Tarot Portraits

Well the title says it all... Am working a lot on drawing portraits lately. This would be a practice project more than an actual deck creation, I have been looking for diversion as a form of detachment.

These are portraits I am drawing of the characters in The Diary of a Broken Soul from each card. However, as this is essentially to hone my skills in drawing portraits, there won't be much symbolism involved so it will be quite boring I guess.

All images are in black and white, drawn using pen on paper.

8 of Clubs from DOABS

The original inspiration for the 8 of Clubs in Diary of a Broken Soul was Medusa but back then, I read about Medha being the Sanskrit equivalent and liked the idea of Medusa being a human woman with dreadlocks.

I read about the story of Medusa here but there will be more resources I'm sure.

Ash.

Your portrait is lovely. Took my breath...

She is beautiful. I had not seen your deck before now (probably the only person who hasn't.) It is wonderful, to say the least.

Lovely!

sacredashes said:

The original inspiration for the 8 of Clubs in Diary of a Broken Soul was Medusa but back then, I read about Medha being the Sanskrit equivalent and liked the idea of Medusa being a human woman with dreadlocks.

I read about the story of Medusa here but there will be more resources I'm sure.

Click to expand...

She is lovely! Would love to see more!

Your portrait is beautiful!

I am finishing up my own Tarot deck as well, and I made all of the court cards into portraits. For me, the court cards are all about personality, and I wanted an uncluttered portrait painting that focused on the expression of the face, rather than a pile of symbology to express the card's meaning. Are you thinking of doing something similar? I'm curious to learn more about your project. I am fond of more subtle meanings, and I don't think you need a lot of symbolism in order to suggest complex meaning.

littlespiritsdancing said:

Your portrait is lovely. Took my breath...

Click to expand...

JenWt43 said:

She is beautiful. I had not seen your deck before now (probably the only person who hasn't.) It is wonderful, to say the least.

Click to expand...

Margo9023 said:

She is lovely! Would love to see more!

Click to expand...

Thank you

cheimonette said:

Your portrait is beautiful!

I am finishing up my own Tarot deck as well, and I made all of the court cards into portraits. For me, the court cards are all about personality, and I wanted an uncluttered portrait painting that focused on the expression of the face, rather than a pile of symbology to express the card's meaning. Are you thinking of doing something similar? I'm curious to learn more about your project. I am fond of more subtle meanings, and I don't think you need a lot of symbolism in order to suggest complex meaning.

Click to expand...

Yes, I am currently working on achieving photo realism using a ball-point pen, its a personal challenge thingy and I made it the #1 goal on my bucket list as far as artistic growth is concerned..

This project is like killing 2 birds with 1 stone... In that, I would like to achieve photo realism in my artworks but at the same time, I would like to wander off to where the path takes me so I draw realistic looking portraits of people outside of reality. That was how the first deck was conceived, I drew real people in real situations in a make-believe landscape.

And yes, with this attempt,I will be using less symbols and focus more on feelings without words, actions.. Like how one would look at a loved one and "know" straight away what the person is feeling and that ability to understand without cluttering things up with sound or the need to fix things.. Its like a form of surrender, I think (this is all imo so its subjective) to be part of pain and sadness yet be apart from it... I focus on shadow work in my art coz, well... I feel if everything is fine and dandy, I wouldn't be having rough patches and its this process of exploring what isn't fine that will hopefully pull me out of hard times. Hope I am making sense...

Ash

Queen of Pentacles

Of all the Queens, only she who is made of flesh can feel.. can weep.. can make things better using whatever resources she has. Like a mother who works her hands to the bone to raise her family.. but noone knows what its like until they have walked a mile in her sandals..

"Dear Diary...

Tonight I feel like a porcelain doll broken beyond repair... Yet deep down I know there lies an ability to rise again...

Foster the light in this hour of darkness."

QofDiamonds

Your artwork is stunning.

I hope I can own a copy of your tarot some day. Any chance of it being reprinted?
I love black and white tarot decks, and yours is at the top of my wish list.

Just incredible!

You are SOOO TALENTED, SacredAshes! I looked at them and thought they were digitally manipulated photos! Then I saw you did this with...a pen! Just amazing. Can't wait to see more.