9 of Swords II

I decided to do something risky and not do an initialsketch, just go straight to the final image.  I’ve been working on it a few days now.  It is a strange combination of contrasts and it makes me uneasy, I think that is probably ok considering the card this is though.  Already there are clear signs of biscuitification:)

Perception and the 9 of Swords

I was drawing out the two lighthouses the other night when I looked at the colors and thought, nooooo that isn’t right!  The black goes on the left, the white on the right.  It has perplexed me!  I am not keen on changing symbolism in the middle of the game, it should be consistent throughout, don’t you think?  Flipping the black and white towers now bothers me.  To make it more uncanny when I *looked* at it the other night what I saw, through the lighthouses, was a vast golden body of a woman who I immediately thought of as Shekinah, which means the presence of God.  This would traditionally be associated with Malkuth, the 10th sephirah.  **Not the 1st like I thought of for Eternity.

9 of Cups Finished, 9 of Swords Begin

I just realized I never put the finished painting up!

There he is!

Now on to the 9 of Swords!  I am really excited about this one, if a little scared.  I noticed, again, at the end of the 9 of Cups I was forgetting what it was about and I was getting flooded with information about the 9 of Swords.  Sheesh, can’t it wait the last day or two?  I’d be working on it right now except I got behind in housework again and I need to catch up before tonight. 

9 of Cups VII

There it is so far.  It still needs some  work, hopefully I can get to it tomorrow.

9 of Cups VI

Tonight is the night! I get to go work on the 9 of Cups again and perhaps even finish it! I can’t tell you how much I love to paint. I see a future someday where my responsibilities will allow me to paint day and night.

9 of Cups V

Things are starting to look up today!   The 5 inch across swelling on my leg from a tick bite is getting better,  Freya is finally sleeping after an all night coughing fit, and I get to plan the funeral for Nibbler the sweet hamster that I found dead yesterday.   I suspect the kids have swine flu (pigs are flying!!!!).  Rex is sounding better but Freya is getting worse.  And Michael’s last payday is 2 days away.  Other than that things are going like shit.

9 of Cups IV

I’ve got about half the background done now but I didn’t scan it, I’ll do that tonight. 

So, we found out in the last few days that Michael’s company is going out of business.  That was/is a big blow. It is so surrounded by small synchronicities that I feel , I don’t know, familiar, or like I can see down the track what is going on.  I think this is the kick in the ass we need to move on to the next leg of our journey.  I predict it will be a rough few months ahead though.

9 of Cups Sketch III

 

I didn’t get to the background like I wanted to tonight, I wanted to fix the bottom half of the baboon which looked like crap.   Ugh, its been a long, long and unsettling day.  More tomorrow.

9 of Cups Sketch II

This is te sketch so far.  I haven’t been posting because I have been having issues with my wireless connection.  It’s fixed now though and I am catching up on all the fun stuff I missed.

9 of Cups Rough Sketch

Here is the rough sketch for the 9 of Cups.   I actually have several smaller sketches detailing the background and the baboon separately.