The Preliminary Hermit

The first draft of the hermit...done 4 years ago. Over the past years I focused on the research and now I'm doing the design work. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to carving, starting the strength card, or wait till I've designed the rest of the deck.

Yesterday's digital collage, design work to prep for woodcut prints.

 

every time i look at the traditional hermit card my brain starts singing "this little light of mine..."

 i've always thought the lantern in the waite card looked like a cage holding a star prisoner...

 

Look at my card and the Waite side by side:

in the Waite card the hermit stands upon a baren mountain top with his caged star...

In my version the hermit holds his broken lantern/cage in corn fields admiring the feral stars in the heavens...

in the traditional card the hermit is holding his knowledge to himself, yes we do need to seek alone time to gather our thoughts and develop our higher selves but at some point we need to leave the mountain top and free the light...share our knowledge with others so that it grows and bears fruit...

Master's Update 2-18-2009

Empress proof red state and yellow state

Empress proof blue states. On the left I used lots and lots of medium for more transparency. The one on right was the 1st state which I found to make the sky a little too intensely purple.

Empress Keyline states

The four colors brought together in one. The one on left is the 1st one printed using the blue that I found to pigmented. Don't want the sky to be that purple. the one on Right is just right; although I believe I will carve out much of the moon.

Lighter blue proofs. The one on right is just right the one on left is too light.

tried to print a priestess block for spot color, specifically for the library perspective lines. Mistakenly grabbed an unvarnished block and the ink bled...If I can see the kentos (registration marks) well enough I will use this block, otherwise it goes unused...when I tried to print another one the ink started acting strange on the mylar. It was drying before I could transfer. Something must have gotten in the ink or on the plate and was reacting with the ink. I will try again as I need two spot color blocks for this print. The other spot color block I'm not happy with as it looks to be off registration -- although I may find this to be untrue after a proofing...

The priestess keyline with the old lines removed from the library.

The following documents are my research on the hermit card. I start by looking at the same card from 4 different decks and writing down every little iconic thing I think of while looking at it. Then I do more research with books.

the following documents are my research into the various meanings of the hermit card, modern and historical. I use several books from my own collection of books on the Tarot. See the bibliography at the end of this blog. Remember you can always click on any of these images to see them enlarged, afterward click your browser's back button to return to this blog.

Research BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Akron & Banzhaf, Hajo. The Crowley Tarot: The Handbook to the Cards. Connecticut: U.S. Games. 1995
Berti, Gianluca, Gonard, Tiberio. Tarot of the New Vision. Italy: Lo Scarabeo. 2005
Greenway, Leanna. Simply Tarot. New York: Sterling/Zamezi. 2005
Hoeller, Stephan. The Fools Pilgrimage: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot. Illinois: Quest. 2004
Huson, Paul. Mystical Oringins of the Tarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage. Vermont: Destiny. 2004
Jayanti, Amber. Living the Qabalistic Tarot. New York: Weiser, 2004
Laurence, Theodor. How Tarot Speaks to Modern Man. NY: Bell. 1972
Levitt, Susan. Introduction to Tarot. Connecticut: Us. Games. 2003.
Lionnet, Annie. The Tarot Directory. New Jersey: Chartwell. 2002
Pollack, Rachel. Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdon. London: Element. 1997
Wang, Robert. Tarot Psychology. Canada: Marcus Aurelius. 2007

The Chariot

I've reached a somewhat finished point with the chariot design. I'm still not quite pleased with it; I feel like I've left something out, can't quite put my finger on it...oh well, I'm sure if I leave it alone and work on printing and carving that when I come back to the chariot whats wrong will jump right out at me. I may or may not leave the gold square on his breast...

I do realize that I need some shadows to ground the bike and the doggies, that will be hand drawn on the block, as well as warming up the highlights. Since the light source is from behind the skeleton will be mostly blue violet with peachy warm highlights just on the edges of shoulders, elbows etc. It's in my head don't need to put it in my digital sketches. I suppose I could print it out and watercolor the details...

If any of you viewers are Tarot readers please comment on what it needs for improvement. I may or may not use your advice but I will definitely appreciate it; if anything I'll grow from it!

I'll also appreciate artistic comments on improving the aesthetics and technique.

I'm proofing the fool and the magus in color with the new Graphic Chemical Water Soluble Block Printing Inks. I love them! At first I was concerned as the Lemon Yellow was really loose. I added just a touch of extender to it as the extender is super stiff, well then I couldn't get the brayer charged! So I added a drop of vehicle and it was back to the loose stuff. "Oh well" I thought and just rolled it on the block and printed it. It printed great! The pigment laid down thinly, smoothly and coverage was even. I would have never used oil based so loose on the block but it works with GC's WS. I've got just the lemon and the peacock printed so far. I'll post pics later when I've finished.

