The Heron in the Bog

"The Heron" Loteria Card

La Garza or "The Heron"
This image really fought me when I tried to format it in the loteria template.  The image is very exacting.  The Heron is pictured coming out of a bog.  Swamp plants and slime are covering the bird's legs and dripping from the bird's body.  Higher up on the figure, the bird is clean and noble.
The meaning behind this card is clear when viewed in this context.  The bird is somehow able to exist in the bog without being corrupted by it.  I worked like crazy to see if I could find a happy medium where the bird would no be blocked by the scroll.  I should have saved my energy.  No matter how I put it, the scroll blocks a significant part of the bird.
Still, it does work out well the way it looks now.  As a last ditch effort, I flipped the image so that the bird was facing to the left.  The only thing that did was make it so the bird's large beak impaled the card number and suit overlay hovering in the top left corner.  Grrrr.
Even so.  I think this came out well and adhered closely with the original design.

The Drunk Loteria

"The Drunkard" Loteria Card

The Drunkard

This loteria card features the image of a drunkard staggering while holding a bottle.  There are many small but significant features to this painting which reveal the designers intent.  Instead of just showing a drunk in shabby clothes, the legs of the figure are bent almost into "S" shapes.  This makes sense because the to missionaries who designed the "Pope's Deck" were showing a man transforming into Pan.
The legs of the figure are turning into the cloven hooves of a Bacchian reveler.  The hair of the figure is mussed until the disordered curls start to resemble horns.  The face is turned away but appears to be almost featureless.  This has led to some speculation that the image is a representation of a golem. 
This is unlikely because the golem has its origin in Jewish folklore and wouldn't be a subject that Catholic missionaries would choose to focus on for their loteria deck.

Hard Eight Loteria Card

"The Hand" Loteria Card

"The Hand" loteria card is one of the most enticing to do because of the subject matter.  The image itself is simple, a hand.  But when considering that the hand is a favorite subject of artists and is used for building technique, than suddenly this card becomes a real joy to do.
There are many different styles of "La Mano" from various decks, but the ones that I was most drawn to feature a simple hand in all its intricate detail.
I've posted this card graphic here and will also include it on the in depth loteria site later.

Although it may not be obvious due to the small size of this image, I've found a solution to a problem I was having with Photoshop.  When the image is flattened to appear as a .jpg, the layer effects of the number in the upper left corner were removed.  This made the number to appear more simple and less clearly defined than I wanted.  I was convinced that it was a problem in the way I was applying layer effects but the fix was more simple than I could have imagined.  I  just needed to view the image full sized before flattening.  This allowed the layers to be rasterized without losing any detail.  I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to find away around this before finding the solution online.

Bad Moon Rising Loteria

"The Moon" Loteria Card

On first glance it appears that some images which appear in the standard deck of Tarot cards are repeated in loteria.  The Moon, or "La Luna" is one of them.  Since this is a universal image, it really shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to see it here.  However there are enough differences between the forces and readings behind the images to stress that these cards have almost nothing in common.
The Moon in the loteria deck shows a round face radiating malice while human figures are falling below.

For the somewhat grim warnings which can be taken from this card in fortune telling spreads, please check A Talent For Raw's main site.