Wind Rose

This tarot deck design started as an exercise in a new technique. I almost always use traditional media of some sort for my illustrations and art,either it’s pen and ink, watercolor, technical or gel pens, markers or pencils. But while I started working on this deck I was getting used to digitally drawing on an app in my phone, and I wanted a project that would allow me to practice, after I got tired of drawing just dogs from the dog park for a few month.

In this deck, the medium is in fact, in many ways, the message, or rather, it affected the style of the deck and the symbolism in it in many ways. First of all, because I wanted the deck to have a more modern feel. Using the app color palette and the perfect flat style of coloring, already pushed the illustrations into a less traditional direction, and so, I wanted to combine more modern artifacts, fashion and style.

Also, there’s something about working on my phone feels almost opposite to working in a sketchbook or studio. When I draw in traditional means, I feel like I’m folding inward, looking into myself and being aware of my thoughts and feelings. While drawing in the phone, I felt like I was constantly barraged with the world. Getting notifications about Facebook update, emails, an occasional phone call, having all the information, resources and reference material within a couple of clicks. I wanted to capture that connected feeling in the deck and so the imagery in it is very eclectic, connecting past, present and future, Native American chiefs with European kings, Egyptian priestesses, children birthday parties, toys and animals, old, new and imaginary.

Another really strong motif that infiltrated into this deck is luck and randomness. There are a lot of cards within the cards, as well as roulettes, stage magicians and circus performers, this theme is also expressed in the quite a lot of snakes, that to me, represent transition, rebirth and an almost alchemical transition from one thing to another.