware that I often take a break from a project until it feels right to return to it.

The Minor Arcana had been troubling me for sometime, as with all Tarot Cards that have a theme - the 'pip' suit cards normally follow that theme, so the standard suit names wouldn't apply to the suits for this Tarot Deck. For now I am sticking with the Traditional names until I have completed the entire deck. So, finally on 8th January 2011, I woke after strong waking dreams with idea for each of the suits from the Minor Arcana. Needless to say out came the paints and the canvases and I have been painting ever since - producing the Aces of each suit and the backing for all the cards.

The first Ace I produced was the Ace of Wands. Sticking with the Australia feel theme - you will see a Homestead in the distance a rather barren red ground, the windmill, bellowing clouds, windswept and bent  tree and my version of an Aboriginal Totem, showing the start of the river, flowing onto the river on the land, giving the land life. It should be pointed out that I, myself am not aboriginal, however, for me to deny this part of Australia would be wrong and yet my dilemma is being a non aboriginal using some imagery from a sacred culture also seems wrong. My hope is that this dilemma can be resolved by speaking with leaders and gaining their permission to use this imagery.

From here I moved to the Ace of Pentacles. Much of Australia is surrounded by shipwrecks and water, as well as having coral reefs. Even though Pentacles is traditionally connected with the element of Earth, I was drawn to depicting a shipwreck, coral reef, dolphin, tropical fish and a sand dollar for this Ace. Pentacles are also associated with the physical/career/wealth and the sea produces a wealth of abundance for Australia on so many levels. having the shipwreck shows how fickle our lives can be and all can be lost if we don't take care - "... as easily as it is given, so too, can it be taken away ..."

Before designing anymore Aces, my next painting would concentrate on the back of the cards. The feeling was strong to have a backing for every card and so I wanted something that would encapsulate what was being conveyed throughout the entire deck - namely Australia. As with all my cards, the finalised Deck may appear slightly different, more uniform. Different, as in clearer pictures and more uniform borders. Some of the photographs I have taken make the paintings a little washed out and yet using flash obliterates some detail. So I will retake all the cards in a well light room and then make sure the borders are uniform.

My idea was to share some of the cards now to give people and idea of what the cards will look like and an impression of the Tarot deck. The backing depicts the map of Australia surrounded by water. The map itself depicts the fact that Australia is rich in many metals, minerals and ores as well as being full of spirit.

The above picture of the back of the cards do not depict the shine of the metallic paints I have used very well, such as copper, rose gold and gold, in the final printed deck this will be much clearer. I have decided on the title for the Tarot Deck, Spirit Of Australia.

Once the back was designed I then designed the Ace of Cups. This card shows a drover resting by a campfire, his horse in the background, his dog in the foreground, gum trees, river and mountains in the back as the day draws to a close. The drover has a billy cup in his hands (blue), he is also staring out beyond where he is sitting almost in contemplative mood. You will note as with the Ace of Pentacles (the sand dollar), the cup isn't very large. For me it was about the essence of the theme of the whole Tarot deck telling it's story rather than individual cards telling their story. The colours in this card are a little more washed out than the original painting, so it appears more flat than it is and some of the detail is lost, this will be repaired in the final deck print.

Using Tarot decks for divination purposes having a theme with a story is important, it assists with aiding a reader's intuition for the sitter, as I said earlier traditional Rider-Waite cards depicted the suits very much like playing cards depict their suits and many beginner's reading Tarot use these cards. However, the demand for other decks for intuitive divination is rising. Most stay with the traditional names of the suits to aide all Tarot readers, who have used traditional Tarot decks with their readings. My final Tarot deck will change all but one of the names of the suits again to be revealed in the final printed version.

Why change the names? For me it's about fitting the theme for the whole deck - an overall Holistic view rather than wanting to change them because I have that option, however due to the depictions of the pictures in the suits, the trouble that some readers have when the suits names have been changed, will not interfere with it's divination as the symbols I have chosen are similar to the traditional symbols. Also, there will be a book with the Tarot deck to help everyone familiarise themselves with the deck.

