Color Your Own Cards?

[ladyseishou]

I have been fascinated by the idea of designing my own tarot cards (and purchased a blank deck of cards for such a purpose) but I've never been able to fully commit myself to the project (the blank page has nothing on the intimidating power of the blank card IMO :-)

So it was an interesting find, while looking through the shelves of my favorite used bookstore a few weeks ago, Juliet Sharman’s Complete Tarot Pack. The bumper pack not only included the book, The New Complete Book of Tarot but two decks of tarot cards illustrated by Giovanni Caselli – one with fully colored artwork and the other featuring only line art (like a coloring book):



It seemed like the perfect opportunity to experiment with a simplified aspect of the cards: color. But even as I held the line art deck in my hands, I was confounded by the seemingly simple questions of what color and why.



I suppose the question of black and white is culturally loaded. For example, I know that in Asian cultures, white is the color associated with death and mourning. So as an individual of Asian ethnicity, should I follow the color scheme that prescribes the use of white to represent “peace, purity and spirituality”?

My intuition is strangely divided on this as I study the line art of the cards.

Here are some additional color suggestions provided in the “Colour your own deck” booklet:

• Red is associated with passion, warmth, strength and vitality, but also war, aggression and danger.
  
  
• Blue is connected with sensitivity, independence and tradition, yet it is also associated with introversion, moodiness and melancholy.
  
  
• Yellow is the colour of the mind, intelligence and communication, but is also associated with cowardice and a reluctance to resort to physical conflict.
  
  
• Green is the colour of healing, regeneration , sympathy and peace, yet it also has other, less pleasant, associations as bad luck and envy.
  
  
• Orange is the colour of joy, liveliness, enthusiasm and optimism; it is often associated with luck and good fortune.
  
  
• Purple is linked with wisdom, majesty, sophisticated power and philosophy; mauve and indigo are connected with intuition, inspiration and spirituality.
  

The booklet also provides the following interesting advice:

As you think about the colours and decide what each one means to you, you will start to learn more about yourself and about how your personal tastes and preferences have evolved. This, in itself, can be a fascinating discover, as many of your associations will have been made in childhood and you may have either forgotten how they came about or never given it much thought, until now.

Perhaps my hesitation is another sign that I’m not ready to design my own cards – apparently I am still a student of myself. My journey to self-awareness continues.

Still, the kid in me itches to color in the sun on the card for the Fool… maybe a bright yellow or orange. Just because ;-)



Has anyone else taken on the challenge of designing their own Tarot cards? Or modify an existing card?

Comments

[sofiaviolet]

I have given serious thought to painting some individual cards - not as cards, but as works of (meaningful) art. I got as far as buying the necessary materials, but I've chickened out as far as actually doing it. I also don't know what I would do with the cards once they're created.

[ladyseishou]

I think a series of art pieces based on tarot imagery sounds like a cool project. I'm not sure what size you were thinking of working with but if you were okay with something trading card size (3 1/2 by 2 1/2), you might look into something like ACEO cards.

Actually, I might try this myself :-) Material is readily available and somewhat inexpensive but I've never done anything that small before. But it might be fun for a study (or studies) of a specific image.

[sofiaviolet]

I was thinking somewhat larger than ACEO, actually. 4x5 or bigger - which is why I'm so sure they won't be usable as cards.

Now I'm wanting to make an entire deck of ACEOs. ;)

[ladyseishou]

Yes! ^__^

[melannen]

I've always kind of felt that the best tarot deck was one I'd drawn and designed myself, so I've been working on it sort of half-heartedly for about ten years. But my art skills are still in need of improvement, and there's always more to learn that needs to be worked into the designs, so I've never finished more than a few cards per deck.

The last one I finished (since I already had it up) is the Death card from a poetry-themed deck, based on the Emily Dickinson poem Because I Could Not Stop For Death and the 19th century Breton Death, Ankou the cartier, and designs from late Victorian tombstones.

