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Tag: mavericktarot

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Five of Coins

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Five of Coins

It’s been a while since I posted a new tarot card. I just hadn’t been doing them. Partly I needed a break, and partly I just hadn’t been doing shoots in general or those in specific. But I did get one done with Marlo during her shoot.

This is actually one of the earliest ideas I had. When I realized I wanted to use dead and hurt people for the five cards, I decided that I had to do the old tradition of placing coins over the eyes for the coin card. And then when I found out Marlo had a wedding dress, the whole thing just came together.

Somehow, I like the juxtaposition of a wedding and a funeral at the same time. Somehow to me, nothing says worry like a bride who has died in her wedding dress, still holding the bouquet.

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Three of Coins

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Three of Coins

Weird thing about this whole being an artist gig. When I was at a friends wedding the other day, I got introduced to a model and we started talking about the Tarot project and she instantly wanted to do it. So we swapped numbers and here we are, the first tarot card I’ve finished in a while.

I was worried about this one actually, as per all coin cards, it had to be sepia, but as per the concept of three cards, it had to be a mirror or clone shot. I was worried that the sepia against the B&W of a cup card would be too weird, but I actually kind of like it. It really kind of gives me the yin yang sense that I’m trying to pull off with the threes.

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0-Fool

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0-Fool

I am quite happy with this card. When I came up with the concept while talking to Rachael, we were both kind of excited about it. In fact, talking about the card with her was the entire thing that inspired me to take her, Laurie and Amaya on the river shoot.

That said, I was kind of nervous about it. I was quite confident that taking pictures of three gorgeous girls nude, in an absolutely gorgeous mountain river setting during golden hour would turn out great. What I was worried about, however was doing a tarot card outside of the studio setting. From the very beginning of this project, I had intended to do every shot in the studio so that I could have visual consistency in the style. But I had taken pictures at the waterfall before and I was pretty sure I could blacken it and process it to the level that would make it look the way I wanted. Especially with golden hour lighting.

I’m quite happy with how it turned out and hope that it matches the other cards well enough. I wonder if I’ll end up doing any other cards outside.

And of course comments and criticism welcome.

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Queen of Cups

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Queen of Cups

Opal Rae was another model I met on Model Mayhem. She initially wrote me several months ago wanting to be a part of the tarot project, but like so many others I was unable to find time to sync our schedules together.

Finally got that chance earlier this week. I’m quite happy with the results, and though its subtle, I feel as though the card says Mystery quite well.

One of the things I’m trying to do with the tarot cards is keep them as simple as possible. I was worried that I was getting too intricate with some of them. Lately I’ve been happier, as I feel that I am returning to the original spirt of the cards and design concepts.

Comments and criticism as always welcome.

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II-High Priestess

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II-High Priestess

Sarah was nice enough to volunteer to pose for the Tarot deck when she was visiting last week. The second she volunteered, I knew exactly what card I wanted to use her for. I love the tattoo on her shoulder and she has just enough hair to obscure her face in mystery and make a perfect High Priestess. Originally I was thinking of adding some background elements like I did with some of the other cards, but as I was finishing up, I felt like that would have been doing too much. I remembered why I went for the cold black backgrounds in the first place. Not to distract from the model. Just let her create the mood alone.

Comments and criticism welcome and encouraged as always.

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Two of Cups

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Two of Cups

Rima contacted me about posing for the Tarot deck on Wednesday and we shot her on Thursday. It’s about the fatest turnaround I’ve ever done on a shoot, but it was another case of just trying to get a shoot in when both the model and I happened to have time.

I was quite happy to work with her, since through happenstance right now, the deck was very "caucasian." It’s been hard to find people of color for it. Especially women. I was hoping her complexion still comes across well in the B&W.

The big challenge here was representing "love" while only using one person so that it conceptually fit with the other twos in the deck.

Interpretation, comments and criticism welcome as always, and in fact encouraged.

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Page of Staffs

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Page of Staffs

Sarah was another of my very early picks for the tarot cards, but it took me a while to get to her. I had been saving the Page of Staffs for her because I thought she was perfect for it. If there was a problem it was deciding which of the many great shots of her to use for the card.

There will be more shots of her posted later.