Update on the Masters

It's been a while since I blogged on about my Master's Project so here goes...as always you can see an image full size by clicking on it; use your browser's back button to return to the blog.

Color proofs of the Fool and the Magus were done. After discussion with my adviser it was decided I should stick to western techniques, using water based relief inks.

My adviser suggested Graphic Chemicals inks and a few days later my friend Rachel asked me if I wanted some Graphic Chemical water based relief inks she didn't plan to use again...

I don't care for the garishness of the pure pigment dispersions in these two proofs and I plan on eliminating some of the cut marks. For instance most of the red marks in the sky behind the Magus' curtain.

I completed the Priestess Keyline block and proofed it.

I'm mostly pleased with this keyline and will work on the color plates after I've reached my semester goal for designs and keylines. I do want to clean up the gap between the numbers at the top and give just a little more definition to the letters at the bottom; though I do like the way it weaves into the image.

As usual, I was so gungho at the beginning of the semester to get started on this work again that I wasn't paying attention and carved nearly the entire Empress plate before I realized that she wasn't backward...

I've re-carved the keyline and am about to the same place I was when I discovered my error. Eventually I will finish carving the 1st one and varnish it as a bas relief work, and a reminder to "pay attention stupid!"

I completed design of the Lovers card and have the basic composition for the Chariot. I still want to go into it and eliminate the cacti, replacing them with skyscrapers and I want to replace the rottweiler on the left with a great Pyrenees. I also want to include some symbolism on the gas tank and an amulet on the rider's chest. Oh and of course I need to put in a number VII and the name of the card.

I have my composition for Strength in mind and have begun the research on the Hermit. Someday soon I will start posting my research on the cards. I should have started out doing so...

New Card Designs & Some Carved Keylines

I got the keylines carved for the Fool and for the Magus.
















I'll be printing them to thin paper that will be glued to other blocks of wood to carve the color blocks for the cards.








I have two new card designs one for the High Priestess



















and one for the Empress.






I'm currently researching the Emperor and the Hierophant for the next pair of cards to design.

AKUA inks to Unload and Bee Tessellation Update

Well it's been an interesting month. I couldn't get the plates from Owosso to register. I finally called them and the technician said he was surprised I was able to get close since the plates weren't cut square. They redid the plates at no charge... well the new plates are cut square, cut square to the color separations so I still have to finagle the plates to get them close. Thats it they are close, not perfect, I align the yellow plate by the center line and the black and violet plates to the edge. The violet plate is off but at least it's not as off as the last set so I will live with them BUT if I had just done these plates myself they would have registered.

I tried Akua Intaglio Inks for the first time with this project. I hate them. In fact I hate them so much that I'm offering them for sale on my Etsy.com if you like Akua Waterbased Intaglio Inks and are interested in buying them at a real bargain click the following link:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10206042


Janice was wondering about the way I used magnets to register. Janice I've done this technique for years and when you have properly burned plates the magnet technique will give you excellent registration. I've attached some pics of my registration technique so you could see for yourself. BTW I learned this technique from Linda Katzdorn when she was teaching printmaking at University of California, Davis.

An Altar to the Bee

I just finished my final project for my Sacred Geometry class. I created an altar to bees using encaustic (wax) painting medium, a Super (bee hive box), bee hive frames, altered stickers, wooden bees, live flowers, candles and found objects.



My favorite found object is a vintage honey pot my mother in law was about to toss out.



Something really cool happened while I was doing the encaustic painting, a very large honey bee flew through the altar and buzzed around each of the melting encaustic color pans then left.


I told my sacred geometry professor that it must have been Artemis coming to bless the project...







Remember you can always click on the images to see larger views!

A Little Bit of What I've Been Up To...

So I've started the planning for my MFA project. I've ordered and recieved the paper. And I've decided on the packaging. Rather than make clamshell boxes I've found a source for tin boxes with a window in the top. I think a tin box will be better protection and a cleaner presentation than a handmade cloth and chipboard box. They are a perfect size for a full deck and there is enough space to line the bottom part of the box with cloth. I'm thinking of periwinkle; either silk or velvet.

I did some digital collages for the Fool card and I'm presently mulling over the Magician. One will be transfered to 4 - 4x6" blocks. I'll carve the blocks, 1 keyline & 3 color, then print them hanga style.


I also designed the image for the back of the cards. I did a few digital tessellations of bees. I like the hexagonal one with the periwinkle background the best. I'm thinking of having an aquatint intaglio plate made for this. I will have the black parts etched into a 9x12" plate with the 4x6" image repeated 4 times I can print 4 cards at once with. I will use Akua water based intaglio inks. I'll apply the black ink into the etched areas, wipe the plate then roll periwinkle ink over the plate then print it. I'll drop in the yellow with a hand made block.