the urnash tarot

Strange2

Nicely done! Very expressive and fluid.

I noticed most of the figures in the cards are females. I'm OK with that, just curious.
 

brujaja

Judgement and Jazz

Urnash! These are lovely. I very much dig the masks (especially as an Ace idea), and the Judgement card blew me away. Here is the Judgement image I chose when I made my deck:

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3/kill_time/deck/20.jpg

Waite writes of this card:"What is that within us which does sound a trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response--almost in a moment, almost in the twinkling of an eye?"


sweet.
 

Durant Hapke

Bright EU,

Rocking bring it -- pour a cold one and take a tumble.

Jack bird nice graphics -- roughs jump as is.

Durant "all kinds of lines" Hapke
 

Gooneybird

I LOVE the Sun card. Not just because I like orangey colors, but the design and queen:beehive city concept is great. :heart:

Judgement though, first thing I thought upon seeing it was that the souls reminded me of those transformed people trapped in Ursula's cave in the Little Mermaid movie. And Madame even looks sorta like Ursula's (saner?) sister... hey maybe she's freeing them! :D The artwork's great though, and I do see how the concept works out as soul-moving jazz/"let the good times roll".
 

Egypt Urnash

1: The Magician - probably the only one that's going to have obvious symbols.

If I get the whole thing done I'll see about publishing it. Some friends have been involved in artist playing card projects, so I can get numbers and pointers from them, or I might just try to take it to someone who publishes these kinds of things regularly and not have to hassle with getting it into sales channels myself. Getting a good response here (away from my normal haunts full of people predisposed to like my work) is making me pretty sure it's worth trying to publish.

As to the gender - yeah, this is a very femmy take on the subject matter. I've been doodling some alternate Aces that're actually, you know, male; I'll decide which way to take it once I start on the suits. In general, I feel that the default gender of most card imagery is male, unless it's an explicitly 'female principle' being symbolized; I'm swapping this. Mostly because, well, I just like drawing girls more than I like drawing boys!

I think, ultimately, one of the main influences on my take on Judgement ended up being the Bob Clampett short "Tin Pan Alley Cats", in which a fat little cat goes into a jazz club and exhorts the trumpeter to "send me outta dis world!". I used to be part of the animation industry, so I'm weaving that sort of thing into this right along with more 'serious' resonances...
 

Egypt Urnash

(And interestingly enough, doing this project seems to be affecting my art; I did a few icon commissions this week to raise some quick money to replace my laptop's power brick, and the icons started having the same symbolism-laden feel as Tarot imagery.)
 

truelighth

I like your art. Especially the Star and the Moon.. they are lovely. I am sure curious to see the rest of your deck.
 

Vetch

The magician is great! Love the coffee.

Looks as if she's blogging. :D

Those would make cool posters, too.

I LOVE the fact that there are a lot of fems.
In general, I feel that the default gender of most card imagery is male, unless it's an explicitly 'female principle' being symbolized
That's the reason why; I love a deck where the default gender is fem. AND the fact that this deck is done with great craft. AND the fact that the images are, how to put this - tongue-in-cheek and not sweet.
I am sure I am missing a lot of decks, and my view might not be totally fair, and it's just my taste, and all... but I don't really like most of the decks I see because to me they are too 'kitschig', too sweet.
 

6 Haunted Days

I'm curious as why there are 2 swords in the Magician card?
 

Egypt Urnash

Someone's remarked on 'two swords? no wand?' everywhere I've put the Magician up - I guess the wand on her desk is too subtle, and the cross-wiring with other series of Majickal Tools isn't quite working. I'll have to stick it up in the air when I revise this one, and maybe think of some more Symbolic Tools to put on her desk and in the air. And more symbols to put on her Pin-Covered Wizarding Hat.

Tounge-in-cheek but not entirely sweet? Yeah. There's humor and irony in this, as there is in all of my art, but there's also foreboding. Recently I did a paid illustration where the only direction beyond the subject was to keep everything happy and not foreboding. There's a story that you're coming in on the middle of, and it might not be a nice one. The Tarot is a bunch of isolated story fragments that you sort to get a new perspective on your own story, and... your own story isn't always a nice one, either. I'm trying to make it pretty but I'm not trying to make it safe.