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I was commissioned to do this piece for an SF tarot deck by a fan named Bruce Pelz. He commissioned one artist per card, so you can guess that a lot of artists were involved in the project. It took Bruce years to finish it. I think the deck only came out, finally, in 1984. By that time I knew I could have done better than this.
Bruce paid not only for the rights, but the original too. I then made a second copy from scratch, for my own collection. I remember too being a little irritated that better known artists were paid more for their work than I was. I've no hard figures though, and don't know who was
paid more and who might have been paid less even. In retrospect it doesn't seem to have been quite as much an assault on my ego as it did then. I scanned the card rather than my oriignal, so the colours are a little murkey and you can make out the benday. What surprised me about the job was than nobody had snapped up the magician yet, even though I was far from the first asked to pick.
As you can see, I've been doing my signature "Kjola" for a very long time.
Bruce paid not only for the rights, but the original too. I then made a second copy from scratch, for my own collection. I remember too being a little irritated that better known artists were paid more for their work than I was. I've no hard figures though, and don't know who was
paid more and who might have been paid less even. In retrospect it doesn't seem to have been quite as much an assault on my ego as it did then. I scanned the card rather than my oriignal, so the colours are a little murkey and you can make out the benday. What surprised me about the job was than nobody had snapped up the magician yet, even though I was far from the first asked to pick.
As you can see, I've been doing my signature "Kjola" for a very long time.
Category All / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 400 x 599px
File Size 110.5 kB
Wow! Nice color rendering! I like the composition and once again, your effortless collection of components in a drawing have done you well in this one. I used to be into that Tatot stuff before several very intense scientific studies and three graciously explained mathematical theorems blew all that new age trash right out of the water. I have to say, I would like to see or perhaps buy the whole pack at one time, just to have lying around. Be damned Taral, I'd do well to learn a few things from you about color composition!
I cranked out about 1/3 of a deck near the end of last year. The key is doing it in a medium and style that you don't have to think about any more - all you have to think about is the concepts you've decided the card is about. Put in just enough detail for the final size, they don't have to stand up to being reproduced 10' high!
Oh yeah, and there are some pretty complex structures that dictate the imagery of the number cards, if you want to let them. Numerology + astrological cross-assignments + various other signifiers, depending on whose writings you work from.
So it's a series of restrictions: this card must include ten swords. It's about ruin, death, defeat, and disruption. Can I work in references to the Sun and Gemini, the astrological references? Can I work in sly references to other cards I've drawn so far? The elemental association is air; can I bring that in?
It sounds like a lot to think about but surprisingly, it really isn't - I get a rough concept about the card's basic intent, then work in the other stuff as I refine the rough. And it made me illustrate a lot of concepts I wouldn't have otherwise, which was fun.
Oh yeah, and there are some pretty complex structures that dictate the imagery of the number cards, if you want to let them. Numerology + astrological cross-assignments + various other signifiers, depending on whose writings you work from.
So it's a series of restrictions: this card must include ten swords. It's about ruin, death, defeat, and disruption. Can I work in references to the Sun and Gemini, the astrological references? Can I work in sly references to other cards I've drawn so far? The elemental association is air; can I bring that in?
It sounds like a lot to think about but surprisingly, it really isn't - I get a rough concept about the card's basic intent, then work in the other stuff as I refine the rough. And it made me illustrate a lot of concepts I wouldn't have otherwise, which was fun.
The next significant question for me would be "why"? If some publisher was going to snap them up, pay a whopping great advance, plus royalites, and sold thousands of decks, that would be a great reason to do a whole tarot deck. But juding from my experiences with selling furry stuff in the past, I'd work for 19 weeks and make forty-two ninety-five after the expenses of printing 'em myself.
The other posible answer to the question "why" is Great Personal Significance. But alas, I've no interest in the tarot at all, not even as an unbeliever fascinated by the history, tradition, and complexity. I did the Magician because I was paid to, and that was all.
The other posible answer to the question "why" is Great Personal Significance. But alas, I've no interest in the tarot at all, not even as an unbeliever fascinated by the history, tradition, and complexity. I did the Magician because I was paid to, and that was all.
That sounds right. But as I recall, the guy who commissioned the art for this deck also commissioned a small number of custom cards, so that the deck was larger than usual. I don't recall what the number was, though. I could count them, but that would mean getting out of the chair...
I dunno. The tarot images are highly symbolic. I doubt I could match much of my art with the specific needs of the Major Arcana. The Lower Arcana -- what we know as the ordinary playing card -- would be easy. A nine of hearts doesn't really need a particular picture.
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