The idea to create a new Tarot deck from scratch emerged during a trip to Berlin in January 2023: The friendly reception I received during the latest exhibition of my Coven of Corals Tarot at Galander Charlottenburg was absolutely heart-warming and very satisfying - it felt like the celebratory conclusion of an artistic project that had been the central piece of my artistic work since 2021. During the time that I spent showcasing and manufacturing my Tarot, I received a lot of feedback from my audience - emotional reactions, questions, passionate praise from buyers of my handmade card deck as well as bewilderment by people feeling offended by my art during public exhibitions.
So, after taking in all these experiences, I felt the urge to go back to the drawing table and give the subject matter another go: Incorporating the feedback that resonated most with my artistic vision, and employing new methods that I had learned along the way. I was eager to return to the intense, personal and secluded experience of creating a whole card deck, a self-contained cosmos of my art.
With my new deck, I particularly sought to emphasize diverse body types, include more male and transmasculine bodies and give the cards a distinctive, highly recognisable color scheme - which became the guiding ideas for my Neon Kruppa Tarot !
One of the first new cards I created in this spirit was „The Magician“ - here you can follow the creation of this card step by step:
1) I selected a pose from the "Assassin" reference photo package I acquired from Grafit Studio, Yerevan. The pose felt like a good starting point to build on the gesture of my previous „Magician“ card but make it more dynamic and lifelike. I used KRITA to trace the outlines of the photo, which I then printed on thick BIOTOP 3 paper.
2) Switching to paper, I used 4B pencil to build my drawing on top of the softly printed outlines. In this sketchy state, you can see how I use multiple lines to capture the volume of the anatomy.
3) This is the final, paper-based drawing which I scanned and continued to process digitally in the following steps.
4) I used KRITA to add a dark gray background and place lights in a brighter shade of gray.
5) Using a digital ink brush, I highlight the outlines for additional contrast and a more "comic"-like look.
6) The gray values are mapped to astral purple for the distinctive palette of my "Major Arcana" cards.
7) A darker shade of purple is used for details, suggesting a long-sleeved body suit with an intricate pattern of stripes and mesh.
8) Brilliant turquoise is added to highlight the long hair, which evolves into a kind of cape.
9) In the final step, I adapt saturation and brightness to compensate for slight losses during printing. The card frame, caption and numbers are added in SKETCH, a vector-graphics software.
How do you like my new Tarot card, The Magician? Is there anything else you would like to know about it? If you would like to own my Neon Kruppa Tarot, you can pre-order the cards starting now. You can read all about my new card deck in this recent blog entry.
Enjoy,
Tobias