Deck in Progress: Temperance to Tower

Happy Monday my loves! I just finished up a long day of house painting and dishes. My back and hips have quit, so I get to send off the evening's wood chopping and water carrying with a glass of red wine and some relaxing illustration work. I've got three new cards for the Spirit Vertigo Tarot to show you all: Temperance, The Devil, and The Tower:

It's been a while since I had a good art update or a  long post for you guys. There are a couple reasons for that, and one is more legitimate than my slacking off for Thanksgiving. I've spent the better part of my last twenty-odd work days fighting with Temperance! 

Now I love Lady Temperance, but for some reason my drawing skills quit me on this one, and I had to start over three times to scrape up a postable iteration. I think it's cause I had the hubris to write myself a production schedule for this deck. When I hit a good groove on the project about a month ago, I decided to give it a timeline, as my ego feels better when I trick it into thinking I'm a responsible, productive, business-planning, list-slinging kind of critter. So I set myself a seven month deadline and a *perfectly reasonable* goal of three finished cards per week, then sat down to draw the next card. That'd be this card, to your left, that took me three weeks to get right. 

You should have been here. My parents are my immediate focus group (I live at home). First, I tried to draw the angel like a human/heron hybrid, to which Mum responded, "why does she have chicken legs?" 

Chicken legs went on permanent vacation to the recycling bin, and I spent another  week on an angel with a long robe, floating out into the marshy  water. "Pretty good. What's she standing in, though? Is that quicksand? She looks like she's knee-deep in a sand pile." (The "quicksand" was the dress train.) And another one bites the dust. 

Nothing like a nice little kick in the pants to remind me that my favorite projects always have minds of their own, and they will be served, but not bossed around. I'm having such a good time on this deck that I wouldn't have it any other way. You don't learn anything from a process you can routine and predict from the outset. It's a small price to be reminded that the work will unfurl on its own timeline, which may or may not line up with mine. 

I felt triumphant but beat by the time I wrapped up major 14, so imagine my surprise when The Devil and The Tower flowed out seamlessly back to back. I know a lot of tarot readers love The Tower, and I'm not one of them. I'm no stranger to the shadow side of life, but I have to admit I still cringe when either of these two pop up in my personal readings. That said, I think I had more fun drawing The Tower than any other major so far. It's been a nice twist to watch the cards I have the most trouble with become the most engaging and enjoyable cards to draw. What fun!

Stay tuned for the Star, the Moon, and the Sun up next, whenever they gel. I've got some good ideas for them, and no idea whether or how the final results will resemble those ideas. Onward!