Did Pixie do the coloring of the RWS?

Zephyros

I'll see your meta and raise you another. I've noticed a distressing and tiresome trend of practically canonizing PCS, attributing qualities that make her seem almost like an actual pixie. Contemporary evidence seems to point that the pictures were not the result of some enlightened, spiritual, channeled process, but rather a talented artist doing her job. One could argue all inspiration is divine, but suddenly she has all these gifts and powers and insights and whatever... but whether she did listen to classical music while painting or not, why would all that be necessary to just do a good job?

At this point, were someone to comment that PCS was in the habit of turning water into wine, I wouldn't be the least surprised.
 

tarotbear

At this point, were someone to comment that PCS was in the habit of turning water into wine, I wouldn't be the least surprised.

No need for making wine - Pixie only drank tea - I'm sure! <sticking tongue out at closrapexa>

But I have to meta-agree - the false mega-aura surrounding Pixie gets bigger and better every single day. But just like Van Gogh, Seurat, Mozart - she died penniless in obscurity and if it wasn't for the RWS - NO ONE would care about her artwork.
 

Richard

......I've noticed a distressing and tiresome trend of practically canonizing PCS, attributing qualities that make her seem almost like an actual pixie.......At this point, were someone to comment that PCS was in the habit of turning water into wine, I wouldn't be the least surprised.
The commentators who attribute these qualities to her mostly seem like fortune tellers using their "intuition." Intuition is not a reliable substitute for objective biographical or historical facts.
 

Metafizzypop

I'm going to go against the grain and say that she did not color in the cards, but supplied only line drawings. I recall reading this somewhere, but I'm sorry, I can't remember where. However, if she did only the drawings, it would explain why there are so many variations on this deck and the way it's colored in. There's the yellow box US games edition. And there's the Albano-Waite, with a completely different color scheme. And there are the Original and the Commemorative. And some others I've seen over the years. Always with the same drawings, but different paint jobs. If PCS colored in the cards, which might be the case, then which version did she do? Or do all these versions exist because she colored none of them, leaving the process to the printers and publishers?

Also, the Dutch version of the RWS deck is completely black and white. They didn't bother to color anything at all.

http://www.tarotgarden.com/database/images/r-decks/rwdutchcards.gif

Even more bizarre are the De Laurence variants, which use black ink plus one other color, and the other color is just whatever was laying around the print shop on any given day. Tarot Garden shows all these decks I've mentioned.
 

Zephyros

Well, back to the topic, I don't know if the colors would have even been that big a feat in any case, not for someone who's job it is to do that. In some respects I think the RWS images have become so ubiquitous so as to cause people to not really look at them, by which I mean they're not that good, and do indeed show a low price and rushed pace. Even when compared to her other work, like here, one can see just how detailed and elaborate she could get, qualities that are all but absent from the deck. When comparing the two styles, I think it becomes obvious she colored the cards herself.

Not that I'm saying she shouldn't be commended for what she did... but Waite got what he paid for.
 

ravenest

Pixie, in looks (physically) and what I read about her reminds me so much of an artist I knew at school. I had not realised what a genius she was until I saw her 'work book' for the school play; 'Orpheus in the Underworld' - she was the costume and set designer.

In her book was little paintings of each costume from various views, the costume on the characters in various poses with notes, scene paintings of the costume and set effects; then all the costume patterns laid out with measurements and hints on making them, suggestions for material patterns (with little squares depicting the type of pattern or material required , painted ... heaps of text written in little block letters, each hand painted with a tiny fine paint brush with the more significant text having each letter dual coloured with a 'shadow'. ... Pages and pages and pages ... with all the text hand painted. All within a few months ... from a teenage girl ... doing all these other artworks at the same time, whatever else she was doing and studying for her final exams.

She was extremely eccentric and always carried a folded frilly parasol and a frilly hankie that she used to 'accidently drop' on the floor when she went past boys - who all thought she was absolutely mad and wouldnt go near her - or stomp or spit on the hankie ... except me, I would rush to pick it up and hand it to her "You dropped your hankie M'am". Then she would take it in hand and and use it to shield her lower face feigning embarrassment - considering the time and place ... totally crazy ... but an absolute genius.

I would estimate that she would have been able to finish a card, painted and coloured similar standard and technique, to a RW card, in a couple of hours, probably less. I painted a series of Enochian Tablets it took around 98 hours all up, people used to look at them and think it would have taken a LOT longer.

Also, output was different then - look at all the Books written by people like Waite and Crowley ... more 'time' was available then ....... no internet, phones, television ... all that stuff we seem to now spend 1/2 our lives with.
 

tarotbear

Well, back to the topic, I don't know if the colors would have even been that big a feat in any case, not for someone who's job it is to do that.

All I can say is - take one of the B/W RWS images and print it off on your printer, then go back and color it in with anything you have on hand - felt tip pens, markers, colored pencils, watercolors, etc., --- and SEE HOW LONG IT TAKES YOU. Just because someone is a 'professional' and may have gone to school for such things does not imbue them with superpowers where they can knock out a full color drawing in 10 minutes. Moving a brush point or a pencil tip around teeny leafs takes time and patience.

I am no artist - and I admit it. But to go from one of my B/W images to a completed color version using a PC (which doesn't need time to dry between colors) can take me up to 8 hours or more depending on how complicated the card is ... and that does not take in what it took to draw or clean up the image before colorization.

Example - a rather simple B/W image before and after its digital colorization (and my PC can enlarge the image up 800% for me to color it in):
 

Attachments

  • Wands 004R.jpg
    Wands 004R.jpg
    49.3 KB · Views: 196
  • Wands 004G.jpg
    Wands 004G.jpg
    57.8 KB · Views: 181

tarotbear

"Strictly Supernatural" - tarot video

Narrated by Christopher Lee, no less!

Took me a while to find this. If you go to the 35-36 minute mark Stu Kaplan discusses Pixie. HOWEVER - she is painting the 3 Swords but I don't think it's historically accurate and that 'visions while she listened to music' stuff - I don't think is part of the RWS. What Kaplan says and what the producers filmed do not necessarily go together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVJtaaVWznc
 

Luna-Ocean

I am no artist - and I admit it. But to go from one of my B/W images to a completed color version using a PC (which doesn't need time to dry between colors) can take me up to 8 hours or more depending on how complicated the card is ... and that does not take in what it took to draw or clean up the image before colorization.

Example - a rather simple B/W image before and after its digital colorization (and my PC can enlarge the image up 800% for me to color it in):

I agree i have done paintings on a large size canvas and that took me nearly two weeks to complete so i would imagine each of Pamela's paintings would of been in the same time restrictions depending on what scale she had originally been working on? but if you take a closer look at each card image there wasn't alot of colour variations being used on all the Minor cards i would say only few shades of colour to each card.
 

Richard

......I am no artist - and I admit it. But to go from one of my B/W images to a completed color version using a PC (which doesn't need time to dry between colors) can take me up to 8 hours or more depending on how complicated the card is ... and that does not take in what it took to draw or clean up the image before colorization......

It took me at least 8 hours to color a typical BOTA card using watercolor.
 

Attachments

  • bota_wc_empress.jpg
    bota_wc_empress.jpg
    81.9 KB · Views: 187
  • bota_wc_lovers.jpg
    bota_wc_lovers.jpg
    66.8 KB · Views: 175