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Eight of Swords

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Eight of Swords

Two days, two tarot cards in a row. It’s like I’m on a roll.

Adam posed for this card while my computer was in the shop. I really wanted to find a way to really take advantage of the drawing style of the sword cards and still be kind of dynamic. This is what I came up with. All the Eight cards are going to have the symbol incorporated into them as part of the design.

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Nine of Staffs

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Nine of Staffs

It’s been a while since I posted a new Tarot card. I actually had to take a break from it when my computer was in the shop. While it was down D and Adam were in town to pose for their cards. I finished editing D’s tonight. Adam’s will be up soon though, and I’m probably shooting two more this week as well. I need to get some more of the guy cards done. Never thought I’d say that.

Anyway, I was concerned about this one. I was worried that D’s green hair would come across as too punk and not preppy enough to be a staff card, but upon completion I think the hair color combined with the thong and the fire just make the card a little edgier witout moving her into goth per se. She’s certainly not A&F here, but I’d still think she was kind of trendy. Opinions?

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Five of Swords

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Five of Swords

I’ve been amazed at how well received the Maverick Tarot project has been. I’ve actually heard from any number of people who want to be a part of it, some as far away as Iowa.

Tiffini wrote me on myspace saying she’d seen a link to my Model Mayhem profile and wanted to be a part of the project. She’d never modeled before, but when has that ever stopped me. And besides, she was excited to give modeling a try. She told me she’d be visiting friends in Pittsburgh soon, and so I figured I’d have to fit her in while she was here. It’s tricky trying to place a model having not met her in person, and when she doesn’t have really good professional shots to give me a feel for her look, but I was able to gauge from other shots that I might want to try her for my five of swords. Defeat. My five cards are all injured or dead people. And it took some playing around but I think I got the look I wanted with this one. And she didn’t even mind me getting "blood" all over her nice white skirt!

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VIII-Strength

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VIII-Strength

There’s a funny thing about shooting a tarot deck, that you might have noticed if you’ve been paying attention. I have a lot more female models than male ones. Even for the cards that have to be naked, its just a lot easier to find women willing to pose for the deck than men. Its funny, because in real life, you’d expect the exact opposite.

Luckily, I have a large selection of professional wrestling friends to draw from when I need male models. Joe was willing to pose for my strength card.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out as well. Pretty much exactly what I was going for. BUt still comments and criticism highly welcome.

26 cards done. That’s 1/3 of the way through. Whee!

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Three of Swords

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Three of Swords

Note: Several people had issues with the original version of this card as it wasn’t obvious enough that she was looking in a mirror. I understood the issue but was resistant because i really don’t want the background elements of any card to overpower the main image. Of course in this one, the mirror is part of the main image. But still I didn’t want to distract from the image. So I ended up compromising by trying to add a very simple stylized mirror frame to the image. I look forward to feedback.

In the Tarot, there are opposing suits. Swords Staffs and Cups Coins. I wanted to illustrate that within my set, and I thought the three’s would be a good place to do that. Every three will be based upon the concept of reflections, with the model being garbed and styled in the opposing suit, while they are reflected in a mirror (or some other reflective surface) with their true nature.

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Three of Swords (alternate)

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Three of Swords (alternate)

I wasn’t sure about this idea at first, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

In the Tarot, there are opposing suits. Swords Staffs and Cups Coins. I wanted to illustrate that within my set, and I thought the three’s would be a good place to do that. Every three will be based upon the concept of reflections, with the model being garbed and styled in the opposing suit, while they are reflected in a mirror (or some other reflective surface) with their true nature.

This one stars Laurie. More shots of her coming later.

EDIT: Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m wondering if I should drop the left bar altogether and just let people wonder if it’s a mirror or two different girls. Opinions?

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Ten of Swords

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Ten of Swords

I love when i meet a model who is absolutely perfect for a Tarot card idea I have. I was talking to my friend Connie (who posed with her son for the Judgement card) and telling her of my idea for the ten and ace of swords cards. I wanted the cutest, most petite, goth girl I could find holding a broad sword bigger than she was. A minute later, Connie found Ambriella on Model Mayhem (where I’ve gotten several models for this project). I wrote her and she was totally into the idea. More pictures to come of her later, but for now, here are the cards I wanted her for. (the ace is here)