Lunarbistro.com is the
art, comics and sketch blog
of indigo kelleigh.
check out what arrived in the ups today! A box of stickers for my Tarot packs!
The little round green stickers I was using to seal the 8-Bit Tarot packs weren't working so well, so I ordered myself a whole bunch of these little stickers. Plus, I've got a jigillion extra, so I have a nice new little giveaway at cons now. woot!
and as a bonus, I managed to hack a tiny little chunk out of my thumb when the scissors slipped and swung, machete-like, as I was opening the box, which is the first time I've injured myself with office supplies in a long time! No blood, luckily, but a good little scare nonetheless.
And the Rider-Waite:
Coming up, the King of Swords. Only 22 more to go!
And the original:
I'm so happy I even managed to get the hidden skull in there!
This leaves only one card left in the suit of Cups - the three - but unfortunately, that's going to be the last one I do, for reasons which should be clear to anyone who is familiar with the card and it's meaning. Anyhow, the next one I do will be the six of swords, a suit that's been badly neglected thus far.
Just added the second pack of 8-Bit Tarot cards to the Lunarbistro.com store, so if you've been waiting for your chance to order some for yourself, wait no longer!
I'll be adding the second pack of my 8-Bit Tarot cards to the lunarbistro store in a few days, I just want to make sure I fill all the pre-orders first. What's that, you say? Pre-orders? Yep! I'm letting anyone who ordered the first pack have dibs on subsequent packs, to help ensure that they can get the full deck and not end up with missing packs.
if you want to get on the pre-order list, it's time to order that First Pack! And if you want to pre-order pack 2 right now, make sure to add an extra $5 + shipping to your paypal order.
Today I ordered the cards that make up the second pack of 8-bit Tarot cards today, which means I should have them available at the store in about two weeks. If you ordered the first pack from me already, you'll be getting an email to alert you to this new pack.
Just think - soon we'll only be 52 cards away from being able to do a reading! sigh.
Now I just gotta finish the next card...
And the original:
The bull's head could have been a bit bigger, I suppose. Ah, well.
And the original, as always:
If my math is correct, this is the first card of Pack 5. I'm going to order the cards for pack 2 early in March, and will have them available in the store shortly after. I also finally got around to posting a link to the First pack on the 8-Bit Tarot project page.
The next one shouldn't take as long, it's fairly simple.
I know, famous last words...
And the original:
Dude's got the whole world in his hands...
Anyway, next up is the King of Cups! I'm hoping I can get back on the ball with these and do a card a week until I'm done with them.
Also, if you live in the Portland area and want to get your hands on the first Pack of cards, I dropped some off at Floating World Comics last week!
Yow! The response to the 8-Bit Tarot card pack has been fantastic so far! I've already received more than a few orders for packs, but what really surprised me was that almost half the orders so far came from out of the country!
I wasn't expecting an international demand for the cards (silly me, forgetting exactly how the internet works for a moment), so I've had to make an adjustment to the store - if you're having the cards shipped outside North America, please use the International Shipping button instead of the other one. It'll charge you the correct amount for the cards, but the shipping is $.50 higher. Sorry, it's not my fault!
If you ordered cards before today, don't worry, they're going out anyway, I'll just eat the difference and chalk it up to bad planning on my part. No biggie.
Oh! And I'm also throwing in free All-Seeing Eye buttons for everyone who orders a pack! Woot!
Now available in the store is the first of six packs of 8-Bit Tarot cards!
Each pack will have 13 cards in it, making up the full 78-card Tarot deck when complete. The cards are 2x3.5 inches in size, and have rounded corners and UV coating on both sides. They're a bit smaller and thicker than regular Tarot cards, and will be more difficult to shuffle, but will still be perfectly usable. The packs are available for $5.00 each plus shipping, and are available only in a limited run of 100 packs. Be sure to include your mailing address!
The new decks are the same size as these preview cards I made before.
The redesigned back of the deck even allows for Reversed cards. I'm really happy with how these turned out, and I'm hoping to have the second pack ready in time for Stumptown in April!
At long last, another Tarot card!
And the original:
I tell ya, I should have designed those cups a little smaller. But, I got them all to fit, so I guess that's something. I'm going to see what I can do about getting a couple more done this week. I've been thinking about the deck a lot lately, and my plan is to start releasing the deck in small packs until it's all done. Keep checking here for updates on The Plan.
