If you’ve happened to read Where It Began — a post in the Tales from Treasure Island blog — you already know that creating a tarot deck wasn’t anything I had planned, but the idea and inspiration came along at a time when I needed it.
I struggled with it. I had so many ideas for the cards, yet due to impaired vision, I wasn’t able to do the artwork I wanted. I turned to AI because creating that deck was important to me. Even then, it was a struggle. AI is notorious for adding extra fingers, having arms and legs attached to bodies at weird angles, and just being difficult in general. Some cards were easier than others. Some required days of frustrating work to get an image that was even close to what I could “see” in my mind. Thankfully Steve Champion, a talented tattoo artist from the UK stepped in to help me. Separated by an ocean, our collaboration was through email and a Google drive. I would upload, he would correct, I would download — and while it all sounds like a fairly straight-forward process, for someone who really had no idea what was involved in creating a tarot deck, it became a nightmarish array of image files in various stages. At one point I learned that some of my images weren’t “high-resolution”; later I learned that the dimensions I had used weren’t correct. Every card image had to be re-sized. Sometimes I felt like pulling my hair out. Mostly I wondered if the project would ever be finished.
I had decided, you see, to have at least a couple decks printed. One for me. One for Steve as a “thank-you” gift, so I had to learn about technical specifications at Make Playing Cards. Oh, I was a nervous wreck when it came time to upload my files.
Within two weeks, I had my deck — MY deck — in my hands. I could hold it, shuffle it, do readings with it. What an incredible feeling. Suddenly all the frustrations were a thing of the past. New ideas and inspirations were already coming into my head, and that’s when the question came.
Can I really do this again?
Can I take an idea, work through it, and somehow come up with another tarot deck? I realized how much I loved what I was doing and how very much I wanted to move forward. I can’t even say exactly when or how the idea came, but maybe it was because spring had just arrived. I love spring. I love all of nature. As an artist I’ve spent many, many hours drawing and painting outdoors. The idea of creating a tarot that resembled a nature journal somehow got stuck in my head.
This time, I knew a bit more about what I was getting into, what would be required to create and publish the deck. But… could I really do it again?
I started by creating a FOOL card, using an image generator. I played with several different ideas, and as I worked with the images, ideas were forming. I liked the idea of a FOOL who wasn’t even present in the card. The FOOl, you see, had already slipped BEYOND THE GARDEN GATE, leaving his knapsack and his faithful companion behind. Like the FOOL, I became curious. What might lie beyond that gate? I was eager to find out.
The deck came together, I began using my own art to create card images, and while I still struggled here and there, the process was easier this second time around. I proved to myself that, yes, indeed, I could do it again, and I intend to keep doing it again and again, learning more with each new deck.
Throughout it all, the encouragement I’ve received from friends both in and out of the tarot community has been tremendous. Thank you for believing in me and believing in this deck.
