Lost girl
thinbuddha said:
Thanks! Yes Illustrator and and Bryce Studios
Tarot No-Nos
Thanks! Yes Illustrator and and Bryce Studios
Asradel
I'm begging for another borderless deck. Okay? Do anything you want, but give us no borders for this deck.
serenaserendipity
What a great way to get to know tarot!
My friend and I have been talking about making our own tarot deck for a long time--
it seems like a great way to get to know tarot...
When I first started with tarot, I started using different friends of mine to represent different tarot cards--
because I have a little knack for portrait drawing--
but now that I get to know Tarot a little better, I guess I have a bit of the "Heirophant" in me, in that I don't want to mess with tradition!
Sincerely,
Serendipity
My friend and I have been talking about making our own tarot deck for a long time--
it seems like a great way to get to know tarot...
When I first started with tarot, I started using different friends of mine to represent different tarot cards--
because I have a little knack for portrait drawing--
but now that I get to know Tarot a little better, I guess I have a bit of the "Heirophant" in me, in that I don't want to mess with tradition!
Sincerely,
Serendipity
thinbuddha
Lost girl said:
Well, I dabble in Illustrator myself from time to time. Actually, my mother illustrates childrens books with Illustrator, and I know that you don't get much credit as a digital artist. You hear things like, "Oh- you didn't draw it" (meaning the computer did all the work). But I suppose you know that it does take work- otherwise everyone would do it!
-tb
cirom
For what its worth , I suggest you keep within reasonable bounds of traditional tarot format, majors suites, royals etc. But don't be too bound by it either. Whatever you do that's in any way different, some will not like it, thats a given. But then if you don't do anything new, what's the point.
If deck creators of the past had all been unwilling to change and challenge, then the tarot world would have been limited to constant reprints of a few "classical" decks, which for some traditionalist may sound great, but personally I think tarot has benefited from the numerous tweaks and variations.
Based on the visual style and software you're using it will be a very labor intensive project. So you have to also consider the following, is this principally for self satisfaction or to make money from the sale of the deck. If its the later then I guess you would have to more pragmatic and at least consider the various likes and dislikes, and the ramifications of any significant deviation from the norm.
I know I certainly did, but I tried to keep faith with my ideas too. So instead of being the Hierophant unwilling to mess with tradition as the previous post described it, I messed with Hierophant instead
If deck creators of the past had all been unwilling to change and challenge, then the tarot world would have been limited to constant reprints of a few "classical" decks, which for some traditionalist may sound great, but personally I think tarot has benefited from the numerous tweaks and variations.
Based on the visual style and software you're using it will be a very labor intensive project. So you have to also consider the following, is this principally for self satisfaction or to make money from the sale of the deck. If its the later then I guess you would have to more pragmatic and at least consider the various likes and dislikes, and the ramifications of any significant deviation from the norm.
I know I certainly did, but I tried to keep faith with my ideas too. So instead of being the Hierophant unwilling to mess with tradition as the previous post described it, I messed with Hierophant instead
Glyphman
Lost girl said:
I relate to where you are comming from. The theme I have chosen for my deck is the ancient Maya. I decided to create the theme around the four cardinal directions, and the gods associated with each direction. As a result there will be four seperate border colors. Each color connected to each of the four cardinal directions.
Lost girl
very cool
Very cool! Do you have any cards on line that I can see?
Glyphman said:
Very cool! Do you have any cards on line that I can see?
Dancing Bear
I just Love your strength Card it is beautiful.
I am trying to make a deck also from Waterhouse paintings.. MIne is purely for me. Would be nice to publish them but not a big deal if I dont.
I have learned from your thread , so I thankyou for sharing.
Dancing Bear.
I am trying to make a deck also from Waterhouse paintings.. MIne is purely for me. Would be nice to publish them but not a big deal if I dont.
I have learned from your thread , so I thankyou for sharing.
Dancing Bear.
Glyphman
Hello Lost Girl,
I am still very much so in the research mode. Doing a lot of reading and outlining how the theme will all come together. Just picked up the Corel paint shop. Very anxious about getting a first card started. I just want everything to connect and make sense symbolicly. It is very difficult. Trying to pick out from the whole civilizations pictorial images/glyphs that best work within about 50 or so cards, providing the best conduit connecting the Humanworld to the Otherworld is going to really strain my brain, and really test getting in touch with myself as well as the ancient Maya. There is just so many different possible scenerio's. Like everyone else, sure will be posting that first card when it is done though!!
I have a great start, and a pretty solid direction. Will be starting my first card very soon. I figure I will be changing the designs alot before it is all said and done. I really want to try doing some of the work by hand and combine that with some graphics using the Corel.
Anyway, starting to ramble out of excitement now........
Really having a great time with it all.
Talk at ya later.
