TEST PRINTS ET AL

The past few weeks have been very busy for me since I had to focus on finishing the printing and packaging of my latest deck project. Plus, my internet was down for some time because of the storms here. Anyway, yesterday, I did a test print of some of the cards just to see whether the light-dark tones were ok. It's because my monitor's crappy and it shows them as really dark images. Surprisingly, the tones look ok. A lot of details are still visible even if there's all that dark feel. I'm especially liking the later cards I did. I feared they might end up looking like they were made with some computer pose-generating software, but they looked ok. My only mistake was that I used files which have a 150 dpi resolution (but I have high-res versions of the images), so I'm not sure if the mottled look was due to the resolution, or because of either the brush or texture I used. I myself am ok with this, since it adds to the old and aged feel. My only worry is that people might think it's due to poor quality instead of the result (partially indirect though it may be) of an aesthetic approach

Interruptus

I'm ashamed to say I haven't been working much on this project recently. I'm halfway done with the fives, but right now I'm working on another Tarot-related project that was started earlier than this deck. Got the cards for this other deck from the printers 3 days ago. I'm doing the packaging, and finalizing some other stuff. I can't deny though that this was a very welcome distraction, since I find that working on a particular project without interruption causes creativity/inspiration to sap away. So hopefully when this is finished and I resume work on Tarot Eventide, I'll feel refreshed enough and "aesthetically recharged" to finish the remaining cards.

Fours

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This has been a hell of a week. Some planet probably did double, triple retrogrades because everything just went weird. Anyway, here's the Fours. Too drained (not physically) to say anything more.

Threes

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My pace has noticeably slackened. It's not really that the cards are getting more complicated to do, but two other things. Firstly, the technique is still evolving. I find myself filling whole black areas with colour and then adding the shading again - which goes against the entire point of doing it dark-to-light. Some of these four have been done in this manner, so I still might change them in the future.

Secondly I think I'm getting more fastidious with details. I remember when I started working on the images (and I think they do show with the earlier images from the Majors), I wasn't too particular with getting all of the details exactly like in the original. As I did more images, however, I became more conscious of the fact that this is essentially a Rider-Waite-Smith based project, and, as in most reproductions, runs the risk of things being lost in the process of copying. So there were times (and I'm guessing there will still be times in the future) when I couldn't decide what stuff I should change and what I should retain. Obviously I'll be , since from the very beginning I acknowledged the fact that this is is essentially another RWS clone.

Tarot Eventide

Thanks to Debra, Truelight, and GoldenWeb for suggesting titles. I'll be using Tarot Eventide as a working name for the deck because it has a nice magical ring to it, and because I rarely encounter the word in normal conversation.

The Threes are about halfway through, though, immature as I am, I've been avoiding doing the 3 of Swords! Some people believe that when you're creating a deck, the meaning of the card you're currently working on somehow influences the state of your life at the moment. I don't think I've had consistent examples of this when working on a deck. But honestly, I was just kidding and I haven't really been avoiding the card. It's the last I'll be doing of the Threes since it has the easiest forms, so I figured I'd toil over the more complicated drawings first.

Some Other Remarks

ONE You might notice I'm updating at a rather quick pace. This will slacken now that I've updated the Twos. Still working on the Threes, though hopefully they'll be done by tomorrow or the day after that. Though to be honest, things really are progressing pretty fast with this project. That's because a lot of time has been removed from the process. Just to explain further: say, it takes a hypothetical hour to finish a particular work. 50% of this time, I devote to the brainstorming process - not even getting a final image of how the deck should look like since I never could get a hang of that particular skill, but brainstorming as in experimenting with forms and poses and the like until it achieves a look I find just right. In the case of this particular deck, that has been removed, since this is essentially a Rider-Waite-Smith Clone. Much of the general layout, poses, forms, clothing, have been retained, though rendered in a style less flat when compared to the original.

I'm thinking of submitting this to potential publishers, so maybe I should also think of seeing whether their resolution requirements are filled. Currently, the images are pretty small, only 4.75 by 7.75 at 600dpi (though perhaps still bigger than the standard).

TWO I also started this so I can hopefully practice speaking off the top of my head. Like what I said in my first post, my other blogs have become very restrictive for me, so I don't get to practice expressing much of myself (even on the net). The result's that I have a general idea of what to say, can't get around to typing it in a coherent form.

THREE Someone suggested Dark Rider and Twilight Tarot as names for the deck. Both sound nice. I especially like Dark Rider since it gets to be an homage to the name of the original (though it's Rider-Waite-Smith in full nowadays) AND it could refer to the Death card in the deck which is thus far my favourite in this series. Twilight's also good, though some might think it's a marketing ploy to cash in on the success of the Twilight series of books.

Twos

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Notice the fuller, more solid colours in these four cards. My favourite of these four are the 2 of Swords and the 2 of Cups. Sadly, 2 of Wands still looks a bit CG, so I dunno. Maybe I'll edit it, but after the all the cards have had their turn. I also have to make the images look a little less blotchy; maybe lessen the "effects" I put in them.

The thing is, I get self-conscious about "dirtying" my digital works most of the time, because I'm not too fond of too clean, neat, smooth digital art. Makes it look a bit metallic to me. Don't get me wrong, there are wonderful example of this. I guess it's just the difference between one's preferred personal style and the style one appreciates from others. In poser intellectual mumbo jumbo parlance: a disparity can and oftentimes does exist between one's internal and external aesthetic sensibilities. You can appreciate haute couture, maybe even keep posters of them, but I doubt you'd wear them at work (not unless you're a supermodel and you do wear them at work!).

