FROM Han Morrow Scott's Imram Tarot Website
www.imramtarot.cjb.net

There is going to come a time in your Tarot practice where you say to yourself: Hey, I know just what would make a perfect Tarot! And you're going to start making notes, and maybe sketches and collages, and then you're going to realize what a crazy insane thing creating a good deck is, and if you're smart you'll put the finger paints away and go back to using one of the nice decks all those other harebrained crazies were nice enough to make for you. If you've totally lost your marbles, you'll go ahead and make up your own deck anyways, and then--if you've totally lost it -- you'll try to get it published. And you'll probably succeed!

The first thing you need to know about Tarot creation is that it looks so easy, and it is easy to sketch out that initial work, but working out all the details -- that's where the tough stuff is. True Tarot wiggles and jiggles around in your hands -- I am not joking -- it's a living tool. You think you have a card just right and then something will jump out and spoil the whole thing for you, and you'll say "Oh, gee, we have to do this card again." and again, and again. Crowley thought it was going to be easy to just throw together a nice little deck -- and his deck took over five years with help from an accomplished artist, and hisThoth deck still didn't get published until after he was dead!

Then, too, think of your art skills. Even if you are a champion doodler, even professional illustrators think of 23 pictures, (that is the 22 Major Arcana and the back design, never mind the fifty six Minor Arcana yet) as a serious undertaking. That's why many of the Tarot creators of the past few centuries have worked as a team with an art professional. Waite had Colman Smith, Crowley had Harris. Shows what a crazyperson Robin Wood is-- this woman had the chutzpah to do it all herself!

One of the pitfalls is that since it takes so long to complete such a long series, the style and execution of the artwork often changes as the deck is completed, sometimes leading to a feeling of discontinuity in the deck itself (One of my favorite examples of this is the Mythic Tarot, which I feel boasts some of the best and also the worst examples in Tarot art.) Some people find clever (but IMHO annoying) work arounds, like the identical save for the suit and color scheme court cards of Ellen Cannon Reed's Witches Tarot.

Because of it's many illustrations, Tarot is a great proving ground/practice project for any artist of any media. Witness the sheer number of art decks that now exist. The weakness in this is that not all artists have a subtle background in the esoteric materials needed to help shape a true Tarot, or a real discernment of what adds to, takes away from, or hides the light of the truth.

If you are utterly determined, let me give you some real advice:

Take it easy on yourself. Unless you are a real professional artist, don't despair if your pictures aren't perfect. Try to see them with eyes of loving affection.

Realistically, it may take you several years to complete a deck. Unlike a rune set, which can be made from clay or wood in a few hours, a Tarot deck is a serious effort. If you need a set right away to work with or learn from -- just buy one.

You might want to familiarize yourself with the different parts of a Tarot deck. I'm not saying that you should adhere slavishly to this ideal, but keeping these points in mind will make it easier to use your deck with other published materials, and will make it easier for others to approach your Tarot. (Of course, no one ever said your Tarot can't just be an idiosyncratic nightmare meant just and only for yourself.. Actually, that's probably the best kind.)

Think about the way you do Tarot as well as the why. Do you use reversed cards? Make sure you use a double sided back design so that the backs of the cards don't give away which cards are reversed. Otherwise, keep the back design simple, unless the back is preprinted or will be put on by some easy means like linoleum or block printing, stencil or stamping. ( For those of you who are planning to hand paint your SCA arms on the back of each card that'll make your deck an opus of 156 leetle tiny pictures. That's a project for some Scribes' Guild, for sure!)

Make the deck the right size-shape for your hands. I have fairly large hands and long fingers. I love big decks, and usually people think that makes sense. But I also use tiny decks, and though it looks ridiculous, I have no trouble shuffling them (most of the time.) But that's me. On the other hand, I love the look of them, but just can't shuffle the round cards, no matter what size they are. Think about your preferences and needs. It is YOUR deck, after all.

