2 of Wands

2 of Wands

I really wanted to make sure that I did justice to this image, but I still catch myself thinking that I could have done better.

The main image is of a woman turning into a tree, and a tree into a woman.  The woman is seated on a rock on the shore of a turbulent sea of blood.  The sky above is grey and overcast showing a storm is brewing but also a somber season which matches the gory tide.  There is moss on the stone but that is more to indicate the slick surface rather than a sign of vibrant life.

"Fortune/Trouble" is the indicator of this card.  Fortune in this case indicates something positive coming from turmoil.  This isn't fortune as a part of an overall good aura to life or activity, rather fortune which comes in spite of the difficulties of life.

"Trouble" is mortal in nature.  Not necessarily the risk of bodily harm.  More a sense of stress and anger which takes away a person's human nature and dignity.  Trouble in this case is more serious than just the usual twists and turns of life.  Its the sort of trouble which can cause a person to become someone they hate.

I made sure that there was a border around the woman and the sea to show that she isn't in the sea, but set apart from it.

Two of Swords

2 of Swords

Of all the cards, this image is the one that runs the risk of not fitting into the visual theme of the deck.  I struggled to find another image which worked with the reading of "Unity/Lies", but kept coming back to the Zulu warriors.  Here is my thinking behind it.

Unity is talking about the human condition, not the term used on design or construction.  By unity it is indicating that the element of people working together, for right or wrong.  The tribal framework of Zulu society is perfect to demonstrate this aspect.  Community, neighbors, tribe.  And incredibly strong unit of people with great potential.

This shouldn't be taken to mean that the potential is good.  It can be horrifying.  The focus of the 'unity' aspect in a reading should stay on the potential.

Lies are generated from outside this group, not between members.  If the group is being lead two dark matters or self-destructive actions it is based in external influences, not internal ones.

2 of Pentacles

2 of Pentacles

The two of Pentacles here is depicted with Sunny Elizabeth!  Ha ha!  I had a hard time resisting using her as the image and finally decided the chance was too good to pass up.  The theme of the card is "Mirth/Misery" and at the time we were cast in the Wrightwood outdoor performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".  She was the leading lady Hermia but was also cast as a fairy for some of the shows.  This meant that she had to learn lines indicating heartache and anguish as well as lines and dances showing merriment.  It was almost like it had been scripted for this card.

She was the blue fairy which kept her character separate from other fairies like Cobweb and Mustard Seed.  She wore a flowing blue gown and found some jewels that she could apply to her cheeks and eyelids.  The show was outside, so when the sun hit the jewels the effect was stunning.

I gave her a halo of butterflies and crown of wildflowers to indicate the nature aspect of her figure.  To tell the truth, I don't think she was to happy to suddenly find herself as the image on the card, but by the time she could lodge a complaint it was too late.  The image was etched and the cards were on their way to the publisher.  That is my take on mirth.

Like the feminine aspect cards, the lavender color as a background indicates the female influence.  The crown is made from ferns which mimic the "Chaos" card, which indicates that mirth has a wild and uncontrolled quality.

2 of Cups

2 of Cups

The "Dead Man's Hand" tarot deck is complete and can be found here.  Published!  Successful Kickstarter!  This has been a great experience!

I'm going to use this blog for giving a quick update on the images that I used in the deck, as well as what the thinking was behind every design.  For a full guide to reading the Dead Man's Hand tarot as well as tarot deck specific games, I'll be using the main atalentforraw website.

This card is for "Harmony/Rupture"  Harmony more in the sense of energies and plans coming together, people living well together and supporting each other.  I used the musical flute to indicate a musical harmony, but that is more a cue to the reader about the meaning of the card than something which should be taken literally.  The 'rupture' element is depected by having fire ants appear through the fingering and frets.

Fire Ants are perfect for 'rupture', but keep in mind that no society is as harmonious as an ant colony.  Although their lives are hard and short, the entire existence of the colony rests on harmony between each individual.

Lucha VaVoom Playing cards published and ready for sale!

The official site for buying the cards is here.

The cards look fantastic and I'm glad to finally put them up for sale at my favorite card publisher.

Lucha VaVoom Playing Cards

Wheel of Fortune

Destiny/Doom.  Nothing like setting the bar high with a Major Arcana card!  Talk about lots of fiddily little levels and planes.  Yes, I nearly went blind doing the texture work on this one, but I also knew that it would be worth it in the long run.  Ideally, I'd like the Minor Arcana cards to have just as much detail as the Major Arcana, if not more.

