LS Work in Progress

Today – mirabile dictu – I had a little time to keep up on what LS is currently doing for 2009 and 2010. As I may have mentioned, I’m totally absorbed on another project so I didn’t have any vision of the whole, before today: just glimpses and hints.

Right now there about 24 new deck at various stages of production: brainstorming, project, sample cards, in progress, almost finished. And everyone that may have had the chance to read the LS anniversary book, will know that just a few of those will become actual decks.
I can’t, I’m sorry, give you details for everything… but my plan is – every now and then, time permitting – say something on new decks, eventually showing sketches and final art. It will be erratic but it may be interesting (especially for me: it will be a way to stay close to Tarot “in the making” in this nightmare period ^_^ Besides: it’s fun to “say/say not” things)

Step one, yesterday an artist has picked up a script I prepared for a “fantasy” deck. Originally the deck was written thinking of Antonella Platano (she loves fantasy and we share an hate/hate/hate relationship that’s very funny for but of us), but as we won’t be able to work on it for at least two years… Well, I will have probably to adapt the script as it was Antonella style crazy (Polynesian elves in the ice age for the suit of chalices), but I’m quite happy that the project is moving along.
While the Manga Tarot was mostly about the relationship between cards, the structure of this deck is – strangely enough – focused on the Major Arcana. My goal was to “shape” the Arcana in order to allow for the contemporary ways of reading cards, without losing the recognizability (and auracity) of the cards. I used Strength VIII and Justice XI. Every time I do that, I feel it as a defeat, but I used a bit of Astrology, so it was a necessary change to make things work.

The Tarot of Sweet Twilight (by Cristina Benintende) is 4 cards from conclusion.
It is one of my favorites: innocent and deep, sad but hopeful. It does resonate with the better part of myself. It’s something I consider very important. The ability to resonate with a physical deck is not just a “quantity” factor. There are different nuances of our being that may be brought forward and muted through the medium (the Tarot deck) we use.

We are also preparing a Michelangelo Tarot, working with Atanas Atanassov. It was a slow start, in order to convey the right physical presence in all illustrations, but it seems it will be fine.
At the moment we are excluding to make it golden, and we are thinking a new golden deck… there may be less “classical” and more “modern”.

Davide Corsi as started a gorgeous dark deck on Vampires. We are talking the classical vampires, and the deck will be strong (and bloody). It seems to me that there are excellent gothic deck out there, aren’t they (babawink! ^^)? Anyway, Davide has gone “awesome”, you should see the first cards…

Take care for now,

ric

(((Ric)))

Thank you so much for this!!

I'm excited to hear the Sweet Twilight is so close to being completed.

The Michaelangelo idea sounds great.

As for the Vampires - will they be in the same cgi style as the Elves? Or will it have a twist?? (Sorry, just nosy...)

Hi Ric,

I, for one, would very much enjoy a periodic glimpse into the deck making process at lo Scarabeo. I have and read every word and scanned the pictures of the LS anniversary book. Reading that was interesting and gave a glimpse into such a small and very personal organization.

I would think, as you have hinted, that the relationship between the one who writes the scripts and the artists who make them visually real could be intense and emotionally complex!

Yes, please, as you can.

Marion

Here is a sample card for the Vampire deck.


Regarding Marion question... every deck is different.
In most cases I can describe our intervention in the creative process as that of a "shepard": suggesting, but never controlling. When we start with the idea it is a "seed" that may or may not devoleop as we envision.
So - alsways considering the "desiderable via the possible" approach - every deck has usually three main figures to look after it: the writer, the artist, and us.
Usually we work as traslator between the writer and the artist, not just translating languages, but idea and perceptions. This work also when writer and artist are the same person, as Cristina Benintende for the Sweet Twilight: we are the mirror she had to talk to.
Other times - for instance between Antonella Platano and Maria Caratti for the Universal Goddess deck - the relationship between them was so amazing we were just observers. And I was lucky, too, with Mara, with Emiliano and with Anna... but obviously when I do write a deck I'm both writer and editor, so I'm really there.

ric

Dear Riccardo:

THANK YOU so much for these little tidbit and teasers! You are so awesome and I can't wait to see the finished products (especially as new purchases in my collection!).....

Cheers!

Love the look and feel of the Vampire deck. Can't wait to see more. (salivating....)

Oh Ric, you tease...
thanks!

I want to see more from that Vampire deck...

The Sweet Twilight sounds interesting too. If it's possible, can you share a picture or two?

"we are the mirror she had to talk to."

Riccardo, you do know how to tantalize...thank you for the thread!

OH wow, what fun to read about the projects in motion. Riccardo thank you so much for sharing this with us! I'm super-intrigued, of course you already know I am a Lo Scarabeo addict, LOL.

The one vampire card looks truly terrifying Is there a place to see one or two cards from the Sweet Twilight?