Kees
Hey everyone! This is an idea I've been sitting on and slowly working at for the past few months, and I feel like I might soon be able to begin properly at last...!
Considering how popular and varied dinosaurs are I was very surprised there wasn't already a deck out there already. I've had a lot of fun so far getting up to date on my dinosaurs and polishing up my tarot interpretations. As an artist, a tarot reader and a dinosaur enthusiast I really want to accomplish a blend between a beautiful deck, a readable deck, and one that is up to date with current dinosaur findings or even a little speculative.
Of course, I don't want to cut off anyone who isn't well-read in current dinosaur information, and many dinosaurs will be difficult to identify just by looking at the card, so I am planning on making sure the card as a whole represents a theme while including an accompanying booklet which will go more in-depth on which dinosaurs I chose specifically. I hope to make something that is educational as well as useful.
I have not as yet finished any cards, because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing before jumping in, but at this point I have notes on and thumbnails for nearly all the majors, which are my main focus. I would love to do the minors but I don't want to halfass them, so I want to make sure I have solid ideas for how I'm going to handle the suits etc. first.
One thing I've decided to do is orient the cards landscape rather than portrait, as is traditional. I feel like the shape allows for the shapes of the animals better (since most dinosaurs are longer than they are tall), allows for more widescreen images to incorporate background elements, and when placed in a spread they feel like movie still or part of a story book, which makes reading very interesting.
Anyway, enough yakking--while I have not officially finished any cards, here are a few quick thumbnails (I haven't resized them to my template yet):
http://imgur.com/a/u8xBv
And here is a finished dinosaur painting which is not part of the tarot series but was used to practice the techniques and style I plan on using in the deck:
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/329/e/1/down_by_the_river_side_by_etomo-d87ocjh.png
Considering how popular and varied dinosaurs are I was very surprised there wasn't already a deck out there already. I've had a lot of fun so far getting up to date on my dinosaurs and polishing up my tarot interpretations. As an artist, a tarot reader and a dinosaur enthusiast I really want to accomplish a blend between a beautiful deck, a readable deck, and one that is up to date with current dinosaur findings or even a little speculative.
Of course, I don't want to cut off anyone who isn't well-read in current dinosaur information, and many dinosaurs will be difficult to identify just by looking at the card, so I am planning on making sure the card as a whole represents a theme while including an accompanying booklet which will go more in-depth on which dinosaurs I chose specifically. I hope to make something that is educational as well as useful.
I have not as yet finished any cards, because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing before jumping in, but at this point I have notes on and thumbnails for nearly all the majors, which are my main focus. I would love to do the minors but I don't want to halfass them, so I want to make sure I have solid ideas for how I'm going to handle the suits etc. first.
One thing I've decided to do is orient the cards landscape rather than portrait, as is traditional. I feel like the shape allows for the shapes of the animals better (since most dinosaurs are longer than they are tall), allows for more widescreen images to incorporate background elements, and when placed in a spread they feel like movie still or part of a story book, which makes reading very interesting.
Anyway, enough yakking--while I have not officially finished any cards, here are a few quick thumbnails (I haven't resized them to my template yet):
http://imgur.com/a/u8xBv
And here is a finished dinosaur painting which is not part of the tarot series but was used to practice the techniques and style I plan on using in the deck:
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/329/e/1/down_by_the_river_side_by_etomo-d87ocjh.png