question for deck designers only

Aina said:

What software do you use for post production and borders? I just have power point.

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I'm still playing with a few. I think gimp is what i'll end up using, though...it's free shareware download...and more powerful than photoshop!

Mallah said:

Aina:
Here's a link to on offsite place where a lot of the deck is posted:

http://photobucket.com/wickwillowtarot

It's a bit messed up there...photobucket changed the way everything works, and my layout got all jacked up. But a lot of it's there. I haven't uploaded the rest of the swords or any of the cups yet. I've been away from a scanner for quite some time...I'll be uploading the rest of it in a week or so.

Here's a link to my deck creation thread....which i also haven't posted to because i wasn't getting much feedback:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=171257

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Wowee, thank you, Mallah, for sharing your deck images! I completely love your style, the colors and the stained glass thing. It's like the thing on church windows - very beautiful and I'm a fan of it. I love how you work with light, I can also sense the movement in those cards, like in high priestess, the hanged man is very nice and the fool is actually funny! Loved the empress in the woods with the animals. The mood was there. The greenery, the trees and the harp were so empress like. Your faces and some things were "not perspective wise" correct or so to say childish, but I want to encourage you to make people and their faces, animals and harp in a stained glass style as well. I'm not saying redo your deck. I appreciate the mood the most and it was amazing. In the future, however, if you would be bbrave enough to use the stained glass thing on your faces (a little cubism, everything is made of triangles, circles and squares), your painting would reach the full harmony. Don't be afraid to be yourself when painting. What you like best is your style and your mission. When talking about faces, you know the Aquarian tarot,,You know what I mean? They have the life of their own. Kinda. I just love your colors, compositions and the firmness of the rougher shapes. The high priestess was my favorite human and the moving psychedelic crowleysh symbolic compositions too. Would look great on cards!

Mallah said:

I'm still playing with a few. I think gimp is what i'll end up using, though...it's free shareware download...and more powerful than photoshop!

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Thanks, I'll check it out!

Mallah said:

Aina:
Here's a link to on offsite place where a lot of the deck is posted:

http://photobucket.com/wickwillowtarot

Click to expand...

They're really beautiful! And unlike what stained glass usually looks, they look really alive and breathing!

Aina said:

Would it be possible to see some of your stuff? You said "you like your art". Who on earth could like their art, lol? I mean the art should be really powerful

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OR the artist should be really lacking in objectivity - which is the case with me. When I try to look at my art objectively, I can see that it isn't really professional or original. But for me, it's very close and warm.

Though I might get brave one day and post some pictures of my 'nothing-special' Lenormand or even some of the Tarot cards - if they ever take some decent shape.

My style is stained glass "inspired" but unlike a deck like the Vetrate, it departs rather quickly. If you look at my fool and my Magician (ignoring the Magus' face, which is going to be changed, it sucks...) you will see the most stained glassy stuff...well, i guess the hermit is pretty stained glassy too. But also mosaic. But I'm not a trained artist, or even a practiced one. I've drawn on and off (mostly off) since I was a kid...but I'm more of a musician than an artist...

I did a Tarot 20 years ago...the whole thing...so this is my second.

It will be available...I've been planning on using gamecrafters, and possibly soliciting publishers with it, once it's "done".

Just a matter of getting it there.

I don't really enjoy listening to my own music...I don't know what I'll find about reading with my own Tarot.

Yes! A good friend helped me print a small run of my deck 6 or so years ago, and (if you've read The Golden Compass), I feel like I was given my very own alethiometer. I use my deck all the time now. I still use my other favorite, the Thoth deck, but I tend to use each deck for different purposes. I always use my deck when I am giving a reading to another person (I give much better readings with my deck) and primarily use the Thoth for my own readings and meditations.

Here's one of my cards (I'm about to do a professional printing run this fall of 2000 decks or more, which is really exciting):

http://www.cheimonette.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/T6.png

Actually, what I'm really interested in is how other people will use my cards, and what connections they will develop with them.

That is really lovely; thank you for your input and sharing your wonderful image...good luck with it!

I finished my artwork yesterday.

Wow, congratulations! It's such a huge project; you must be very proud. Where can I see your cards (or did you link to them earlier in the thread and I missed it?)

I only recently finished my deck (The Animism Tarot) but it is what I'm using to read now. One of the reasons I wanted to create a deck in the first place was because I had trouble learning tarot; so it was one of the ways for me to learn and grow. So now that I finally have the deck in my hands, I feel a lot more comfortable learning how to read because I'm using images that I'm now much more familiar with, and it's really something special to create a full tarot deck that I can use myself. Looking back at the deck now, I do see small things that I would want to change now and symbolism I could have gone deeper into, but I've kind of learned to accept it as a whole, and I know that I'm a bit of a perfectionist so if I had my way, the project would probably never be done because I'd constantly want to make changes! For now I'm still learning so this is definitely the deck I want to learn with.

I have created four decks now, but always go back to the bunnies (Rabbit tarot), they are easiest for me to read, but I have only had a copy of my new deck for a month, so we are getting better acquainted. I don't read for myself very often, but if I read for others it's always the bunnies. Friends always ask what the bunnies say.