Tarot Tuesday: The Emperor

It's that time again! Today I'd like to share another of the Major Arcana cards with you: 

The Emperor - 10" x 16.5" Oil on watercolor paper.

This guy was lots of fun as I always enjoy creating humanoid creatures that are part human with other animal features. The Emperor here is depicted as a version of Cernunnos, or "The Horned God" in Celtic Paganism. I can't go much more into explanations on the other symbolism as I don't want to go against or assume what the author has in mind, but I think everything works really well together in this one. 

This one didn't require too much preliminary sketching because the description given to me by the author, Melanie Marquis, provided a pretty clear mental image for what I want the final to look like. Here's a thumbnail I created for approval: 

Digital

Once the thumbnail was given the OK I went ahead with photos and created the charcoal sketch: 

10" x 16.5" Charcoal and digital.

If you compare the sketch with the final, I decided to shrink his head a little as it got slightly on the large side in the sketch. 

That's all for today! Next week's post may be delayed, as I will be travelling and might not have internet access, but never fear! I'll post as soon as I can soon after. Thanks for stopping by!

Tarot Tuesday: Ten of Cups

Here we are yet again at another Tuesday...time flies! Today I'd like to share a larger version of the Ten of Cups card. I had previously posted it here as a smaller version amongst the rest of the cups cards, but I thought it might be nice to show it larger so you can see details a little better.

10 of Cups - Digital.

 This is one of a few digitally painted cards that I've created for the deck. I've chosen to complete some of the cards digitally as opposed to painting simply because of time and size restraints. This painting would have taken me a lot longer, and I would have had to paint it much bigger than some of my other ones because of the multiple figures, and the many cups involved in the piece. Not to mention, the time it would have taken to properly paint and glaze the rainbow to make it look the way it should. Sadly, there's just not enough time to spend weeks on one of these illustrations. But despite those things, I'm fairly happy with how this one turned out. I've been learning a lot about digital painting over the few that I've completed digitally so far...I still feel like I'm doing it all wrong, but my mind works more as a physical painter than a manipulator of images like some of the digital painting videos I've watched seem to look like.

Anyway, thanks for looking and following along! See you next week!

Tarot Tuesday (Wednesday): The Hermit

Well, only three weeks in, and I'm already off my schedule with Tarot Tuesday! As usual, things have been crazy around the studio and I got sidetracked away from my post yesterday. But, better late than never I suppose...(Though, I hate being late.)

Today's painting is one of my favorites from the deck thus far:

The Hermit - 10" x 16.25" - Oil on watercolor paper.

The Hermit is one of the first of the Major Arcana paintings that I've completed for the deck. He is one of 22 Major Arcana cards that will appear in the Modern Spellcaster's Tarot.
I really enjoyed this guy because the card description was on the simpler side so I could focus more on the mood and character in the piece. Plus cloaked and bearded old guys are pretty high on my list of "always fun things to paint."

That's all for today! Until next time, have a nice week!

Tarot Tuesday - Five of Swords

Here we are at another Tuesday, so I'm continuing with posting a finished tarot illustration for the upcoming Modern Spellcaster's Tarot by Llewellyn Worldwide. Today, I'm sharing the art for the Five of Swords: 

11" x 18" Oil on watercolor paper

I really enjoy the swords suit as all of the descriptions call for snowy mountainous landscapes, wolves, fire, and of course swords. So you really can't go wrong. 

I haven't been given the actual text for the accompanying book that will be available with this deck, so I'm not entirely sure what all of the symbolism means, but I do know that the deck intends to follow the general Rider-Waite format. 

That's all for today, check back next week for another Tarot Tuesday.

New Year! New Post!

Hello there dear followers,
Once again I've managed to let this blog get coated in a nice thick layer of dust. My apologies for that...Often I find myself so enthralled in trying to stay on track with my work, that I don't want to spend the time to write up blog posts. I'm a terribly slow writer, so it takes me quite a while to put something together, no matter how small it is. But! Here we are in a new year yet again, so with that, I will do my best to post more regularly.

So what have I been up to lately?? Well, lot's of things, but mostly working away on the Modern Spellcaster's Tarot that I made a post about back in April. This project is huge, and I think I underestimated the challenge it would be especially on top of finishing graduate school, getting married, moving to a different state, and now holidays that have just passed. However, I am making good headway now that I have a good stretch of time ahead of me without any significant interruptions. So onward I battle! 

I have completed all of the Cups cards in the deck, and I put together a little image showing the whole group:

Ace-King of Cups, varying sizes, Oil on paper and digital.

 Here's some larger views of my favorites from the group (I like them all, but you know how it is): 

Two of Cups, Oil on masonite

Eight of Cups, Oil on paper

Knight of Cups, Oil on paper

Queen of Cups, Oil on paper

Additionally, I've completed all of the drawings for the Swords cards, and many initial sketches for the Major Arcana. There's still tons left to do, but I'll try to post more progress as I roll along here.

Also expect some new Magic updates in the coming days. Until then, Happy New Year!