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!).