Title: Tarot Cards I
Date: September 2023 Medium: Digital Illustration Size: 2.75 x 4.75 inches (per card) |
This set of three pieces: Temperance, The Moon, and The Emperor, together just Tarot Cards I, is an exploration of product design through illustration and the translation of symbolism and narrative through different artistic styles and practices. The three cards are examples of the classic "major arcana" present in Tarot, and are created using a paper-cut looking style meant to be a modern interpretation of the game.
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Artistic Inspiration
Tarot is a general name for the decks of cards used in tarot games and fortune telling. They were initially created in Italy in the 1430s by adapting the traditional set of playing cards and adding 21 special cards known as trionfi as well as the Joker card. Over the years this evolved into the modern tarot decks we know today with a common 78 cards including 22 trump cards called the “major arcana.” The cards illustrated here are three of the major arcana cards, specifically Temperance, The Moon, and The Emperor.
These cards are meant to imitate an art style called three dimensional decoupage, in which paper is cut and layered to give a three dimensional effect. One famous practitioner of this style was Henri Mattisse who used decoupage in several famous pieces such as his Blue Nude series. Matisses decoupage style did not include as many three dimensional elements as the style depicted in Tarot Cards I, however, they have similar elements with their simplistic cut paper figures.
These cards are meant to imitate an art style called three dimensional decoupage, in which paper is cut and layered to give a three dimensional effect. One famous practitioner of this style was Henri Mattisse who used decoupage in several famous pieces such as his Blue Nude series. Matisses decoupage style did not include as many three dimensional elements as the style depicted in Tarot Cards I, however, they have similar elements with their simplistic cut paper figures.
Planning
This piece is primarily the combination of two main and very different ideas that I had been planning to incorporate into my art for a while. Firstly, I wanted to do something in the three dimensional decoupage style digitally using my knowledge of Procreate. I also wanted to continue my card-making by illustrating some tarot cards. I decided it would be an excellent idea to combine these ideas into one work of art. I had recently been experimenting with making three dimensional looking layers in Procreate using Gaussian blurs and knew I wanted to utilize it in a piece. A major challenge I had in this phase was deciding which tarot cards I was going to reproduce. I knew for sure that I wanted to do some of the major arcana cards as those were the most illustrated and unique pieces of a tarot deck. I eventually settled on the moon, the emperor and temperance since these were some of the more positive meaning cards found in the major arcana and I didn't want my project to seem dark.
When planning the pieces themselves I had one major focus for each of them, an emperor, a moon, and an angelic figure holding two cups. I had to construct a reasonable setting and background for all of them. The moon and emperor were easy to plan, I knew for the emperor I wanted a throne as well as some sort of globe to represent rulership. When planning the moon I had a very clear vision of what I wanted the backdrop to look like, with rolling hills and a nebula-like sky. Beyond that my planning was purely based around what the figures and scenes would actually end up looking like. Most of the color choices and patterns or brushes were chosen as I worked rather than pre-planned. |
Process
I began creating the emperor first, I struggled to create a throne that took up a major portion of the canvas but still allowed for the figure on it to be the central focus and seem proportional. I also needed the entire figure in frame so the throne couldn't be excessively massive. Due to the paper cut style, I needed to utilize slight color variations to further give the impression of depth and three dimensional form. This can be best seen in places like the throne where I made the chairs back a different shade than the seat and armrests. The figure of the emperor itself was quite a challenge to create in terms of shape due to the complexity of flowing fabric as I envisioned in my design. I created seated figures but consistently was unsure how to accurately depict the connection between torso and the legs in the foreground. I also experimented with the laurel wreath I decided to put on the emperor's head. At first, they were simple green leaves which I believed were a bit too simplistic compared to the rest of the image. I decided to try to make them more complex by adding texture and variation but the leaves turned out to be very odd looking and felt out of place with the rest of my composition. I then went back to a design closer to the original but shaped it more into a wreath shape and colored it gold. I was satisfied with this design and I feel it fits with the overall look of the figure more than leaf green would. After I had completed the other two cards I actually went back to the emperor and added a pattern to the background.
