Deck of the Dreamers 2010

EthanJamesPetty

Thanks!
 

SakuraFae

EthanJamesPetty said:
I feel a little bit like the boy who cried wolf because I had started a long-dead thread here years back where I was starting a card revamp. However, I wasn't 100% happy with it, but now that I've got much more capability to acheive my vision, I'm starting it up again!

The Deck of the Dreamers was a complete deck (major and minor) about 10 years ago, but suffered from weak artwork, some missing symbolism, and extremely low resolution. I plan to remake the entire thing, keeping what worked, scrapping what didn't and adding the small details to better match the intent of the tarot card. I am posting here because this community was a big help to me in the past and I'd love any feedback you have.

I've posted the entire original low-res deck as well as the new HD artwork at http://www.somethingseeps.com . I guess what I'd like to know, from anyone who is interested in this deck, is which of the old cards just don't work at all (for example, I will likely do a total remake of the Lovers, the Devil, and Temperence), which cards I should try to keep the same, or any blatantly missing/wrong symbolism that hurts the meaning of the card. As you'll see, I have a work in progress section for the card I'm currently working on, so the symbolism comments would probably be most useful for the current card. I appreciate any feedback you can give me!

The expression in your artwork has definitely grown, I love the intensity you've pulled in with the new Magician and I'm looking forward to seeing the depth behind the hermit. Great idea with him coming straight out from the card with the light ahead and dark behind. The way you've depicted temperance is alluring as well. You're artwork gives a new spin in a classy way without wandering too far from what I'm used to seeing in decks.

I use lots of colors and background images to pop out at me when reading. Although it may not be your style, and I respect that and like what you've done with or without my feedback, you asked and I say "Don't forget about the background, it may just be an extra swirl or different _hand_ but much like looking at clouds... things sometimes pop out of the background more than the main image."

Good luck with this, it really is a stunning deck.
 

EthanJamesPetty

SakuraFae said:
I use lots of colors and background images to pop out at me when reading. Although it may not be your style, and I respect that and like what you've done with or without my feedback, you asked and I say "Don't forget about the background, it may just be an extra swirl or different _hand_ but much like looking at clouds... things sometimes pop out of the background more than the main image."

Thanks for the praise - and you're offering good advice that I'll keep in mind as I progress! I think some cards fit better with more background details and I do have some ideas for the later majors :)
 

HOLMES

to be truthful

one thing that really attracted me to your deck was the original magican,, the one where he had the kooky face and not that serious face on the far left of your deck.

for a long time at the beginning I waited for the kooky magican to make it til I SAW YOU CHANGED HIS FACE.
heck he isn't even in the original deck of the dreamers that magican i loved.
*pow right in the kisser *

ok calmed down for like the death,, that magican probaly gone to tarot heaven.

now ethanjames ,, just remain true to your own vision for you will never be able to please every atf, (by the way I also like your hermit card and curious as to how you changed him ).

for example of how to not be able to please everyone,, i dislike unillustrated pips, and prefer even half illustrated pips olike the the toth then just pips.
if you go the picture way for pips i would be surely able to buy your deck (even though you killled my magican i loved so much ).

please make it a deck of the dreamers tarot and not an oracle.
 

EthanJamesPetty

HOLMES said:
one thing that really attracted me to your deck was the original magican,, the one where he had the kooky face and not that serious face on the far left of your deck.

Sorry that you feel the way, but I'm not sure what you think was lost in the face. He's still got the same basic features - sharp nose, thick lip, crazy facial hair (even more "kooky" in the new version). The main difference is that the resolution is actually high enough now to be taken seriously by a publisher :)


HOLMES said:
for example of how to not be able to please everyone,, i dislike unillustrated pips, and prefer even half illustrated pips olike the the toth then just pips. if you go the picture way for pips i would be surely able to buy your deck (even though you killled my magican i loved so much ).

The original Deck of the Dreamers was a full deck with all minor arcana, so no worries there. I do plan to keep it that way. I'm not sure if they will be quite as detailed as the main deck yet (you'll see on my site that they had less background detail and were themed in color tone), but that's something I'll evaluate when I get the majors done.

HOLMES said:
please make it a deck of the dreamers tarot and not an oracle.

If you mean because the oracle has less cards than a standard deck, no worries. My current plan is to make it complete!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm sure the new magician will grow on you. After all, he's put a lot of work into his facial hair to try to impress his audience.
 

HOLMES

oh i can tell you exactly what was lost if my memory serves

he had a kind of pop eye squint as he had the sword above his head.
aye his beard was the same, everything was the same but for the squint was gone. :(.

take heart if your artwork has so much effect that i can remember that one feature what is it 7 years later even though it been change so i can't view it to refesh my memory well that means you struck a chord in me.

now what do you need from us to make your work even better or to help it along ?
later on i will compare the magican to tell you what i like about them if that helps. (how soon til we see the hermit ?)
 

EthanJamesPetty

I think a lot of the squint was due to the low resolution - not many pixels to work with in the face :)

It definitely is an ego boost that you remember specific details my images after all these years. I'm now revamping the cards in order, so the Empress is my current project. The Hermit is probably going to be many weeks away. It's a pretty simple card symbol-wise, so I think the new version should remain mostly the same. We'll see when I get there.

The reason I posted here is to get people who actually read with cards or collect decks to raise any red flags if I'm on the wrong track with my symbolism. My goal is to create a deck with the symbols people recognize and can use as well as something people will find visually interesting enough to collect. I'm trying to keep my site updated each couple of nights to show the progress on my current card, so hopefully when I get more people looking at it (friends and family, too), I'll get some early warning/discussion if I'm doing something totally wrong :)

My wife bought me a domain for my deck, so I moved everything over to a convenient blog format over the weekend. It's now at http://www.deckofthedreamers.com and you can see the Empress in progress.
 

EthanJamesPetty

I finally finished the Empress card. Yes, I realize it looks a bit like she has a shower massager. I'll probably go back and decorate it a bit more when I do a polish-pass for production.

http://deckofthedreamers.com/iii-the-empress/
 

HOLMES

hail there ethan

ok I am going to start here by looking at the minors so you can perhaps move forward in ideas with them when as you rework the majors.

I would suggest here picking a certain theme of illustrated , half illustrated, or pips.

in the cups where i focused on with my eyes
the minors are a cross between pips/half illustrated and then a cross between half illustrated to illustrated. It Should be noted that there across the atf board it is probaly mixed to which is prefered,, illustrated in the waite clone fashion, or half illustrated aka toth, or pips.
i think any artist woudl be bored doing just pips on top of each other, and because of artististic drive would at least feel tempted to make them half illustrated eheh.

having an overall theme here for your minors in the sense of a good flow would help the reader in my opnion of course relate to the cards more, while not saying that each minor arcana card suit should be a complete story.

so starting with the ace of cups here ,and so forth for each suit, I will just suggest how you could make it slightly better, and leave you to make it better with your artistic skill :).
also you may find that if you studied numerology or astrology it might affect your tarot minors and your majors work as you might feel compelled to add them in there.
if i am right that the tarot cards here are based on artistic interpration, skill and artistic study, and not so much tarot study since your original incarnation ?

if that is so i would leave it like that , and save one based on indepth tarot study for your second deck if you feel inspired to make another on this one.
also as far as i know your creation is an act of love eh,, or do you have a publisher lined up ?
i so hope you got a publiser lined up, also if you do get a publisher, DO NOT LET THEM PUT ON BORDERS.
your deck would look so much better here without borders :).
ok in next post i will start looking at the cards.