Good news, everyone!  I finally started work on an entire series of paintings!  I’d been kicking around the idea of painting tarot cards for a couple of years, but a few months ago I decided to commit to the project.  I’m now well into my first card and have several sketches for the second.

Without ado, here’s a photo of the underpainting of the first card (it will be more dimensional and in full color when it’s finished)

First underpainting in tarot series: "The Lovers"

There isn’t a theme, per se, that will be connecting all the cards; I’m not doing a muppets-only series or anything (but now that I think of it…).  The only uniting factor is that I will be incorporating pop cultural icons into the traditional Rider-Waite tarot imagery in all of them.  Next up is Star Trek related.

I’m a little hesitant to talk much about this first card now as I’ll need to save something to say about it for when it’s finished.  I’m doing this card using the Mische Technique which I also employed for the self-portrait.  I think that I’ll continue to use it for all of the paintings in this series, but if I actually do wind up painting the entire tarot (or at least the major arcana) I’ll be working for years and years and maybe I’ll be on to the next best thing by then.  But I doubt it.  I am really loving working in the Mische Technique and don’t plan to stop anytime soon.

In terms of the content, I’ll say that there’s a lot more going on in this painting than the shock and hilarity of a gay, muppet couple as archetypal lovers in a scene depicting the Fall.  But that’s totally there and it’s really fun to depict.  I’ll talk more about the other symbols in later posts.

On an unrelated note, I’m also hard at work on the painting of Princess Leia.  You can check out it’s progress by clicking the “Paintings in Progress” link.  Because I’m too lazy to hyperlink right now.