The Cups series continues (at long last) with the Queen:
And the original:
The only thing I left out is that funky thing at the bottom right, just next to the signature, mostly because I couldn't tell what it was supposed to be. The card I have makes it look like a shell, but this image here, I can't tell. So, oh well. Hope it wasn't important.
Next up is the Ten of Cups, and then we'll have a short Wands intermission before jumping back to Cups (the King).
"Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me."
And the source:
and the original:
Yow! Only 32 more to go! Coming up next is another Major arcana card, The Sun. Not sure how I got two Majors in a row, but there it is.
I'm not totally thrilled with this one, there's just too much going on:
But it's not my fault!
Anyway, The Hermit is next! Hoorah!
Another:
and the source:
First time I've had to draw kids so large... they look okay, though.
Next is the Seven of Swords, followed by The Hermit!
Oh, hey, and if you're interested, here's the new back of the cards:
I was originally planning to use the image with the Eye and 'Tarot' as the back, until someone pointed out that the back should be bidirectional, so you don't know which way is up when doing a reading. So, here you go!
Holy cow! Am I making up for lost time, or what? Two cards in one week, check it out! The latest in the 8-Bit Tarot series:
And the original:
Next up is the six of coins.
Why didn't I have this one done sooner? I have no idea. I seriously had this card about 90% done less than an hour after I finished the last card, but here we are, almost a month later and it's finally done.
Anyway, here it is, Wands x 8:
And the source:
Seriously, isn't this like the simplest card in the deck? Dang.
So the next card is Temperance, and while the Major Arcana are always a fun challenge, they also tend to take a long time to do, just because of all the symbolic detail on each one. I'm looking forward to it, though!
About time:
And the source:
Seriously, I've been sitting on this one for over a month. Dang.
Hoorah and Huzzah! The halfway-point is here! Check it, card #39:
And the original:
I hope the person hosting those images doesn't mind me hotlinking them like this...
39 down, 39 to go!
Dang! It's about time! Merry christmas, everyone!
Easily one of the more complex cards, design-wise. Lots of characters, large main character, a Freaking Horse, cliffs, towers, the sun, that flower... man. I'm so glad it's done, though!
So, what have I been up to?
Well, after I finished decompressing from the Comics Fest in october, I took a couple months to just kind of drift aimlessly. I find sometimes that that's the easiest way for me to find my focus. It's like being in a creativity deprivation chamber - once it's all off my mind, I can more easily feel which project is calling to me most to finish it.
I was surprised to discover that the project that was calling me most wasn't the Tarot set, or the Ellie Connelly story, or anything else that I've talked about here so far, but was actually a completely different story, or rather a series of character sketches that I've been developing in notes and sketchbooks for over a year. I didn't know where I wanted to take it before, but the overall vision is coming into view lately, so I'd really like to capitalize on that interest before I lose it again.
That's not to say that I'm going to let Ellie go, in fact I've recently been doing some structural work on the story and revisiting the plot to make it fit. I'd like to plan to have the story done by the end of 2007, but we'll see about that. It's only 128 pages, I'd like to think I can manage that. I should at least have some more art from it to show pretty soon.
And the Tarot. Well, that one's suffered the most lately, as I haven't finished any new cards in a couple months now. Death is about half-done and waiting for me to get around to it again. The sample cards I had at my table at Stumptown pretty much disappeared, and it sounded like I got a lot of positive feedback on them (I wasn't at my table most of the time, so I can't say for sure). I do want to finish them, and am also hoping to have them done by halloween 2007.
So, 2007 will, I hope, be a very productive year for me.
The latest card (actually finished a couple nights ago:
and the original:
Next, is Death! Probably the most requested Tarot card, in a close tie with The Devil (which is coming, don't worry!)
Yep, believe it or not, two in one day:
and the Traditional one:
Not bad for four hours' work. Inching closer to the halfway point!
versus:
Not totally happy with this one, and I'm not sure why. I'm a little disappointed that the background characters are so obscured by the frenzy of wands, and design-wise I don't like the massive green horse-cape-thing (but that wasn't my idea). Next is another King, of Wands, after that the 8 of Cups, and then DEATH! Which is another Horse card, so I'm not as excited about that one as I usually am by the Major Arcana. Ho-hum, off to the coffee shop.