The next card I created was the moon. I had a very clear vision for the composition of this card, I knew I wanted a night sky with rolling layered hills and a crescent moon with a face in the sky. I had an idea of utilizing the spray paint style brushes to add texture to the hills and give the whole piece some unity and complexity. It took several attempts to get the moon right. I was unsure how I wanted to create the crescent moon shape but settled on creating a circle where most of it was in shadow and the crescent moon was on one side. It wasn't meant to look realistic but I wanted to incorporate the idea of moon phases somehow. When I was painting the sky I also wanted to create a sort of nebula and pattern, I explored several different brush styles and eventually found two I liked. I created the nebula with very low opacity so as to not dominate the piece and draw the viewer's attention too much. I created this card over the top of the first one so as to not have to re-measure and recreate the border and layout which will be identical for all of the pieces. The final card was temperance, this card was actually the easiest to create as I had already completed two. Like the previous card I created it using a copy of the original simply changing the words and the image itself. I decided for this card to give it a glowing effect rather than simply shadows due to layered paper. This one depicts an angelic figure and I thought it would be more fitting to make it seem very bright and with a glow around the figure and clouds. Like the emperor, the figure and its proportions were the most difficult part of creating this card. I also needed to use lots of light colors which was difficult since there is a very limited selection of colors at the lightest shades. I chose to use a brush to add texturing to the background and bring this card closer in look to some of the others since the glow effect makes it stand out more. |
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Experimentation
This entire piece was an experimentation with shadow and the use of Gaussian blur to create a three dimensional effect. I was exploring this effect through creating a piece and through its creation I have become well versed in this technique and can now easily apply it to any of my future pieces. I made a few designs outside of these cards as basic experimentation just to see what settings are aesthetically pleasing and how the shadows interact with especially darker colors. Beyond that, stylistically I experimented with the paper cut style. I was entirely unfamiliar with this style and technique so there was certainly a learning curve with understanding how to represent things with such simple planes of color. I was lucky I started with a challenging figure in The Emperor because after that many forms were easy to create in comparison. Overall I think this was also a good experimental look into card making and creating products using art.
Critique (Compare & Contrast to Inspiration)
In this critique I will be comparing and contrasting my pieces with both classic tarot cards and the Blue Nude series by Henri Matisse.
Similarities
-Comparing my piece to Matisse's, both are done in the paper cut style with simplistic shapes and forms. This involves large areas in single colors. -Both are 2-dimensional pieces with representation of the human figure in them, though Matisse's have a very different style. -Comparing my pieces to the designs of classic tarot cards, mine invoke many of the same elements and generally share similar depictions and images to the originals. |
Differences
-While Matisse's pieces are actually made with cut paper, mine are only meant to invoke the style. -My pieces involve far more variety in terms of color and texture than matisses. where he relies purely on blue in his series, my pieces involve many more complex layered figures with more colors and patterns. -Comparing my pieces to the designs of classic tarot cards, mine are a lot more simplified than the originals. Many of the cards have a lot of extra symbols in them however I simplified their design in favor of aesthetics. |
Reflection
During this process I feel like I heavily developed my Procreate skills especially regarding some of the less used features including Gaussian blur and layer color correction. I have never really explored these previously and learning them has greatly expanded my skillset. I also have never really deviated this far from my normal illustration style digitally (my farthest was likely my King of Diamonds Illustration) so this was overall a very interesting and growing experience. I also appreciate my unique inspirations for this piece, I enjoyed exploring a different artist as well as a unique type of art object in the form of tarot decks. This project overall ties together some of the previous experiences I have had with both digital art and card making over these past few months. I feel I can already see great improvement in both my card making (Growth since my playing card) and growth overall in terms of digital illustration and use of Procreate. I experienced several challenges along the process of this piece, my biggest one was simply utilizing the style and medium effectively to convey the images I wanted. Tarot cards are often complex, so they were incredibly difficult to reduce into simplistic forms and non-cluttered designs. My favorite part of this process overall was the diversity between the cards, I never felt bored during their creation because each card felt unique and exciting to work on. Nothing dragged on due to the fact that the overall piece was split into three distinct smaller pieces. I hope others are able to see my work and appreciate the unique stylistic choices I made and possibly gain some understanding or interest in tarot as both a game and historical art form.
ACT Connections
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
-My artist inspiration directly inspires the stylistic elements of my work while tarot cards as an art object inspiration inspire the content of my work.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- Over time tarot cards have greatly evolved and come to mean many different things to different people. With cards being made by many throughout the world and years, the cards may mean different things to different people. My work is only a reflection of a few of these interpretations.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
-I learned a lot about Tarot during my preliminary research for this project, there was a lot more variation and history to the game than I had initially thought.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
-The central idea is style and method as well as format in the sense that I heavily looked into tarot cards as an art form in order to find inspiration for my work.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
-I realized that tarot was incredibly complicated, and I needed to work to ensure my cards included at least some of the symbolism associated with the originals.
-My artist inspiration directly inspires the stylistic elements of my work while tarot cards as an art object inspiration inspire the content of my work.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- Over time tarot cards have greatly evolved and come to mean many different things to different people. With cards being made by many throughout the world and years, the cards may mean different things to different people. My work is only a reflection of a few of these interpretations.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
-I learned a lot about Tarot during my preliminary research for this project, there was a lot more variation and history to the game than I had initially thought.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
-The central idea is style and method as well as format in the sense that I heavily looked into tarot cards as an art form in order to find inspiration for my work.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
-I realized that tarot was incredibly complicated, and I needed to work to ensure my cards included at least some of the symbolism associated with the originals.
Citations
“Nu bleu IV, 1952 by Henri Matisse” www.henrimatisse.org/nu-bleu.jsp. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.
Parlett, David. “Tarot | History, Meaning & Uses” Britannica, 4 May 1999, www.britannica.com/topic/tarot. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.
Parlett, David. “Tarot | History, Meaning & Uses” Britannica, 4 May 1999, www.britannica.com/topic/tarot. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.