Good Morning My Friends!
Today I want to talk about my process, kinda a like an” exclusive inside look" thing.
Alright!

1. The Conception

First I read. I read a number of books I check out my "companion books" these books usually come with a specific deck there small and usually give you an overview of the card and you can sometimes gain a little insight on why they made there cards the way they did. I own four decks myself; Rider-Waite (By A E Waite & Pamela Colman-Smith A go-to classic), The Golden Dawn Magical (by the Sandra Tabitha Cicero and Chic Cicero), The Classic Tarot (18 century woodcut prints by Caude Burdel) and The Golden Dawn (Illustrated by Robert Wang under the direction of Israel Regardie) I read all of them and cross reference them. I try not to focus on the pictures too much I might look it over real quick for the general idea of things but most of it comes from the text (I want this to be MY deck after all) I also try to weed out certain thing that don’t make sense to me or that I think will put the cards in a "narrower field of perspective". Anything that "assigned" to the cards or that I think will away from the basic idea of the card (i.e. astrological signs, Hebrew alphabet...ect.ect.). The things I do keep in are basic ideas, feelings and emotions any body stance or pose and objects needed to help get the feeling/idea across. Usually I make a couple of quick thumbnail sketches before I get too cluttered up with information at this point. Then I get into the bigger things Garden Of Pomegranates by Israel Regardie How to understand the Tarot by Frank Linn and a couple of others that I have floating around here (I think I left them in the basement and feel too lazy to go look...is that bad?) basically I'm looking for flaws in my interpretations of the cards ,which is why I try and do that thumbnail sketch oh and also I've been going http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/ a lot too (my deck will be reviewed and posted there soon.)If I think I understand it I start sketching if not I meditate re-read and try it again (and sometimes ...try it AGAIN.)

2. Lay out

This is very important to me ...how the card looks and how it comes across. I cant just draw any-old way I like since I have to be carving and printing them. I have a look that I'm going for that’s not too basic but also isn’t too cluttered up either. I can’t just "let loose" on these. Each card needs to translate into exactly what I have in mind that takes a lot of my self-control and focus. Also I have to think about the parameters of the material I'm carving them out of because one of my rules for carving is "mistakes are left in". That means if I screw up while carving I cant go back and re-carve it until NEXT YEAR...that means I have to get it as right as I can the FIRST time which means my drawing has to be as good as I can make it before it hits the block.(here’s some sketches I did for card 12 the Hanged Man) after I think I have everything right where I want it and it's the right size (cant shrink it on a copier.) I make a tracing of it ( couldnt find the Hanged man but here's a tracing of the SUN) then I turn it over and retrace it onto the block. Then to fix it onto the block I go over it again in permanent marker (if you’re counting I have now drawn and re-drawn the same image at least four times.)...NOW I'M READY TO CARVE!