The last Ace to produced is the Ace of Swords. Again sticking with the theme rather than tradition, I have used a fishing spear used to catch fish. To use one of these spears takes great intellect, dexterity, a certain knowing, careful movement and an element of surprise. So, it not only fits the traditional divination of the Ace of Swords but also adapts itself to the Theme.

These are the only cards I am going to reveal to give you an idea of what the full tarot deck will look like, the rest will be revealed in the final published deck, as will the book. I am also considering producing bags for the Tarot deck and a cloth for reading at some stage. Also introducing special collectors editions with the book, Full deck of Tarot, reading cloth, bag in a special wooden box. Possible some special Mercahndise too.

For Now Enjoy the Video of the cards I am revealing music has been provide by DJ Puzzle aka David Donnelly.

Everything painted helps to improve and sharpen my skills

Whislt I paint on a fairly regularly basis, not all my paintings reach the satisfaction bar, however that doesnt stop me putting the paint brush down and leaving the painting well alone. I critique my own paintings, always striving to improve on a particular technique or to get a better effect. The more I paint, the more I practise, the more opportunities for situations to arise for me to critique and improve.

Some of the paintings, I put to one side because I get too precious about them and fiddling with them will only make the painting become the disaster I'm trying to avoid, so they get shelved till it's ready to bring them out and complete. Others are completed but haven't quite made the grade for me. I recently painted a "Fairy Castle-esque" type painting and whilst I liked its composition, something about it urked me.

 

I like the concept and the floating Island idea but for me the castle is more squat then elongated, some shadows are missing, the ligtening is not realistic enough, it may sound like I'm nit picking yet these things are important to me. Perhaps I will revisit this painting.

Some paintings I have created have been very monochrome - so using just one colour and various degrees of that colour, however, they have turned out to be quite washed out and not quite how my mind envisaged them.

This one for instance is a dessert scene, with water very faintly to the left hand side of the picture and higher hills behind the darken dunes in the distance, plus some sand swills. The concept is there and there is room for improvement on this one. This painting was created at a time when I had not painted for many years, so lie the painting my style was very barren. this has been put away for at least 3 years.

Again after putting my brushes down and returning to painting with a more relaxed style of meditation painting I created the following painting:

This is a scene at sea and whilst I am not entirely unhappy with its composition, its still a bit wshed out for me - perhaps that's part of its charm. Perhaps this one will stay like it is.

Other paintings have been created for cathartic reasons, for instance I needed to shed some anger, which is an emotion that grates on me heavily, whilst I recognise it can be a useful emotion, for the most part it is a negative and destructive emotion and in this case it needed to be turned and churned out of me. The reason why I was angry is unimportant, getting rid of it was a challenge. So, I decided to use my Art and Photography as therapy tools and took a series of photographs of me screaming at the camera.

The screaming helped release the tension and I ended up laughing ... think about it ... you're in your living room, camera on a tripod, facing towards a mirror and screaming at the top of your voice, a deep elongated grunting screams, very tribal, very raw, emotion screaming at you and then you photograph it ... timing is everything ... and keeping your throat from getting sore is important ... yet this primal screaming exercise worked. To finish I furiously painted my portrait in blood red based on one of those photographs. Here's the painting ...

Here's the photograph it was based on ...

This is still unfinished, I chose vampire teeth as that side of things have fascinated me for some time and the hair will change, I think this is due to be finished. the eyes are skew deliberately as being angry had thrown me off kilter and they are slightly bloodshot to go with the feel of tremendous anger.

So, whilst all my paintings aren't as I like them to be, they are not entirely on the cutting floor, they can be amended, adapted, altered, changed, manipulated to make them more akin to my original concept and that's one of the things I love about art. Even better each painting helps with the evolution process and growth for me as an artist, just like my photography helps with my art skills too.