Thanks to you all for taking the time. (I am honored as you all are very much inspired thinkers and people I like
)
I spoke too soon about the easy weather this winter here, as Friday morning woke up to a snow scene (see picture attached to this post). This was in the AM and it kept snowing. But I had the day off, so I didn't mind, and it was pretty. It was (is still so far) light fluffy snow and wasn't one of those terrible ice messes where we lose power for a week.
(By the way frac_ture, welcome to New England! Quite a change from LA, the land of perfect 80 degree days most of the year right? Sorry about the snow! And I have to say, Promethea is one of my most treasured possessions!
And Zephyros, thank you for your concern. This time the death in life was more of an expected one, but it still isn't easy, and brought up all the feelings of the more unexpected death in my life last year. But, I am doing ok.)
I finally finished the Five of Disks. This was a card that was hard to paint. Some are easy and pleasurable (and it has nothing to do with whether the card is a less or more pleasant card, just recently I really enjoyed painting Ruin, because of the way the inks handled.). Pretty much every card with a lot of grey or violet is a pain, just because of the ink's handling. Especially if there are a lot of small details because then you have to ink around every one as unlike a transparent color you can't go over the small ink lines or you lose them. But also even though it is opaque it dries really splotchy and requires painting it over a few times to build it up and smooth it out. And this card had a lot of those colors and a lot of small details.
Plus the color scheme for the scales for the card is not the most harmonious. Which makes sense, considering it is Geburah (Five) and the Taurus decan ruled by Mercury (Mercury is fast, Taurus, well is not known for speed). So the colors of Mercury combined with those of Taurus plus a "Red, flecked Black". It actually worked perfect for the subject matter of the card. But there are the earthy warm colors of Taurus, combined with the more ethereal cool tones of Mercury - and then "red, flecked black". Not often the subject matter would warrant that combination artistically! (Yet it did...)
And painting around all the little dials and knobs was a pain! The card looks good in the end, but under magnification, it gets messy! It looks good in the original and will look great as a printed card or print, but if it is ever an app, well zooming in it isn't pretty! But I don't alter things digitally so it is what it is - authentic! Actually all the cards, under magnification I see all sorts of paintbrush hairs and sweater fibers and bubbles and brush strokes and white spots...I take out the very worst but most of them are left in. Amazing what the naked eye can't see or filters out! Oh well, I'm not gonna
Worry about it! Anyway at the below link you can see the stages and the finished card.
http://www.tabulamundi.com/the-taurus-cards-the-fixed-signs-of-earth/
I get to do the Six of Disks next. Looking ahead I can tell already that one is going to be more fun to paint! The middle decan of Taurus, ruled by the Moon and in solar Tipareth...the crossed keys in the solar fertile valley filled with pomegranates and light. Sounds good to me!