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Making sense of the Suit of Wands

Update #13 · May 11, 2012 · 4 comments

This week, In addition to getting some planning and scheduling done for my model shoots, I've largely been doing some thinking about the Minor Arcana. How I intend to approach 12 remaining Court Cards, and the 30 remaining numbered cards (or "small cards"). Together of course, while they may not be as flashy as the Major Arcana, they make up the majority of the cards ahead of me.

Regarding the Court Cards - I've always seen these as people, and my thinking has been to find a real-world, modern archetype that represents each one so that I can illustrate the card's meaning in a way that translates to a contemporary audience. Now that I've put names to each one, it's allowed me to solidify my plans on who I'll have model for each. I've put together a chart to the decisions I've made so far, if you'd like to see: http://www.robertscottart.com/tarot-files/court-cards-grid.jpg

I've also been sketching out some ideas for the wands as a whole and I'm about to start doing the first of the small cards in that suit. You may (but probably haven't) noticed that I had a recurring textural theme for the suit of Swords - glass. I feel like glass has the properties that feel sympathetically appropriate to Air and to Swords - clear, sharp, precise, etc. Similarly, I'm going to be making recurring use of metal textures in the suit of Wands, as metal has a natural connection to fire, electricity and to aggression.

Some of my sketches are below.

http://www.robertscottart.com/tarot-files/wands-sketch.jpg

http://www.robertscottart.com/tarot-files/wand.jpg

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  • Image-115463-full

Comments

    1. Missing_small

      Creator Zachary Bishop on May 12, 2012

      I definitely agree with what Jennifer said above. I had to go back and look at the suit of swords as I had totally missed that bit of extra detail. It's impressive how much symbolism and detail you manage to layer into each of the cards.

    2. Missing_small

      Creator Jennifer L Smith on May 12, 2012

      "You may (but probably haven't) noticed that I had a recurring textural theme for the suit of Swords - glass. I feel like glass has the properties that feel sympathetically appropriate to Air and to Swords - clear, sharp, precise, etc. Similarly, I'm going to be making recurring use of metal textures in the suit of Wands, as metal has a natural connection to fire, electricity and to aggression."

      It's things like this that made this deck impossible to pass by. I salute your attention to detail!

    3. Fb_profile_picture.small

      Creator Darren Bulmer on May 11, 2012

      Robert,

      This is all excellent material. You, and a couple of other guys have inspired me to go ahead with the design of my own deck, which I began last year but stopped. Thank you.

    4. Finch1.small

      Creator Edna Rouse on May 11, 2012

      I'm really enjoying watching these come to life!

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