I've noticed that Tarot Decks tend to slide in artistic quality for the lower level suits, and this is a shame because the chance of a Major Arcana card appearing in a reading is less than a Minor Arcana card.  This means that when you're getting your fortune read, it's easy to wait in anticipation for Major cards and just gloss over the Minor.  Well that stops with this deck!  Every card will have something special to them!  The Wheel of Fortune insisted on being a showstopper though.  I'm admiring it while I rub the cramps out of my fingers!

Kickstarter Launched!

Tarot Deck Kickstarter

I just couldn't wait any longer, so the Kickstarter campaign is launched!  Fingers crossed, but it looks like the Last Call deck will become a reality!

This is a first for me.  I love the Kickstarter concept and I love making cards.  The two things are being brought together and I couldn't be happier.  For anyone who hasn't done a Kickstarter, I encourage you to give it a shot.  The site is designed for simplicity so you can focus on your project instead of marketing.  How cool is that?

And we've already found backers!  Thank you guys!  You are awesome!

Before the art hits the computer

King of Wands: Ascension Tarot

If there is one thing that I've learned before starting an art project, it is to plan everything out in advance.  This is true for the deck I'm making because any layout decisions will have to be carried through for each of the 72 upcoming cards.  So good decisions will help me for the rest of this project, or haunt me every step of the way.

To keep everything going smoothly and to limit the possibility that I'll have to go back and rework a bunch of stuff, I spent a lot of time deciding on the layout for the cards.  This is a project that I've wanted to do for awhile, and not just for grins.  I want the end result to mean something.  It has to do more than just look, good and pretty.  It has to successfully fulfill mechanical functions as well as aesthetic ones.

This deck must:
1) Have the suit and numbers easily visible and readable at a glance.
2) The suit and numbers must be in the upper left corner of each card
3) The suit icon must be immediately obvious, so as not to be confused with another suit.
4) Suits must be colored red and black, and have each icon unique and clear against the background.
5) Minor Arcana and Major Arcana must be equal in their level of visual interest.
6) Each card must have a scroll and the scroll have text large enough to be read easily

Here is the real genius of this project.
Anyone who has had a tarot reading has noticed that tarot cards are divided up into two groups: major and minor arcana.  Whether they know it or not, the mind puts these into groups of importance.  So when a minor arcana card comes into the reading, the person is tempted to dismiss it as less important than a major arcana card.  This is misleading because for the reading, all cards are of equal importance.  But when you see cards that have descriptions of "Death" and "The Devil", it's hard to explain that something like "3 of pentacles" has the same weight in the reading.
I'm going to address this by making sure that every card has something eye-catching and impressive about it, no matter what arcana suit it is.  This will be nice because it seems a shame to just outright dismiss a card because it's not "The Tower" or "The Emperor".  Since the cards could potentially be used for divination, I'm hoping that every card that appears in a spread is visually interesting.

Ace of Wands: Ascension Tarot Deck

Ace of Wands

This is going to be the starting point for the tarot deck I am creating.  For a long time, and I really mean a LONG time, I've thought how great it would be to have a tarot deck designed that could be easily used for card games.

Everyone who has handled a deck of tarot cards before knows that the suits and numbers of tarot match very well with the standard poker deck.  The obvious thing to do next is to play card games with tarot cards because they are more fun to look at and are more exotic than the usual hearts-and-club suits.  In fact, almost all games can be played using tarot cards instead of Hoyle.

The difficulty arrives when the cards are held in the hand.  Standard playing cards have the number and suit markers in the upper left corner, so that when the cards are fanned out in the hand they are all immediately identified.  This makes matching very easy.  Tarot cards are designed differently.  In addition to being a longer and thinner dimension than standard cards, the suit indicators are normally at the top or bottom.  In short, playing card games with tarot cards isn't as intuitive.

This difference rules out tarot games because of ease of use.  If you can't tell immediately what the cards in your hand are, matching and playing becomes more difficult and less fun.  So towards that end, I'm creating a deck using standard sized cards and normal suit markers.  Yes, the symbol will be different as in the pictured example above, but seeing what suit you are holding is easy.  Fanning the cards in your hand is just as simple as normal and the only difficulty facing me so far is coming up with all the artwork for such a large deck!

New Cards?

Actually, yes!  I've been tossing around the idea of a deck of tarot cards which can double as a playing card deck for awhile, and I think the time has finally come to make this idea a reality.  I've got a format and layout completed, and decided on a style that would be fun to do for 70+ cards, and yet can realistically be accomplished in a time frame that keeps this project from being a neverending slog.  Stay tuned, and I'll keep posting updates!