Aces

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The aces. I was still vacillating between the dark "from the shadows" style and the more painterly one when I was doing these cards, and it shows, especially with the ace of swords. The twos have a more solid look to them, as compared to the aces and most of the majors. You might notice the unreal dramatic cloud formations I've used here as well as in a lot of the Majors. It was something I got around to doing accidentally and was pretty happy with the results so I probably will use more of that in the future cards for the deck. It might be one of the definitive elements in the deck (though some cards - like the 3 of pentacles - have indoor scenes, so that obviously won't feature clouds).

Ironically, I got too lazy doing the foreground clouds (the ones from which the hands appear) so they ended up having the original's swirly things. At least for now. I plan on changing that after I finish the entire series.

I can see the potential of the colouring style as something that I might use in doing Medieval-inspired works in the future, though I still have to develop a cheat that approximates sfumato more. I'm also having trouble making things look less CG, or at least something that doesn't exude a Posing Software feel, since the images weren't made with Poser or something similar! I guess I have to make the smooth dark areas dirtier, and not make light areas too... "glinty." We shall see how things go in the future.

Moon to World

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So that's the last of the majors. I'm really happy with way things are going. AND sorry about the glaring copyright notices. Just being careful about things.

I'll upload the aces and the twos later or tomorrow. hopefully I finish the threes soon.

Hanged Man to Star

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I really like the Death card I made here. Notice that it's the only monochromatic card. Not that there's a deeper thing going, just for aesthetic reasons really. Weirdly enough, the Devil ended up looking like a cross between an ogre and one of Terry Prachett's Nac MacFeegles (ironic considering the scale!).

On a related note, I also made a card for a community project using the technique I'm currently working on. This time, I based it on a Marseilles variant. I did it during the earlier phase of my... experiments, hence the cruder look.

Lovers to Justice

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I realized I don't even have a name for the deck yet! That'll come in time, I hope. Anyway, notice the change of style in the Hermit card here. This is the time I couldn't yet decide which particular style I'll stick to (very shadowy and rough, or a more refined painterly style). I'll probably change the four corner animals in the wheel. I was a bit lazy when I was doing them, which is why they ended up looking like that.

Fool to Hierophant

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I followed the order of the majors when I did the cards, so the Fool was the earliest card done (and perhaps the most experimental-looking) and the World the last of the majors to be finished. Hopefully as I upload the entire majors the change in style, perhaps even the development of subtlety or refinement in the coulouring, can be observed, especially when you compare the Fool and the World.

Truth be told, I originally wanted something similar to the Drogi, which is another deck that has dark-to-light colouring style. I was admittedly too self conscious of this original inspiration that at times I vacillated between doing images with predominantly dark areas, and one that doesn't have as much tenebrism but nonetheless has a quaint, albeit painterly (I hope!) look.

I currently prefer the painterly style (as in the World), so I'm resolving to stick to this for the whole deck. I'll just edit the darker ones I did earlier so that the whole deck gets a unified look. I'm still interested in doing a Drogi-inspired deck, I figure maybe I can still use the flats of this particular deck (since they won't be showing anyway because I put an opaque solid layer - black in this case - between the colouring and the flats) and just colour them differently. Fast as this current project is (I finished the Majors through the Twos in around 2 weeks), the next deck might be faster since all of the flats by then would have been finished already.

For those who've viewed this, please do tell me how you think of the cards.

Hello world

Ok I've started a lot of blogs in the past but have never gotten around to maintaining them. Some that I still do occasionally post in, well, things have been a bit constricting and awkward with them - can't really explain much about this - so the posts I do there end up too rigid and antiseptic. So what's different with this one? I don't know. except that this is attached to something I'm working on, so hopefully that will make me want to update this more.

I couldn't seem to draw anything using pen and paper (I don't have a tablet) the past few weeks, so I figured I'd try to do things digitally (via mouse). I've also been meaning to try out 2 techniques with colouring digitally. Not from existing tutorials, since I'm not very good at following instructions. I tend to think up general ways on what to try out, instead of envisioning a final result for the style. Come to think of it, I'm also like this with doing art - I don't have a specific vision of how I want the work to look like.

Anyway - yes I apparently have a propensity to ramble on and on about things - the two styles are: 1. something that doesn't involve any line art, and 2. colouring with a dark-to-light approach. I'm used to drawing things on pen and paper - with areas clearly outlined by bold pen marks. I try to soften this effect when I colour digitally but the lines still end up showing one way or another. So now, I'm trying not to include any of the original line art into the final image. With the second, people normally approach colouring is like this: you have paper - usually something light, then you add the colours (which tend to be darker). You also tend to add shading, as opposed to adding light to the image. Dark-to-light works sort of like the reverse of this. You begin with a dark-coloured background and gradually add light areas in many increments until you get a finished work.

So yes, since I couldn't draw anything non-digitally, I wanted something productive to to pass my time with, and also wanted to try out something new, I figured I'd start on a personal project that combines the two styles mentioned, and eventually refine them. Which is why I started working on a Rider-Waite-Smith-styled deck of 78 cards. The figures are easy to do, the forms aren't too complicated, and the layout of the images tend to be very familiar.

I've finished the entire Majors, Aces and twos (and surprisingly in less than 2 weeks!). I'll be posting them in later entries. I'm thinking maybe I'll edit the earlier of the majors I did, since back then I was still experimenting with the colouring style, so they have a rougher and cruder look.