The art made for most decks that are published today is usually made a bit larger than the standard card size. They photograph/scan these originals as flat art, and reduce the image to fit on the cards -- which I think is actually not always such a good idea. Some of those details get very hard to see and don't print well. At the same time, it is easier to draw detail in that way. It also gives you a complete control over choice of medium. If you plan on directly drawing on plate or blank card stocks, you need to think carefully about your media.

Use good stuff to make it with. You will feel so sad if your Tarot deck gets faded and yellow over time. Paints, pencils and markers come in different grades and prices. The higher grades, more expensive prices usually mean better permanence, less fading and less color change over time-- and that should be important to you for something you will be investing so much time and spirit into.

Use an appropriate media. I personally favor oil crayons. Crayons in general. Oil crayons, pastels, regular crayons -- these are all messy and rub off on everything. They make rich deep colors, and are easy to use. One of my favorite decks was clearly made in such a medium (The Celtic Wisdom Tarot) Though I love crayons, for cards that I would be shuffling, stuffing in a bag, carrying around with me - pastels or oil crayons would be a bad media choice. Even regular crayon pictures transfer and stick together. Acrylic paint is sticky-ish even when dry if applied with any texture at all. Unless you're going to reproduce the pictures you create for you deck, water color and watercolor markers and colored pencils are probably the best media for most amateur Tarot artists. You can use watercolor paints and colored pencils together.

There are a couple blank decks sold by US Games that might be a good foundation for your work. Also, there is a book called "Creating Your Own Tarot Cards" by Nancy Garen, but I really feel this book is best used by persons with a few years of experience with Tarot. A good compromise would be to color in a black and white deck, such as the BOTA deck Coloring in a Tarot deck was all the rage as a way to learn Tarot when I first started doing Tarot oh so many years ago. US Games sells several black and white decks. I myself colored in a set of Rider illustrations found in one of Nancy Garen's other books "Tarot Made Easy", and I feel the exercise was well worth while. In my Open Tarot class at Gentle Wind in Columbus, Ohio, we eat cookies, drink tea and color in the Trumps from the BOTA deck as part of in class work.

Ages before we were married, I created a Tarrochi deck with the man who is now my husband. This black and white line-art deck was designed to be used to teach the game of Tarrochi in period style at SCA events. Only the Major Arcana and the Court have pictures. And man -- that was enough! Most of the illustrations in Imram Tarot are from my hand-colored copy of that deck.

The following three graphics show the process we went through to create each card. First, I came up with a basic concept and symbolism, which we discussed at length. I made a sketch, and gave this sketch to my artist.

The artist created a line drawing based on my sketch and suggestions, which we looked at together. Sometimes he produced two or three different versions, and we selected the one we both liked best.

After any changes and a final decision was made, the art was put into a border and the pages were laid out camera-ready to be printed. After sets were printed on a thick card stock, we both hand colored our own sets. This is from mine.

Despite the craziness that turned into, my soulmate/life partner and I are in the process of creating a 78 card esoteric deck now. E-mail me if you might be interested in a copy of my Tarrochi Kit which features a copy of our deck in color-it-yourself black and white plus instructions on how to play Tarrochi.

You will also want to read about the efforts others have experienced in creating Tarot. Robin Wood's book has a very human, modest account of her work, even showing the development of some of her cards. I've read little bits here and there about Crowley and Frieda Harris, Mary K. Greer's book Women of the Golden Dawn has a surprising amount of Tarot creation background in it. James Wanless' Voyager Tarot book is full of deck creation info. There's more, I'm sure.

Once you get started, I am sure you will start to really admire the prolific genius of such artists as Lisa Hunt, (who has several decks in current publication in conjunction with authors like Sirona Knight and DJ Conway, including the Shapeshifter Tarot, and the Dragon Tarot) Kit West (Cat Tarot, Halloween Tarot) even Amy and Monty Zerner Farber who whip out new divinatory systems with such speed it makes my head turn.