I want to make a deck

MY dinosaur deck(unfnished list)

Hi, I know there are thousands of topics as such and helping topics like

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=58967&highlight=publishing+deck

but I know very little about tarot decks, I'd like to make one, but not just get 100 decks made at Billy Joe's local village town print shop, I want to shoot for the stars even before I discover fire.

I'm a slightly megalomanical artist, I would like to be out there, and everywhere. On cards, tee-shirts, checks, puzzles you name it, pretty much alot for somone whos not even "internet famous" there are these furries, they make porfolios see, and gather up artists to partake in these round ups. Somtimes they say 'lets all draw dogs dressed in differn't period clothing, I'll take a Greyhound dressed as a flapper", they make prints and sell them. I've never invited. I figure It would make me feel good If I can do this.

so I had two ideas, browsing the libary of existing decks I saw there was a dolphin one (I wasn't impressed). But I'd also like to make a dinosaur one.

now there is the hard part, I know little of Tarot cards, just that I need a bunch of cards like "the worlds" and "the wheel of fortune", and that I should make the pictures soaked in symbolism when I know the meaning. Getting dinosaurs down for those cards is easy, just learn the jist of it and boom, I am done. Then I guess I'm to do the wands, cups, swords and penticals. There is one problem I have, how do i do that.

Ok, so now lets say I reserch and draw all my images. How do I get them printed and sold in shops everywhere? is it hard? has there been a dinosaur deck alredy? I'd like to be orginal.

please go easy on me, somtimes I'm not so bright.

please don't steal my concept, watch for spelling errors. some subject to change. I may take suggestions

Fool-eaoraptor or staurkosaurs
magician-troodon
priestress-argentinosaurs
empress-maiasaur
emperor-tidtinosaur
hierophant-deinyicus
lovers-orthnitomimius
charioit-triceratops
strength-compsyaugnyathus subduing allosaur
hermit-crylophosaurs
wheel of fortune-?
justice-?
Hanged man-microraptor gui
death-(possible tyranosaur skellition)
temperance-baryonyox
devil-stygymolic
tower-coelophifis in flood
star-?
moon-(suggested swimming carnasaour)
sun?
Jugment-
World-(possible sauropod egg)

ace wand-?
page wand-dilophosaur pair
king wand- stegosauros
queen wand-paralophosaur
wand knight-?
wand 2-carnosarous (miss labled paralophosauros)
wand 3-Gallimimius
wand 4-Leastosaurous
wand 5- shuvvia
wand 6- stryacosaurus
wand 7- saltosauros
wand 8-igunanadon
wand 9-huaynagosaurous (subject to change)
wand 10-?

sword page-apatosaur
sword ace-(suggested by LJ's Cosmo) Therizsaurous
sword knight-?
sword king-?
sword queen-oviraptor
sword 2-?
sword 3-?
sword 4-Mei long
sword 5- Pelicanamimus (could change)
sword 6-
sword 7-(miss labled claudipatierix) Cacaradontosaurous
sword 8-minmi (could change?)
sword 9-Lambiasaour (could change)
sword 10-Herrerasaours (if not for fool)

pent page-?
pent ace-Plateosaur
pent king-ankylosaurous
pent queen-?
pent knight-?
pent 2- heteradontosaur
pent 3-?
pent 4-claudapterix
pent 5- ill Bambiraptor
pent 6-?
pent 7-Eirksaurous or stegnosauros(one or chose the other for a new card)
pent 8-?
pent 9-?
pent 10-?

cup page-?
cup ace- thelisacaurous
cup knight- ouranosaurs
cup queen- piscontosaurous
cup king-packyrinosaurs (could change)
cup 2-?
cup 3-?
cup 4-?
cup 5-?
cup 6-?
cup 7-hypsoilophodon
cup 8-?
cup 9-?
cup 10-protoceratops

==============================================
chricostonentlies, scelidiosaurous, rabbodon, quaesilosaur, diplodocus, spinosaurouss, stegoceras, ecuophocelphalus, megalosaurous, tyranosaurous rex.
(things wanted)
---------
velociraptor, utahraptor
(things unessessary?)

It's not an easy route, to make a workable deck the cards have to show the meanings, otherwise they're just a bunch of collectible cards and there are fewer collectors than tarot readers, so if you want the biggest market, you have to make the deck a workable deck.

Start with one card and learn what that card means--check different books, check online, check with actual readers, and get a good feel for what that card actually means. Then design your picture to show it, as much as you can.

Do this 78 times, and also do a cover card and a back image. That's the start. The art then needs to be in a format the printer can use--if you do the printing locally, you'll either need good quality originals, or scanned copies put onto a floppy or CD. If you're doing it in color, you have to make sure the color balances with the form of printing used. Printers are either going to do the deck with digital printing or with full color printing the old fashioned way (both have their pluses and minuses).

