Seven Stations Tarot

dangerdork

Eight years ago, I discovered an interesting perspective for meditating on the historical, psychological, and symbolic progression through the Major Arcana. Some of you may be familiar with my blatherings on the subject as outlined on the "Epiphany!" thread in "Using Tarot Cards" here on AT.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=84592

After exhaustive discussion, a number of people told me that I should write a book on the topic. Since I am a "Creative Type" in the field of digital media, I decided that an app would be a much better medium for teaching this concept than a stack of dead trees.

As I began planning the app, I realized that this would be the perfect opportunity to realize a lifelong dream of creating a tarot deck, which could serve as an illustration for the Seven Stations perspective.

Although I'm an artist myself, I work at a painfully slow pace, and it looked like I would never get around to creating all 22 images necessary for the project. Then, I noticed that a friend of mine was maturing rapidly as an artist, and I felt that her style might lend itself well to what I was trying to do. I had worked with her on design projects in the past, and knew she was a very productive artist and rapid learner.

In 2012, I commissioned Rena Hopkins (known to her growing online following as "The Divine Iguana") to work on the Seven Stations tarot - with myself acting as art director and author, and her as the illustrator. I thought her very first completed card, "The Star" (see attachment) was the best work she'd ever done, and over the 3 years since, she has steadily improved.

We've worked on this deck in fits and starts - Rena is a full-time professional artist and has a lot of irons in the fire. I am a full time consultant and just-some-guy trying to finance a deck out of his own pocket, and we've gone through a lot of collaborative maturation and painstaking revisions. But we've reached a point where there is light at the end of the tunnel. We have all 22 majors at least sketched out, most of them in fully realized first drafts, and a few of which I think are exceptional.

This summer, Rena's skills suddenly took what I believe is a great leap forward, and her latest draft, "The Lovers," is in my opinion exquisite. We're now possibly challenged with revising most of the entire deck, to bring it up to the level of quality of this image.

You'll see that the major influences on this deck are RWS and Marseilles imagery, with a touch of Crowley here and there, and whatever tickles my fancy. We're trying to produce visual representation of a lot of the concepts in the "Epiphany" thread.

If there's any interest in these images so far, I'd be delighted to talk about influences, plans for a blog and kickstarter campaign, sharing additional images, etc.

In the mean time, I've neglected THIS part of the AT forums for far too long, and I'm learning quite a lot from the experiences you all have shared in "Tarot Deck Creation." If anyone is willing to offer any feedback on the imagery or the project, I'd love to hear from you.
 

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Amanda

I like it!

Something did stick out to me, and I apologize in advance for where my mind went... but, while looking at the man in the Lovers, I hoped that his penis was larger than that small shred of fabric covering might indicate. :D Maybe others won't notice something out of proportion there, and it's highly likely others' minds won't go where mine did :laugh: but in any case, I thought I'd mention this one small thing. ;)

I do like how the fabric frames the hip and tookus of the lady there; it gives a nice sensual lady-feel to it.
 

SuziDreams

Nice and not too busy, but at the same time a lot of imagery to work with.

Laughing at the 'one small thing' Amanda mentioned.
 

dangerdork

Amanda & Suzi - It was obviously very cold that day to be outside with no clothes. There is other evidence supporting this theory.