Making your Own Tarot Deck

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Making your Own Tarot Deck

Posted by: "Cindi/Epona'Bri"

purplesoul3@...

eponabri

Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:29 am (PST)

Making your Own Tarot Deck

There is going to come a time in your Tarot practice where you say to

yourself: Hey, I know just what would make a perfect Tarot! And you're going

to start making notes, and maybe sketches and collages, and then you're

going to realize what a crazy insane thing creating a good deck is, and if

you're smart you'll put the finger paints away and go back to using one of

the nice decks all those other harebrained crazies were nice enough to make

for you. If you've totally lost your marbles, you'll go ahead and make up

your own deck anyways, and then--if you've totally lost it -- you'll try to

get it published. And you'll probably succeed!

The first thing you need to know about Tarot creation is that it looks so

easy, and it is easy to sketch out that initial work, but working out all

the details -- that's where the tough stuff is. True Tarot wiggles and

jiggles around in your hands -- I am not joking -- it's a living tool. You

think you have a card just right and then something will jump out and spoil

the whole thing for you, and you'll say "Oh, gee, we have to do this card

again." and again, and again. Crowley thought it was going to be easy to

just throw together a nice little deck -- and his deck took over five years

with help from an accomplished artist, and his Thoth deck still didn't get

published until after he was dead!

Then, too, think of your art skills. Even if you are a champion doodler,

even professional illustrators think of 23 pictures, (that is the 22 Major

Arcana and the back design, never mind the fifty six Minor Arcana yet) as a

serious undertaking. That's why many of the Tarot creators of the past few

centuries have worked as a team with an art professional. Waite had Colman

, Crowley had . Shows what a crazyperson Robin Wood is-- this

woman had the chutzpah to do it all herself!

One of the pitfalls is that since it takes so long to complete such a long

series, the style and execution of the artwork often changes as the deck is

completed, sometimes leading to a feeling of discontinuity in the deck

itself (One of my favorite examples of this is the Mythic Tarot, which I

feel boasts some of the best and also the worst examples in Tarot art.) Some

people find clever (but IMHO annoying) work arounds, like the identical save

for the suit and color scheme court cards of Ellen Cannon 's Witches

Tarot.

Because of it's many illustrations, Tarot is a great proving ground/practice

project for any artist of any media. Witness the sheer number of art decks

that now exist. The weakness in this is that not all artists have a subtle

background in the esoteric materials needed to help shape a true Tarot, or a

real discernment of what adds to, takes away from, or hides the light of the

truth.

If you are utterly determined, let me give you some real advice:

Take it easy on yourself. Unless you are a real professional artist, don't

despair if your pictures aren't perfect. Try to see them with eyes of loving

affection.

Realistically, it may take you several years to complete a deck. Unlike a

rune set, which can be made from clay or wood in a few hours, a Tarot deck

is a serious effort. If you need a set right away to work with or learn from

-- just buy one.

You might want to familiarize yourself with the different parts of a Tarot

deck. I'm not saying that you should adhere slavishly to this ideal, but

keeping these points in mind will make it easier to use your deck with other

published materials, and will make it easier for others to approach your

Tarot. (Of course, no one ever said your Tarot can't just be an

idiosyncratic nightmare meant just and only for yourself.. Actually, that's

probably the best kind.)

Think about the way you do Tarot as well as the why. Do you use reversed

cards? Make sure you use a double sided back design so that the backs of the

cards don't give away which cards are reversed. Otherwise, keep the back

design simple, unless the back is preprinted or will be put on by some easy

means like linoleum or block printing, stencil or stamping. ( For those of

you who are planning to hand paint your SCA arms on the back of each card

that'll make your deck an opus of 156 leetle tiny pictures. That's a project

for some Scribes' Guild, for sure!)

Make the deck the right size-shape for your hands. I have fairly large hands

and long fingers. I love big decks, and usually people think that makes

sense. But I also use tiny decks, and though it looks ridiculous, I have no

trouble shuffling them (most of the time.) But that's me. On the other hand,

I love the look of them, but just can't shuffle the round cards, no matter

what size they are. Think about your preferences and needs. It is YOUR deck,

after all.

