A. Crowley Dream

I had a dream with Aleister Crowley in it last night.  As far as I recall it was a first.

In it I was walking through an old house with lots of different rooms and hallways.  There were all kids of people in various stages of undress doing all kinds of strange things.  People were convulsing,  smearing mud all over themselves, chanting, talking gibberish, it was like a scene from an insane asylum in an old movie.  Having been in real ‘asylums’ though, it didn’t have a lot of resemblance to that reality. 

The Lovers

While sitting in my little tarot area and tidying up last night I noticed that at the bottom of the box my deck calls home was the Page of Swords, then later I found the   Ace of Swords under a random spread cloth.  How long have they been there?  How long have I been playing without a full deck?  LOL!  It actually describes how I have been feeling, missing those two important Swords cards, Ace and Page.  Well, I have found them now and I am putting them back.

This is going to be bit graphics intensive.   Here are some of the revisions, first the new, then the old:

Almost done with revisions.

I finished new versions of the 8 of Cups and the7 of Swords yesterday.  I think the earier versions suffered from overpainting and probably overthinking as well (7 of swords…..hmmm, 8 of cups too, hmmmm – overthinking is not ideal in either!)

Working on Revisions

I have been painting up a storm.  The weather has been so beautiful I have set up on the covered patio though nighttime is definitely the better time to paint, the light is crazy out there with all the waving trees.  The constant sound of cicadas and crickets, frogs, geese and god only knows what else, is so comforting.  My neighbor has started burning leaves too and that smells really good.  It is just, good.  As long as I don’t go beyond the screen and become blood food for the little suckers.

Symmetry and Balance

I am working on 3 paintings right now, the 8 of Cups, the 7 of Swords and the Magician.    The 8 and 7 are just a new execution of the old design and the Magician, well, we’ll see how that comes out.

Touch Ups

For the last few days I have been woking on the changes I was talking about. 

I reduced but was not completely able to get rid of the sword in the 10 of cups, and I got rid of the black ufo looking things. 

I changed the color in the Empress’ trees, though I think the effect will be minimal. 

Tying up loose ends.

I was feeling a little overwhelmed so stepped away for a few days to take a breath.

I’ve been thinking about the card backs and trying out some different ideas.  Over the years I’ve had ideas for the backs and save little notes about it but reading them now nothing seems to fit just right.  I sat down in the office again tonight and worked on it then decided to put it down until I got the other cards all sorted out and maybe centered a bit.  I still feel very much in the 9 of Swords but I need to be in all of them. 

I’ve been having fun, though, looking through all the cards an the paintings.  Now that I’m done I don’t feel so murderous toward some of the cards, but still a few

The Biscuit has Landed.

There it is!

I had all kinds of things to say but now….I feel weird, maybe in shock or denial or something.  We had talked about, for a long time, having a big party or something  when it was done, but now we are too broke even for Mcdonalds, lol.  And, I just don’t feel like it.  Last night I didn’t want to think about it, just go to bed.

9 of Swords Sketch

Still a very long way to go on this!  The figure in the background is more a guide to me, I don’t plan on making it that obvious.