Designing a Death Card

A couple of years ago I agreed to design two Tarot cards for a collaborative deck that was being put together by several artists, and I have had this project on a back burner all this time. I was assigned the Death card and The High Priestess (which happens to be my soul card...tell me your birthday and birth year, and I'll tell you what your soul card is!)

Last week I started to dink around with some ideas for images. I made this little Soft Kut prototype for Death using a Chagall painting as inspiration (it's one of his Bible illustrations from the story of Noah's Ark. The Death card does not necessarily speak of literal death - it can symbolizes the end of something, and rebirth. It's a card of dramatic change and transformation). I think that I will take this design and cut it from linoleum which yields more detailed marks. And I will print it in black and hand paint the rainbow. I might paint the sky with a metallic silver marker...

Tomorrow I will scan and post the cards that I have received from the other artists - they are quite interesting and a fun mix! They will all be thrilled that I've finally put this on the front burner!