I based the design around the color green for Death, because green is the Northern European death color, and it still shows up in American superstition, and both of those are my home traditions; and because I like the contrast between the green of death and decay and the green of life and birth, and the way it resonates with the Tarot's concept of death as a change, not an end, which is also something that shows up in the poem.

I do tend to switch between thinking that it's important to tie Tarot designs back to the orginial Rennaissance European traditions it's based on, and thinking that using whatever symbology resonates with me personally, or with the tradition I'm working in, is enough. But even the old traditional Tarot decks had so much variation, and borrowed from so many cultures themselves, that it's usually possible to combine thet two, to take the original Tarot elements and meanings and reinterpret them through the lens of your own traditions, even traditions that are very distant from the original. We do that every time we read Tarot anyway; so it's good to work it into the designs.

(You know, it would be a neat activity for this community for everybody to take one of your uncolored cards and color it themselves, and then we could all post and compare.)

[ladyseishou]

Thank you very much for sharing the information (and the link) about Ankou - I hadn't heard this story before! And I think that your card design incorporates all your references very well. And colored pencil! It is my favorite medium!

What you say about the color green is well taken (the dual nature of the color is something I will keep in mind).

I also like your suggestion about the line art cards. I'll need to check with mskala first, but I would be willing to mail several of the cards (depending on interest) to members that may be interested in the "experiment" of coloring their own card and sharing their work with the comm (I prefer to send the original card rather than scanning the cards to avoid any copyright issues but perhaps there won't be that many of us who might want to try this).

[mskala]

I don't think you need my permission - I'd say sure, go ahead. As for copyright issues I'm inclined to leave that up to individuals to decide for themselves what they're comfortable doing.

[ladyseishou]

Thank you! (and you are our mod after all). I'll put together a post (for tomorrow I think - tonight is for celebrating!)

And I guess I was hoping that if I distributed original cards with line art from a tarot deck that had been purchased (and assuming that royalties are forwarded to the appropriate people from the sale) that our little experiment would be viewed more as "editorial" review (or artistic use) of the original artwork.

But of course, as you say, everyone would have to decide for themselves if they wanted to participate. I'll try to make that very clear in my post.

[melannen]

That was actually my first experiment with water-color pencil! As you can see, I haven't quite got the hang of blending it yet.

You know, we could probably even use the uncolored Rider-Waite-Smith cards; they're public domain, so we could send them around however we wanted. (I have a copy of the Pictorial Key I could scan them out of and e-mail to people, if nobody has higher-quality versions.)

[ladyseishou]

I don't know, I like the color! I've tried water color pencils but never felt very comfortable with them (although, like your sky, the medium seems perfect for sky and water subjects). I'm fond of mixing by glazing with white (or another suitable base color).

I like your idea about using Rider-Waite-Smith line art (yeah! for public domain). I've found the following website with images of the Major Arcana (although your Pictorial Key might be better quality):

The Tarot Institute

What do you think? The Major Arcana may be enough for our use... and we could start right away. Maybe?

[melannen]

Yeah, the sky came out pretty well! The wheat, not so much.

If you wanted to print it out in a fairly high quality, those might be a little small, but they'd probably work for our purposes! We could offer those, and then if anybody needed a bigger one, I could scan.

Were you thinking letting people claim a card, or having everybody do the same at the same time, or a free-for-all, or what?

[ladyseishou]

I was thinking of everyone trying their hand at two cards if we use the Rider-Waite-Smith line art: the Fool (for everyone) and then member's choice. The Fool might allow everyone to discuss their color choice in common and a second card would allow everyone select a personal favorite. If it turns out that enough members enjoy the activity, we might expand it to all the Major Arcana (and Minor Arcana if we can find suitable images) with a sign-up for different cards so we could assemble a complete tarot set that would come from the entire community. But that's probably for later.

Hey - thanks very much for all your help and advice!

[melannen]

That sounds like a great idea! (And, hey, I'm having fun.)