Getting a deck distributed means it has to be also packaged properly for the stores (in a box or a box/book set), and packaging can cost as much as the deck printing does. Depends on where you get it done and if you have it in full color, etc. etc. etc. The chain stores don't buy anything that doesn't have an ISBN number, so that has to be assigned, which is another added cost. And you won't be making a ton of money on it because wholesale orders are probably going to be 1/2 your print run (and you'll get only half the money you'd get if you sold it retail yourself). It's a huge field to discuss, actually. Search the archives on this site for some of the questions, they've been covered several times in the past.

The first step is to get the art done, so you have to focus 100% on that first and leave the rest to later. The dinosaur concept hasn't been done before, but it has to work within the meaning of the cards, not just be a dinosaur on a card (you want a tarot deck, not a set of dinosaur flash cards). If you can do that, then you can move on to the printing and marketing side.

There's very few anthropomorphic decks, as well, and people do discuss how nice it would be to have a good dog or horse deck, occasionally. But it'll be the art that makes or breaks the interest. Make each card count. It'll help to read the discussions on this list about the various cards, as well, sort of to give you a feel for it from different perspectives. And familiarize yourself with what's already out there (click on 'decks' up on the top right of the screen to see the decks currently on the market).

Hi Kuwaizair!

I believe that I've seen your gallery at DeviantArt. You have a picture of a rainbow-winged Gryphon called "Fall Keeper?" I think a deck done in the style of that gryphon would be really neat. I don't know of a dinosaur tarot deck.

Creating an entire tarot deck is a lot of work. Its a total of 78 different pieces of art, for one thing. I would look at different existing tarot decks and really get a sense of different artistic styles, maybe start a notebook that researches each card, suit, so on.

Laurel said:

Hi Kuwaizair!

I believe that I've seen your gallery at DeviantArt. You have a picture of a rainbow-winged Gryphon called "Fall Keeper?" I think a deck done in the style of that gryphon would be really neat. I don't know of a dinosaur tarot deck.

Creating an entire tarot deck is a lot of work. Its a total of 78 different pieces of art, for one thing. I would look at different existing tarot decks and really get a sense of different artistic styles, maybe start a notebook that researches each card, suit, so on.

Click to expand...

yup thats me! If I were that kind of person I'd do a griffon one where I'd allow X number of people to join and make a collective project (trust me it would be easier, select the major arcania and get more cards with it!

I could do the dinosaurs natural/realstic and then in the style many newer artists do, you know give them jewlery and clothing. Just because I chose a Tyranosaur for one card dosen't mean It would be any-old t-rex, I could always look up color symbolism also.

If I do the dinos my reserch/choosing isn't complete, though looking at the animal deck here I suddenly realise "hey I can do the penticals as tree leaves, now if only I knew of a prehistoric tree that had star shaped leaves" or just give somthing star shaped spots.
If not thats when the magical, whimsy, fantasy-land thing comes into play (and the Mandala style drawings I've been doing) come into play, hang robes off the animal and give them necklaces and stuff.

I thought, I'd be a cheeseball and choose the oldest, most primitive "first dinosaur" for the Fool, being it the starter of a journey well, yeh its the 'first dinosaur" Staurikosaurus is an option, as is Herrerasaurus(if I don't reserch than I'll stick with good old Eoraptor) Because the Hanged man is hanging I figure an upside down Microraptor Gui (?) clinging to a branch. it has the look. also mind you as for making them not 'look like flash cards' (dinosaurs) I've seen cards on this sites libary, some are non published for fun cards that to me, just look like somone copypasted low quality images. I mean if you do dogs there should be a reason an Irish Wolfhound is "Judgment", more so when it is just a photograph. My logic is weird.

(sorry for not using spellcheck for these posts but copypasting dinosaur names)

But a griffon one would be a consideration, even if its a greedy, self made thing (Many net artists are close friends and do things together, theres been 3 or more projects involving many artists making playing cards and such I, being a-social and crule and not sisterly am exhempt from this, they know I exist but I feel my art isn't good enough to be part of the male dog pin up deck or the pathfinders deck or the whatever thing. )
doing quasi-anthro girffons would be a good bet also, there is a dragon deck, so why not a griffon? Griffons now a days aren't limmited to eagle-lions, which could help me in symbolism, a Parrot-oceleot gyphon could be a good...somthing.

My problem will be calabrating the colors, if I do it digitaly should I work in total CMYK? if I do it traditonaly I'd love to use my markers but that has a problem, my marker images are difficult to send into the computer. The colors just aren't the same, unless I draw all the images and let a professional handle that problem. (or I just buy more markers to add to the happy family of Prismacolor, Bic and Sharpie permanate marker and the Faber Castell Pitt pens. Or some loose water colors.



anyhow, looking at the little libary here of cars, there seems to be differnt styles of tarot cards, explane please. Some look normal, some look like they are used in a differnt style.

Oh one more thing, I need to thank the person who did the Celtic Tree one, after telling my mom I wanted to desgin a tarot deck and after she had her celtic zodiac tree thing read, she thought It would be cool for me to do one. Thats a problem and would require months of deep, determined reserch (knowing nothing about it and how to apply it) I'm releaved!

