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.
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?
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!
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!
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.
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?
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)
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 ten is here)
One of the things that makes me think that I’m getting some success as a photographer is that I now have people asking to shoot with me. That’s how I found Rana. She heard about the Tarot project from another model and wanted to be a part of it. We had our shoot yesterday, and I’m quite happy with the results. She has a nice socialite look about her which I thought went well with the coins cards. I’m behind with photo editting, but I’ll be posting other shots of her when I get to them.
This may be the naughtiest card so far in the tarot set, but in a lot of ways I think its the most powerful I’ve done so far. Amaya has a lot of experience doing fetish modeling and when I met her I knew she was perfect for what I wanted to do with this card. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
Steph was concerned that maybe the concept and visuals were a little over the top, but I like it, not just because of the raw sexuality of it, but I felt like it told a very real story with a single image.
Would love comments on this.
It’s been a tarot filled day. This is the last card I have completed (and shot for that matter) and since I don’t yet have any shoots scheduled this week (that may change) this may be the last one for a while.
This is also the first time in the deck that I have resorted to using stock footage. I have been against it for the most part, preferring to only use my own images, but I don’t seem to have a way of getting far enough out into the atmosphere to get a decent earth picture, so I was forced to rely on NASA to do it for me. The image is of course public domain. But still, it would have been nice to only use my own images. I suppose I could have left the background empty on this card, but I kind of felt like the four astronomy cards (World, Moon, Sun, Star) worked better with mild backgound elements. So the compromise is there.
I’m much happier with this card than the last one I did. It turned out exactly how I had originally envisioned it. My only real worry being if its too hokey having a rifle with bayonet as a sword. If I have a complaint, it’s that the gun is SO big that I had to be farther away from him than I really wanted to be. That might be ok.
Anyway, comments welcome and more to come.
Adjusted processing and cropping of this version of the wheel of forutune card. I still don’t think I like it as much as some of the other cards, but I do feel like its a lot better. Still, would love other opinions. Blah…
Another day, another Tarot card. I’m not totally sure how I feel about this one. It just doesn’t feel right to me. I think mostly I’m not happy with my lighting job this time and I think the concept might have been too literal and obvious almost campy. I don’t know. This may be one that I have to reshoot or come up with a different concept for. It just doesn’t feel right to me right now.
Would love to hear opinions and comments.
an alternate version of the Queen of Swords card with a pose the model liked better. Definitely looking for opinions here. Which feels more detached?