I've got some progress to report. Not much, though. The Comics Fest proceeds apace, it is now lsightly more than a month away, and things continue to largely fall into place. Some slight bumps along the way, but that's to be expected when wrangling a tornado this large.
The 8-Bit Tarot has again been rejected by US Games for publication, this even with a glowing recommendation on my behalf from Tarot.com. So, I'm still looking for a publisher for this set, and new card production has slowed to a crawl since finishing The Moon last month. The gallery show at Pushdot has been rescheduled, though, and will now happen in November of 2007. Plenty of time to finish the deck, I hope. Unless, of course, I need to self-publish it.
I picked up a couple books by Orson Scott Card yesterday about writing - specifically writing Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and also one about developing characters, which is always one of my weak points. I've never written anything by Card before, but he comes highly recommended, and these books make a lot of good points without being very 'this is exactly how it's done. Do it this way or fail,' which I like.
Oh, man, I'm happy with this one:
to compare:
Only five more cards to halfway!
I almost forgot to post this one! I finished it Saturday afternoon, during a flurry of local zine-related activities...
The Page of Coins:
and, as ever, for comparison:
Not too shabby. For some reason, I always get a bit of a stumble whenever starting one of these 'large-central-figure' cards. I think because the idea of a large central figure kind of goes against the original intent of this concept, which was to try to make everything look like it might have been pulled from an 8-bit video game. Many of these graphics are far too fancy for that... Ah, well. It's still fun.
The Nine of Coins:
and, as ever, for comparison:
I'm so happy with the way this one turned out, I can't even tell you.
And the original:
So, I was realizing that I've got almost 50 cards to finish, and only about 4 months to do it in, especially if I want to actually get these all printed up in time for the gallery show in April (which might actually be in March - ack!). So, be expecting a flurry of 8-bit Tarot activity in the next few months!
not sure how I missed a number, but I did! This is card #30 - VII. The Chariot:
And the Rider-Waite:
I'm happiest with the Sphinxes, though i think they're maybe a bit large for this composition. Ah, well.
And it occurs to me that I keep forgetting to post a link to the 8-Bit Tarot's progress page! So here you go!
The Emperor:
And the Rider-Waite:
Next is VII: The Chariot! I've actually been looking forward to that one for a while...
So, I was looking at this card this evening, and I thought to myself, 'you know, there's no reason I couldn't finish this card in about two hours'. And yeah, I was right. So here it is:
And the Rider-Waite:
It's funny, when I study this image, my dad-voice kicks in, and I keep trying to tell the guy not to be upset about having spilled his drinks. It's okay, I say, just take your cup over to the river and get yourself some more water.
I don't know what that says about me, but there it is.
And the Rider-Waite version:
So, with this card, the deck is 1/3 complete! Yow! next up is the Page of Swords, which should be a fun card, just for the clouds in the background. whee!
Yep, Chutney Point, Act 2 starts posting today. So far it's just the cover, but hey, it's a start.
Also, I'm about 2/3 done with the King of Coins, the next card in my 8-Bit Tarot deck, after just a couple hours work. I need to get cracking on these if I'm to have the whole deck done in a year. It might sound like a long way off, but there's still 50-some-odd cards to do. And the Ellie Connelly script is finished (mostly) and taking a breather. I scripted up to the end, and it's a page shy of being a nice, even number, so I'll go back and add a bit more here and there to square it off. After that, I'm on to drawing, which is a great place to be. Check back tomorrow for the Tarot card!
And the original:
I'm particularly proud of the fact that I was able to manage the crown of 12 6-pointed stars with so few pixels.
Next is the King of Coins! Man, I'm nervous about that one - it's such a dark card, I'm afraid it won't translate well.
Oh! But I did make arrangements today to have a showing of my Tarot deck at Pushdot Studio, Portland's only digital-art gallery. The show will be in April 2007 (that's next year, for those keeping score), so put it on your calendars now.
And the original:
Man, this one was daunting. I think I just let myself get intimidated by that vine hanging over her head, and all the flowers, and layers of background leading back to the mountain. On the plus side, I love doing the little incidental characters, like the rabbit. Woot!
Oh, and I relocated the 8-Bit Tarot homepage, so look there for continued progress.
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