Opinions on the artwork for new deck please!

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52ravens
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Opinions on the artwork for new deck please!

Post by 52ravens »

Hey!

I’m creating a new tarot deck and wanted to get some opinions on the artwork.

The deck is called ‘The witches of the Crescent Moon’ and will be an all female deck, thought the card names will remain the same ;)

I’ve added ‘The Fool’ card below but please take a look at my Facebook page as I will be posting a new artwork each day.

https://www.facebook.com/WitchesOfTheCrescentMoon/

Once all the artwork has been completed I hope to launch on kickstater.com for funding but I wanted to get some opinions of the style or if you spot something I could be doing wrong as I’m not a tarot card user, just a designer haha.

Sorry if you’ve seen this post on another forum, I want to get as many eyes as possible, though it seems the tarot community is spread out after the closer of the biggest :(

Thanks for your time and please don’t hold back

Kirk


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Serpentwand
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Re: Opinions on the artwork for new deck please!

Post by Serpentwand »

It looks nice so far but you really ought to try reading cards, we have beginner's exchange circles, games, daily draw yourself a card and comment threads etc. :wave: .

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CharlotteK
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Re: Opinions on the artwork for new deck please!

Post by CharlotteK »

Thanks for sharing this here. It's wonderful to see artists' work.

Your Fool card is undeniably beautiful. Your technique is great and I love the colours and watercolour style. The texture of the paper is a nice touch too, as it the 'fade out'. Just lovely.

You've chosen some classic associations for the fool. I like the mountains in the distance and the expansiveness. We get a sense of an epic journey.

You've also chosen to deviate from some of the classic associations and I am intrigued why. These are decisions I would want to have explained in a companion book.

The moon is very unusual. It makes me wonder why she is embarking on a journey at night?

The fool is usually represented as innocence and folly, naive enthusiasm, a carefree attitude with little heed to potential danger, a childlike energy, the unformed mind... here your fool stands static looking out, more like the three of wands. We don't see her face, so we don't see her expression, just her body language which is cautious and holding back.

Here with the Morgan Greer we get a sense of cliff though we don't see the fool about to step off, but we see in the facial expression that sense of starting a journey full of carefree attitude and there is still a sense of movement about the fool. So it works.

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This image from the Aquarian - a deck I actually like a lot on the whole - I find much more difficult to associate with what the fool is all about. The facial expression is deadpan and serious (as everyone is in this deck). There is no animal nipping a warning at the fool to take care. It works much less well for me as a classic fool and if this card comes up when I'm working with this deck I tend to draw more on the archetype of the fool than I do the card imagery.

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I'd love to see more of your cards and please keep up the work because you have a wonderful style.

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52ravens
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Re: Opinions on the artwork for new deck please!

Post by 52ravens »

Hey!

Below is the adapted artwork, I wanted to get your opinions on this version before changing the woman/card completely. So now we have a cliff, she's stepping forwards, her arm is out and her head is slightly up and hopefully shows that she is a little carefree and oblivious to the danger. The wolf is looking up to suggest that the companion can see the impending danger. I did try to have the wolf pulling her back but it looked too aggressive for the tone of the artwork. I've kept the background as I feel it helps to show the journey ahead of the fool.

Thanks for you suggestions, it really does help

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Charlie Brown
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Re: Opinions on the artwork for new deck please!

Post by Charlie Brown »

Hey,

I actually started to write a pretty long entry yesterday's that was similar to Charlotte's but didn't end up posting. I agree that you might be well served to have a tarot-savvy person you can brainstorm with about the details of some of the cards, but I'd be wary about changing your art significantly based solely on one or two comments on an internet board. The new version does correspond more closely to some "foolish" qualities, but I think it's actually a weaker card. The original made me excited that the deck was going to be something a little different. Of course, different without being thought through wouldn't be much good.

Why do I prefer the original card? One, I just think the picture coheres a bit better but I also think there are some strengths that would bode well for your deck. I'm not much of an esotericist but from what I know about esoteric approaches to the tarot, the sun in The Fool card is actually the divine light (of Kether). The fool journey's through the deck/tree of life in a circular/cyclical fashion, each time making the same(ish) journey through a different elemental realm (fire, air, water, and down to earth). Because this is a moon deck, the fool is undertaking a journey that she may already be familiar with during the daytime, but now it's at night. She's left the realm of the divine (or more properly is exploring a new kind of divinity). All of this in combination with her original pose calls to me mind the existential, Kierkegaard-ian Leap-Of-Faith. She isn't blithe and trusting in gød's grace, she knows this is a bad idea. She's still going to do it. That's still a foolish act.

At the very least, I strongly preferred the girl's body language on the first card (and very much dislike that left arm/hand on the 2nd) for the "she knows this is bad" reason. I do prefer the cliff on the second and intellectually think it's a good idea to have moved the wolf, but in my heart I was sad to see him stop blocking her.
Charlie Brown
—“I’ve developed a new philosophy. I only dread one day at a time.”

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Charlie Brown
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Re: Opinions on the artwork for new deck please!

Post by Charlie Brown »

As an addendum, I do think it's a fair choice for a female-centered deck to portray the fool's choice in different terms—blundering confident man vs. whatever this is. But you do, I think, need to have a sense of how these differences will play out through the whole deck or else it will feel fake.
Charlie Brown
—“I’ve developed a new philosophy. I only dread one day at a time.”

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52ravens
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Re: Opinions on the artwork for new deck please!

Post by 52ravens »

Below are the next two cards, I'm hoping that I've got closer to the meanings for these compared to the fool. Let me know what you guys think and if there are any obvious problems. Thanks for all your help :D

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kyan
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Re: Opinions on the artwork for new deck please!

Post by kyan »

what lovely imagery — love the "grunge" aspect with the aging and textures and whatnot.

can''t say much about the proper/correct imagery for tarot (i'm a layman) but i do know that there is such a thing as a "day moon", and that not all moon sightings occur at nighttime.

i kinda like the first version of your fool card,,, because there's something about the dog/wolf (what a large animal!) being close and in front of the fool's legs... make it seems like it's there to prevent her from going over the edge.

anyway... gorgeous artwork. i'm not really interested an all-female deck myself, but can see the appeal.

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