Not sure what you mean by 'styles' if it's not in reference to art styles. Do you mean the different types of decks?

There's the standard Rider Waite deck (and all the similar clones), the Thoth deck (which differs from the RW in meanings) and the older Marseilles decks (from the 1400's to 1700's or so (they have different meanings on some cards as well, plus the 1 through 10 don't have scenic pictures). The most common in the US is the Rider Waite deck, and in Europe are probably the Marseille style decks Leastwise the books written for these particular decks divide up that way in the different sections of the world.

You might want to look here for a breakdown of different types: http://www.advancenet.net/~jscole/tarot.htm

Remember, too, that you can use the RW meanings but have different scenes depicting the meanings than what is traditionally used. That allows for more variation in the art.

by differnt, I mean they looked like they are used differntly, they have differnt names and or lack some differnt cards. Unless for some, they are but just re-named.

some cards are realted to elements or are the cups, wands, swords and stars only corrosponding to a particular element? the vision quest one uses elements insted of these objects, or are they interchangable?

so what will I need, I see some decks with coins, wands swords and cups, or penticals, staffs, swords and goblets? in those I'll need cards as a normal playing cards have right? numbers, aces, kings, queens, then knights and pages hmm. thats going to be difficult to do with dinos, unless I turn swords into feathers (make the feather look like a sword)


the cat wisdom cards, those are usable or just somthing for fun. I don't understand. again with Universe cards. whats with this type?

and back to mechanics. what dimentions should I draw in, and then should design a border (a tad difficult for somone with little sence of symatry)

The basic 'tarot' deck is made up of 78 cards--the Major Arcana with traditional names goes from 0 through 22. Then the Minor Arcana which is four suits - Cups, Wands, Swords, Pentacles - which are ace through ten plus a Page, Knight, Queen and King. Anything different from that is generally called an oracle deck. The Thoth deck renames the cards, but the standard follows the general rule above.

Pick the type of deck you want to make: Rider Waite, Thoth, Marseille or oracle. That's the first step. Wisdom cards don't have anything to do with Tarot, but they may be used as a separate divination system on their own. The market is far smaller for that than for tarot. If you want to do a tarot deck, stick with the framework of tarot for it. Otherwise you'll be considered an oracle system which is a bit different and not utilized by everyone who wants a 'tarot deck'.

The Rider Waite has an excellent learning site here: http://www.learntarot.com/cards.htm

You can call the Swords feathers if you want, but it should still look different than Wands so people don't get confused. I'd say don't rename the majors though. You don't need to worry about elements if you don't want to. The elemental system isn't used by a lot of readers. But this will all be part of your research, so you'll have to decide for yourself on that.

As for shape, the vast majority are rectangular. Only a few decks are square or round (they're harder to shuffle). The size is up to you, but a smaller deck is easier to shuffle and doesn't cost as much to have printed up. Some cards go as large as 5x7", there's a tiny deck around 1x1 1/4". But anything around 2 1/2" x 4" is more the norm. However your artwork will be larger than that (hopefully) and will be shrunk down to the correct size. Standard editor program software can automatically put in borders for you. Simple thin borders are the nicest, so they don't take up too much room and don't distract from the cards.

Hi.

I just thought I should mention.
One of the dragon decks has dinos for one of the suits (pents, I think) rather than dragons.

But that's the only dino deck I can think of, and even that is mostly dragons.

Also, I would have thought, if you want to make a deck, the first thing you should do is get hold of a deck and try to use it.
Get a book to go with it so you can see the meanings.
Because people who buy your deck will want to read with it, as HudsonGray has already said, they are your market.
And I'm sure it would help you do yours if you knew from experience what it was that people would be doing with it.

Good luck.

Personally I love dinos, and I reckon a dino deck woud be great.
But, as has already been said, it would have to work, If I just wanted dino pics I could get a book on them.

Would you have a bronto on one of the cards?
I love them, they are just the best, most proper dinos ever.
They are thin at one end, thick in the middle and thin at the other end too. That's how a dino is supposed to be.

i see. yeh I said I know little about this. I don't read cards nor would know how to.

I may use a Brontosaurus/apataosaurs for one card. so far I think I'll use a Herrerasaurs, Microraptor, Tisntinasauros, troodon, Denincyus,Baryonix (sorry for the bad spellings) Oviraptor. small list huh?

If I turn swords into feathers, maybe wands become bones and cups become footprints(foot prints that retain water? prehaps thats where my sauropod is in play ) and Penticals, well thats another problem.

Why dont you just think of initially producing a majors only deck?

That is not too daunting. Once you get throught the Majors you will probably find your deck style has become quite clear and the Minors might not be so much of a struggle.

And if you just cant face doing the Minors, well you have a Majors only deck. There are hundreds of Majors only decks. Not everyone needs a full 78 card deck.