I am still very much so in the research mode. Doing a lot of reading and outlining how the theme will all come together. Just picked up the Corel paint shop. Very anxious about getting a first card started. I just want everything to connect and make sense symbolicly. It is very difficult. Trying to pick out from the whole civilizations pictorial images/glyphs that best work within about 50 or so cards, providing the best conduit connecting the Humanworld to the Otherworld is going to really strain my brain, and really test getting in touch with myself as well as the ancient Maya. There is just so many different possible scenerio's. Like everyone else, sure will be posting that first card when it is done though!!
I have a great start, and a pretty solid direction. Will be starting my first card very soon. I figure I will be changing the designs alot before it is all said and done. I really want to try doing some of the work by hand and combine that with some graphics using the Corel.
Anyway, starting to ramble out of excitement now........
Really having a great time with it all.
Talk at ya later.
FearfulSymmetry
Hi Lost Girl,
I've been working on a tarot deck for about 8 years now and here is my advice, use whatever is good to you and dump the rest! My advice that is
Over 78 cards you will learn a lot about tarot and I don't think there is a way to make a perfect card ever because you are always changing and growing and the way you view tarot will change and grow too. Each card is a snapshot in time really. I would just do the best you can do at that time and if later you decide it sucks you can redo it.
Take into consideration your motivations for making a tarot deck. If it is to be a personal art peice totally feel free to use different fonts and borders or styles or whatever! Who cares!
If your motivation is to learn more about tarot you may want to learn about some of the older decks which were innovative and inspirational, and learn how and why they used the images they used. These decks could be the Thoth, the Rider Waite, the Tarot of Marseille, the Visconti. You could get 78 degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack (which I hear is having a problem with distribution presently) or Mary Greer's Tarot for your Self.
If you want something that is commercially viable, I would still personally suggest doing it from the heart as far as borders and fonts go, I mean, do what you like and what you know and make it the best you can but to make things easier you might want to keep all the images the same size and have some consistency and also try to understand the reasons behind the symbols before departing from them. A lot of that stuff isn't arbitrary and people like those powerful symbols included. I know some deck publishers prefer to publish decks which are based on the Rider Waite pattern, for example. They also want to see people on all the cards, and illustrated minors, not just the suit symbols.
A lot of people like traditional titles and suit names and numbering. A lot of people don't like card backs that you can't reverse. I think borders, while fun to create from the design point of view, are accepted or only tolerated by a lot of people, they want to see the art.
There are exceptions to every rule! Do your best, learn as much as you can and just make art and you will be ok. You will always have time to go back and revise but I don't think there are any mistakes here, even cards which are eventually rejected will teach you something.
I know there are websites which list some of the major symbols from each card, if I find them I will post them (my computer crashed recently and I lost all my links) Michele Jackson used to have one and maybe Bob O'Niel does too. Oh, Arnell Ando might! I'll try to look up that stuff later and post it!
Good luck and Welcome!!!
I've been working on a tarot deck for about 8 years now and here is my advice, use whatever is good to you and dump the rest! My advice that is
Over 78 cards you will learn a lot about tarot and I don't think there is a way to make a perfect card ever because you are always changing and growing and the way you view tarot will change and grow too. Each card is a snapshot in time really. I would just do the best you can do at that time and if later you decide it sucks you can redo it.
Take into consideration your motivations for making a tarot deck. If it is to be a personal art peice totally feel free to use different fonts and borders or styles or whatever! Who cares!
If your motivation is to learn more about tarot you may want to learn about some of the older decks which were innovative and inspirational, and learn how and why they used the images they used. These decks could be the Thoth, the Rider Waite, the Tarot of Marseille, the Visconti. You could get 78 degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack (which I hear is having a problem with distribution presently) or Mary Greer's Tarot for your Self.
If you want something that is commercially viable, I would still personally suggest doing it from the heart as far as borders and fonts go, I mean, do what you like and what you know and make it the best you can but to make things easier you might want to keep all the images the same size and have some consistency and also try to understand the reasons behind the symbols before departing from them. A lot of that stuff isn't arbitrary and people like those powerful symbols included. I know some deck publishers prefer to publish decks which are based on the Rider Waite pattern, for example. They also want to see people on all the cards, and illustrated minors, not just the suit symbols.
A lot of people like traditional titles and suit names and numbering. A lot of people don't like card backs that you can't reverse. I think borders, while fun to create from the design point of view, are accepted or only tolerated by a lot of people, they want to see the art.
There are exceptions to every rule! Do your best, learn as much as you can and just make art and you will be ok. You will always have time to go back and revise but I don't think there are any mistakes here, even cards which are eventually rejected will teach you something.
I know there are websites which list some of the major symbols from each card, if I find them I will post them (my computer crashed recently and I lost all my links) Michele Jackson used to have one and maybe Bob O'Niel does too. Oh, Arnell Ando might! I'll try to look up that stuff later and post it!
Good luck and Welcome!!!
