I just recently tried to understand the Tarot more deeply, and already the mysteries of its origins are immensely tantalizing. Nobody knows, yet its full of symbology, patterns and sacred geometry that it seems too instrumental in some kind of understanding of the mechanisms of creation, to be just a simple card game.
Even though many like to claim human beings have always had the pleasure of distracting themselves with feudal or aristocratic games, it feels to me more that these sets of cards may have been a literal malleable and modular handbook to tell, explain or illustrate divine principles and the underlying secret codes of the perpetual creation of the universe.
Yet, I don't have the gnosis to tell for sure or to make more elaborate claims.
What's for sure in my own experience, whether invented as a simple, or as a ripped off entertainment tool, so far for me it has recently been a beautiful invitation into sacred and crystal clear language. Exploring the efficiency and power of precise communication, conveyed through transcendent emanation may be a very potent essence that had a fierce taproot in Art.
Until now, I mostly expressed myself visually through design and pencil drawing; lines, skeletal structures, tattoos and contours have ironically been ideas I was the most comfortable putting into form so far. Color on the other hand was a territory I did not really dare to mess with (pun intended). Long story short, I barely colored any of my hand drawings, for fear of ruining the picture or not having the rendition stand out as strongly as in black and white.
This is a new venture into the unknown and the infinite. Color, which actually is nothing more than the tones and values reflecting the light cast upon itself, has become a new exploration angle into the mysteries of reality.
I wanted to make an illustration of a Tarot card to get to connect with the cards differently and to get to connect with colors in a different kind of exercice.
So I went ahead and pulled a card, as a first one to have a go at and got the Queen of Wands.
I freehandedly copied the reference picture, as I am aware the Rider-Waite Deck counts as one of the most complete in terms of alchemical symbology, hence I wanted to make sure to not distort anything or include incoherent elements for now, since I am not aware of all the subliminals yet. It is just an exercise,still fun to see how much and where artistic freedom can be taken besides that boundary.
Rough sketch on A4 for transfering