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Lucha VaVoom Card Deck COMPLETE!

I did it!  It's actually done!  All 52 cards done as well as two Crazy Chicken jokers.  This deck looks great and I can't wait to see what it's like when it comes back from the publisher.
I'll admit that there was a huge gap between the start of this project and the conclusion.  I completed about 80% of the cards within a month, but the remaining face cards just took forever to get the motivation back.  This was a problem because some of the techniques that I used for the illustrations were complex and by the time I'd returned to this project I'd forgotten the exact steps.  This was critical to get right because a complete deck needs to have a united look between cards.  It didn't take me that long to replicate some of the effects, but it was touch and go there for awhile.
The hardest cards were the jokers, because those were almost completely freehand.  Even though I'm going for a slick 'poster' style for the face cards, I wanted the characters to be instantly recognizable to anyone who has seen a VaVoom match in person.

Nailed it.

The cards have been uploaded to the Game Crafter and I'm just waiting around by the mailbox for the delivery.  I'll post pix when they arrive.

South Pacific Meets the High Desert

This year I appeared in the VVC projection of South Pacific!  Suddenly I've got a few plays under my belt so when I say that this projection was the most elaborate, I'm speaking with a bit of experience.  The sets were massive and beautiful, the costumes were authentic and visual spectacles on their own, and the music was exceptional.  This was a play which featured live music.  I've done Music Man and Pirates which both features a full orchestra in the pit and many of the musicians were appearing again for this performance.  They really went all out to give the audience a treat and performed perfectly.  I still am amazed with how well they can play when they are in such cramped quarters.
Kirstie had the lead for a show and without question it was the best performance of the run.  She is extremely talented and not only nailed all the musical numbers (which I knew she could do) but was the best actress on stage by far.  I'll say it right now, she brought me to tears.  That isn't easy to do, especially with this play.
The story is dated and doesn't hold up that well.  It really doesn't.  There is a train of thought which dictates that stories which are considered classics are above scrutiny.  I can understand where this mentality comes from but when performing the play it's impossible not to read it with a critical eye.  The actor is tasked with developing and portraying characters and so it falls to reason that they will read the scrip to find out what drives their characters.  What is the character's core?  In the case of South Pacific, the core of many characters isn't that deep.
They are happy to be together, working quietly and docily, dying when ordered and otherwise not thinking too much.  This keeps the story skipping along, but doesn't provide many hooks for empathy, at least for anyone with discernment.  Kirstie somehow manages to infuse her character with emotional weight that she carried the story past some tedious points, and did it with ease and grace.  It was awesome!

Hopeful in the City of Hope

  Yes, it does sort of take me down a peg when I see that my last entry was from last year.  But one thing I've found from doing this online journal is that everything should be looked at from a long term perspective.  Months between entries is a drag, but at the same time the blog does have updates.   And that alone makes it worth while.
  Right now I'm at the City of Hope.  Not for me, thankfully, but for a friend.  A couple I know are unable to do much driving and long trips like the one encountered between Victorville and City of Hope are out of the question.  But because of a medical condition (cancer, yuck), my friend requires weekly trips down the pass to be checked out.  I'm more than happy to do this because I personally like driving and he's a heck of a guy in his own right.  There is something about driving that I find soothing and trips at night or early morning are very relaxing experiences for me.  So this is a match that is working out well.  I get to mess around in the medical library while he gets poked and prodded.  I think that everyone would agree that I'm getting the better end of this deal.
As far as art projects are concerned, I'm cranking through the Lucha deck.  I still have about two suits of face cards to complete before I send the artwork to the publishers.  This project worked out well and although it did take longer than I'd expected it was still something that I'm proud of.  I'm looking for two types of models.  Beefcake for the Kings and Jacks, acrobatic gymnasts for Queens and Aces.   What I didn't anticipate was that Lucha VaVoom rotates their roster quickly and so there are some new faces that I can draw from.  This also means that in all likelihood there are going to be cards I create which feature people no longer on the wrestling circuit.  This made me concerned at first, but I think it is going to be alright.
  Some Lucha wrestlers are more iconic than tied to an individual.  No matter who the actual wrestler under the title "Dr. Maldad" is, everyone will recognize "Dr. Maldad".  The women are another story.  Most of the dancers and performers who are women will appear under their own name, which means that some cards will have women who are long gone from the show.  However if I know guys, and at this point I think I have a solid grasp on the subject, they won't care.  A card depicting a cute woman will be popular no matter if the subject is currently on the venue.