The art made for most decks that are published today is usually made a bit

larger than the standard card size. They photograph/scan these originals as

flat art, and reduce the image to fit on the cards -- which I think is

actually not always such a good idea. Some of those details get very hard to

see and don't print well. At the same time, it is easier to draw detail in

that way. It also gives you a complete control over choice of medium. If you

plan on directly drawing on plate or blank card stocks, you need to think

carefully about your media.

Use good stuff to make it with. You will feel so sad if your Tarot deck gets

faded and yellow over time. Paints, pencils and markers come in different

grades and prices. The higher grades, more expensive prices usually mean

better permanence, less fading and less color change over time-- and that

should be important to you for something you will be investing so much time

and spirit into.

Use an appropriate media. I personally favor oil crayons. Crayons in general

Oil crayons, pastels, regular crayons -- these are all messy and rub off on

everything. They make rich deep colors, and are easy to use. One of my

favorite decks was clearly made in such a medium (The Celtic Wisdom Tarot)

Though I love crayons, for cards that I would be shuffling, stuffing in a

bag, carrying around with me - pastels or oil crayons would be a bad media

choice. Even regular crayon pictures transfer and stick together. Acrylic

paint is sticky-ish even when dry if applied with any texture at all. Unless

you're going to reproduce the pictures you create for you deck, water color

and watercolor markers and colored pencils are probably the best media for

most amateur Tarot artists. You can use watercolor paints and colored

pencils together.

There are a couple blank decks sold by US Games that might be a good

foundation for your work. Also, there is a book called "Creating Your Own

Tarot Cards" by Garen, but I really feel this book is best used by

persons with a few years of experience with Tarot. A good compromise would

be to color in a black and white deck, such as the BOTA deck Coloring in a

Tarot deck was all the rage as a way to learn Tarot when I first started

doing Tarot oh so many years ago. US Games sells several black and white

decks. I myself colored in a set of Rider illustrations found in one of

Garen's other books "Tarot Made Easy", and I feel the exercise was

well worth while. In my Open Tarot class at Gentle Wind in Columbus, Ohio,

we eat cookies, drink tea and color in the Trumps from the BOTA deck as part

of in class work.

Ages before we were married, I created a Tarrochi deck with the man who is

now my husband. This black and white line-art deck was designed to be used

to teach the game of Tarrochi in period style at SCA events. Only the Major

Arcana and the Court have pictures. And man -- that was enough! Most of the

illustrations in Imram Tarot are from my hand-colored copy of that deck.

The following three graphics show the process we went through to create each

card. First, I came up with a basic concept and symbolism, which we

discussed at length. I made a sketch, and gave this sketch to my artist.

The artist created a line drawing based on my sketch and suggestions, which

we looked at together. Sometimes he produced two or three different versions

and we selected the one we both liked best.

After any changes and a final decision was made, the art was put into a

border and the pages were laid out camera-ready to be printed. After sets

were printed on a thick card stock, we both hand colored our own sets. This

is from mine.

Despite the craziness that turned into, my soulmate/life partner and I are

in the process of creating a 78 card esoteric deck now. E-mail me if you

might be interested in a copy of my Tarrochi Kit which features a copy of

our deck in color-it-yourself black and white plus instructions on how to

play Tarrochi.

You will also want to read about the efforts others have experienced in

creating Tarot. Robin Wood's book has a very human, modest account of her

work, even showing the development of some of her cards. I've read little

bits here and there about Crowley and Frieda , K. Greer's book

Women of the Golden Dawn has a surprising amount of Tarot creation

background in it. Wanless' Voyager Tarot book is full of deck creation

info. There's more, I'm sure.

Once you get started, I am sure you will start to really admire the prolific

genius of such artists as Hunt, (who has several decks in current

publication in conjunction with authors like Sirona Knight and DJ Conway,

including the Shapeshifter Tarot, and the Dragon Tarot) Kit West (Cat Tarot,

Halloween Tarot) even Amy and Monty Zerner Farber who whip out new

divinatory systems with such speed it makes my head turn.