LS Work in Progress

Wow, Riccardo, what a thrill to see these images! Drooool, I fell in love with the elephant version of the Knight of Cups. I'll be fascinated to see which one makes it.

AJ said:

On another note though Ric, will you remind your artists that everyone in the world is not 16 years old, thin, and beautiful. I would be really thankful if decks showed a full range of ages and some ethnicities

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This is an important notion, but I'm not sure I agree with you. ^_^
I mean there should be a lot to talk about on this subject... and I'm quite sure we would never reach a unified decision.

If we want Tarot to mirror "reality", or, as I would say, subjective reality (aka: one own experience) we would have to feature "real" people: age, physical imperfection, ethnics... But this work only for some decks, whose purpose or interpration key is through experience.
Other decks prefers to portray an idealized world... and therefore they try to focus on a physical representation of the human (and not human) being that is quite far from the real.
It is the same as for the "soul". Sometimes we choose to see a "real" person with all kinds of "soul" imperfection, to portray the High Priestess or Justice (see the Tarot of Jane Austen). Other times we choose an archetipical and perfect representation. Unreal expect as an idealization.

I would prefer not to assume that Tarot should focus on the real, but just that some decks should (and on those decks, we actually try that... I hope at least).
The way a deck "tells its story" is not so simple. There are many things that stay invisible behind the deck, and yet are so important to help our intuitition find a personal path on interpretation.

You must also consider that in Italy a multietnic sociaty is relatively new. Artist still have to adjust their perception and their imagination.
I tell you a story about the Gay Tarot. Lee Bursten asked for a card to be redrawn... (was it the 8 of Wands?) The card had been showing a few arcraft flying in formation over a landscape. And in the landscape there was a castle in ruin. Lee objected that the castle made the landscape "fantasy", while he wanted a real place in the real world. He was right, wasn't he? Yet, the castle actually was a real place, and it was exactly what Antonella Platano see every day looking out the window. ^_^

Big question, anyway, not easy to answer.

ric

p.s.
those was just 8 out of about 15 different sketches for the 4 Knights.
I will post the fianl cards, when they are final. (those are the 4 still uncompleted cards)

RiccardoLS said:

Here a few more "teasers" from a few more decks.

This is a totally different planet. Art by Luca Russo.
The coming deck is definitely more structured, but we decided to let Luca as much free as possible regarding composition and posture, to facilitate his work and the rendering of feeling. It is a dark and alluring deck. I would not say gothic, but maybe unselie. Is it about fairies or angels? I really don't know.

And last, two twins card by Marco Nizzoli for a deck we have not yet decided how to name it.
Right now, I'm calling it in my head: Tarot of the Enchantress Dream.

Take care,

ric

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These two decks look like something I'd like very much to have!

~Lexie~

Wow, thanks Riccardo , for showing so many intriguing pics! I'd never thought that there might be more than two or three versions of one card, but so many!!!! And they are also so different!! Wow.

I'm really looking forward to Marco Nizzoli's deck, I liked what I've seen. The first one had some similarities to the Moon card from his Secret Tarot.

Astraea Aurora

Astraea Aurora said:

Wow, thanks Riccardo , for showing so many intriguing pics! I'd never thought that there might be more than two or three versions of one card, but so many!!!! And they are also so different!! Wow:

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This is certainly an exception and not the norm:
the high number of sketches as well as they referring to a bundle of 4 cards, rather than a single one.

Even as the deck is created as a "living thing", you need sometimes to limit its freedom of expression. In that case, the risk was that the passage between numerals and court cards was a little too fluent and smooth. It was important, however, even in this deck, not to force the court cards into auratic images (the king on a throne of stone), but yet to have them different, and flow (flow of consciousness) ona different level and with a different "wavelength" than the numerals.
The Knights, as they are the more structured of the Courts (a King may be sitting everywhere, but the knights, to be recognizable as such, needs to ride something), were the key of this "mirroring" we did with Cristina. And they remained the last card to be completed, even if some if those sketches are quite old.

What I want to say that the number of sketches and studies depends not just on the individual card, but more on the work process that is behind the deck (and the work process is different from deck to deck, depending on indivduality and purpose).

ric

RiccardoLS said:

the risk was that the passage between numerals and court cards was a little too fluent and smooth. It was important, however, even in this deck, not to force the court cards into auratic images (the king on a throne of stone), but yet to have them different, and flow (flow of consciousness) on a different level and with a different "wavelength" than the numerals.

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That is interesting, I would never have of that. For my part, the courts are often "mute" cards for me, sometimes when I get them in a reading, I just say "next" until I get a card I can read. I KNOW I'M A CHEATER.... (so shoot me). LOL. But if court cards are as imaginative as those drawings it will be a really powerful reading deck.

What I love about what I see in those sketches is (the same as what I loved about the Fey, and many other recent tarot decks, like the Mona Lisa) is the image tells a story in progress with multiple possibilities - they are not static. IN the case of the elephant version of the knight of cups -- wow, so much going on, things you could read into it - where they've come from, how they got there, where they're going (how did they get into this mess?) etc., so much more to work with than the ordinary court card. You guys must have had a lot of fun putting these together, no?

firemaiden said:

Drooool, I fell in love with the elephant version of the Knight of Cups.

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DITTO!! That card featuring the elephant is AMAZING! Love image #2 also, with the rag-doll horse! I cannot wait to see more of the Sweet Twilight images as they are finished!!! I'm absolutely in love with the whimsical style of what I've seen so far! Thanks for the sneak preview!

Very interesting directions for all those decks. I also love the little glimpses of the future.

Thank you Ric!

I return to the Knights subject.
Here are three additional Knigths that were done while trying to find a way.





Personally I fall short regarding the Court Cards when I use the *so called* traditional meanings. Court Cards mean phisical persons? Elemental embodiments? Family Archetipes? All and nothing...
Mostly I don't like the way the "meaning of the cards" is used as a sobstitute of the way you read cards.

My personal favorites s to link the 4 Court Cards orders with four different dynamics:
Knave = learning
Knight = action
Queen = perception
King = control
I can then work the court easily into a structural pattern with the other minors.

Getting back in topic, when you design the structure of the deck, the court cards are very tricky.
They must usually be among the most recognizable cards (on a throne, riding an horse) and, as in the majors, you need to focus on the charatcer rather than on the scene depicted.
And yet you need to give them a living spark... one that was not needed in more traditional decks that worked with a much more rational (as opposed to intuitive) system than the modern decks.

When we talk with new artists and writers, we usually ask them to make the Court Cards well different from the minors. They must *rule them all* (and in the darkness bind them. Ops not. that was another thing)... but how this rule is conveyed... it is a different journey every time.

ric

Here is a sneak peak of a Tarot for 2009.
Working title seems to be "Tarot of the Enchantress Dream".
Artwork is by Marco Nizzoli

Samples are of poor quality, but the graphical layout may be almost definitive.
www.loscarabeo.com/files/Samples_Enchantress.pdf

best,

ric