Card Drawing Process

I'd like to show people who are interested how I go about creating my tarot cards. First things first: choosing a card. Usually, ideas come from cards that show up frequently in spreads. Over time, I become quite familiar with a repetitious card and start imagining a basic composition.

Then: read, read, read. I bone up on explanations regarding the card I want to draw or cards that I have a particular interest in. Other people's perspectives give me more ideas, symbols to add to my compositions; sometimes they spark other connections between meanings and the images used to symbolize those meanings. By reading and re-reading card meanings, I build up sort of a repository of tarot definitions and significations in my mind, and I consult them when I'm looking through books for ideas. Sometimes when leafing through one of my books, a painting or drawing catches my eye, and I'm able to correlate that image with a tarot card, how I want to draw it, specifically.

For example, I was looking through Dore's Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy, and when I saw his etching of Francesca and Paolo da Rimini stuck in the second level of hell, I knew I wanted to use that composition for my Lovers card (which I will do, after I finish the three cards that I'm now working on).

These images often lead to others, triggering ideas for other cards. I looked up the story of Francesca and Paolo and also found this beautiful painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Perhaps an idea for the Two of Cups? I don't know yet.

I write down all the attributes of the card I'm going to sketch, all the possible symbols I'd like to include, right on the paper on which I'm sketching. For instance, in my sketch for card XIII--Death, I wrote down:

• skeleton riding a horse
• Durer's Pluto and Proserpine
• banner with mystic white rose--rebirth
• ending
• going through transition, moving from known to unknown
• eliminating excess, concentrating on essentials
• frog/toad--movie between worlds (water and earth), seem to die and be reborn
• scarab beetle--transforms bodies and souls
• phoenix
• holly
• cypress (Victorian floriography)
• belladonna
• white lilies
• acanthus
• triumphal arch--death always wins, memento mori, the only thing constant is change

I didn't incorporate all of these ideas into the sketch, but they gave me a deeper understanding of the card. (These basic tenets of the Death card came from Joan Bunning's wonderful Learn the Tarot website.)

My sketches are the same size as the finished card: 5.5" x 8.5" (actually 6" x 9", but scaled down after scanning). As you can see from the picture, some sketches only include the central figure or basic composition. With these cards, I feel comfortable adding elements as I go along, working straight onto the finished card. The majority of sketches have most of or the entire scene of the card in line work.

After the sketch is completed and the critical lines of the drawing are darkened with a softer pencil or pen, I trace the sketch onto a piece of smooth bristol using a light box. Then, the inking begins!

An Ernst Haeckel Plate

Some of my favorite references to glean ideas from are Rackham's Illustrations for Wagner's Ring, Ernst Haeckel's Art Forms in Nature, Treasury of Art Nouveau Design and Ornament, Heck's Pictorial Archive of Nature and Science, Kay Nielsen's Fairy Tale Illustrations, among others. I also have a "secret" Pinterest board on which I pin references and ideas for cards.

From Heck's Pictorial Guide

Also from Heck's Pictorial Guide

I will add another entry about "Painting and Finishing the Cards" when I actually do paint and finish some!

Three of Wands

The Three of Wands--a card of vision and foresight and planning. A man stands facing the sea beyond the magical mountainous formations, two wands in his hands and one driven into the ground, eyeing the unexplored island in view. His presence is certain and commanding; he hungers for the unknown, to explore and discover and expand his horizons.

I have included two cats also, as these animals (usually lions and tigers) are frequently associated with fire, the element of the wands suit. The plant in the foreground is Centaurea maculosa, a pioneer species, hardy creatures that are the first on the scene to colonize broken ecosystems. These species pave the way for others and help create new and more stable ecosystems. There are several seeds of Centaurea wafting through the air, and maybe just one will make the difficult journey to that island or other islands beyond. As such, this card reminds us that there are other opportunities outside our known and familiar environments, and we must be bold and open-minded in order to find them.

I have also drawn a spider web, indicative of hard and strategic work. Fruit adorns the boughs of the tree, signifying the rewards of persistence.

Queen of Swords

She is the Queen of Swords--calm, cool, and utterly collected. Don't stare too long into her eyes, unless you want them to pierce right through the pith of you, for this queen is perceptive and very intelligent. Even if she does take your measure, her understanding of what she sees is unbiased and intellectual, and you can expect her to be honest.

I have included in my design many creatures of the air, the element of the swords suit, including the snowy owl. The owl is a well-known symbol of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom who popped right out of Zeus's head fully grown and armed. The snowy owl in particular hunts using what is called the "sit-and-wait" method, relying on its own patience and astuteness to catch its meal.

I have also drawn a number of nests with eggs in order to indicate the latent power that is inherent in all queens. Like Joan Bunning says, queens express the qualities of their suits from the inside. In a sense, the eggs within the nests symbolize the birthing of ideas.

The flowers at the queen's feet are anemones, or windflowers. Anemone is Greek for "daughter of the wind," which is very fitting in the case of the Queen of Swords.

Page of Cups

The youthful Page of Cups. She's a mermaid, in her element--water, holding a beautiful goblet and staring at it for all the possibility it represents! According to Joan Bunning, she is emotional, intuitive, intimate, and loving, and I couldn't think of a better creature of the water to emphasize these qualities and the child-like character of the page than the sea otter ( I was going to add a dolphin because of their social nature and constitution for communication, but they will figure into other cups cards). Sea otters are always ready for play, and when they are ready for sleep, they wrap themselves in kelp and hold hands to keep from drifting away from the group.

Sea otters are also an example of a keystone species: they prey on sea urchins and keep the numbers of those echinoderms in check, determining the well-being of the whole ecosystem. Areas without sea otters are often deserts of urchins without any kelp forests, which support an extremely high number of species. The sea otters also keep mussels in check by removing them from rocks, allowing for greater biodiversity in those habitats as well. So, one can view these creatures as messengers of a sort, with their presence indicative of the health of the ecosystem on the whole.

XIX--The Sun

I loved drawing this card; I really felt the energy of it as I was working through the design. In my version, the sun bursts forth from a lush bloom, enlightening everything beneath it. There really is no hiding in the stark light of day--all is apparent and the truth of the whole is laid bare. I have included the naked child that is in the original RWS design; in my drawing, he has an aureole around his head and is basking in the sun's rays--he represents the happiness and joy that we feel when we are in-tuned with ourselves at all levels of being and consciousness.

I have also included the four sunflowers of the RWS design, and they are flourishing and beaming under the sun. Some cultivars of sunflowers average 12-16 feet, while the tallest on record is an astonishing 28 feet! Humans domesticated the wild flower and have bred them with their stunning and glorious influorescences and height in mind. When they bloom in my garden in late summer and early autumn, they truly are the stars of the show--they are what everyone notices, especially the bees! I love watching their heads turn with the movement of the sun throughout the day...