Brain Flotsam V2.007

I'm planning to put four of my Tarot cards in a frame for display at the Azkatraz Dungeon of Art, but I'm having trouble deciding which ones.
At first, I was going to use the Aces, because I love them, but then I thought perhaps some of the book characters would be better, and more fitting to the con theme (Hanged Man, for instance?).
So now I can't decide.

Anybody have any ideas?  Here's a link to the cards I've done:
http://zephre.insanejournal.com/tag/art:+hp+tarot

If I don't do the Aces, I thought perhaps The Lovers, Death, The Hanged Man, and Temperance?

Or perhaps somebody else has a card they really think is excellent that I'm not remembering...

Please do comment if you know the work.

Catching this journal up...

( mid-trip report, April 30 )

and a Readers' Studio report:
( it's a wow sort of weekend, May 2 )

The finish of the Readers' Studio was great, and then yesterday I got to see Michelle and Andy and Milo and Vic and Ali for dinner, then E and I played the first half of a cutthroat game of Super Deluxe Double Scrabble, which has twice the tiles and a bigger board featuring QUADRUPLE letter and word scores. w00t!

Hello, Fandom.
I hope I've gotten all my looming deadlines in because I am miles from my tablet... soon to be 1800 miles!
I'll be in New York City for the next week - Tuesday to Tuesday. 
The Tarot Reader's Studio is Beltane Weekend, plus there shall be much social time with friends far and near, including visiting from Australia. Yay! Glee! Wahoo!

I'll likely not be out of electronic contact, but it all will depend on the ready availability of computers and/or wireless.

Coming in May, I hope: finishing the unfinished fanart in the archives.  Plus of course the next set of deadlines. Fun times, indeed.

Ok, so I noted that I haven't updated here with anything of substance in over two weeks, which we all know is the internet equivalent of ten million years.
I'm still living in what I like to call cardboard chic, a house full of piles and boxes and no real organization.
True to prediction, though, I am spending a lot less time at home. Dinner and/or coffee with friends, meetings, meet-ups, a con, family events, and evening classes have all conspired to keep me far from home.
And I'm going out of town for a week starting next Tuesday. I'll be in the New York metro area, attending the Tarot Reader's Studio as well as hanging out with my beloved friends in the vicinity (and some coming in to town from afar, including Australia! Wow!).
That said, I expect to be spending more time at home in May. I have quilts to make and paintings to paint, for one thing. Plus a lot of tarot cards and still some fan exchanges to finish.  Plus the three Big Bangs I decided to sign up for. Mmm, fun. I also have books to unpack and an apartment to arrange. I also plan to acquire an actual TV. No, really! I'm going to set it up and watch it and everything. Probably.

That plus the whole Summer of Cons (ApolloCon, Azkatraz, Anticipation - I sense a theme here.)  should keep me busy.

Last night I finished watching the first season of Merlin. This morning's weird dream was unrelated to the show. It was actually about my family and home improvement. And definitely weird. But it was definitely a festival of television last night, with a marathon viewing of the last few episodes.
Thank goodness for the interwebs, I say!
Such a fun show. Merlin is a doll. It's too bad I find doing TV-based fanarts so intimidating. Perhaps some of my friends can convince me to give it a try anyway. Portraiture is something I'm good at, right?

Got a meeting today and I'll probably pop into a discount store on my way home, then it's a weekend of arts and crafts!
I really want to finish the original illo I've been plugging away at since the New Year, and I have some character portraits I hope to squeeze in before the exchange deadlines loom.
I think one of my goals for 2009, now that I'm part of a weekly art posting community (not that I need to pick every single week), will have to be being a bit more choosy in my exchange sign-ups. I do want to have time to do more tarot cards and more original or other-fandom stuffs.

Ah, my files have done copying.  Time to get ready to go!

Title: Key 6: The Lovers
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Characters: Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger
Medium: photoshop
Summary: Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger stand in a colonnade overlooking the Scottish hills.
This card represents Choice, Dilemma, Union, Love, and Providence.



( image under cut )

Title: Ace of Swords
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Character: Rowena Ravenclaw
Summary: Wearing her diadem and holding an Anglo-Saxon sword, Rowena Ravenclaw stands on the shore of the lake near Hogwarts on a clear summer day.



( image under cut )

I spend a lot of time messing about with Google Documents to update my master plan for my Harry Potter Tarot Deck, and will continue to do so, but I thought having a master table that other people could see and comment on would be neat. And possibly helpful.

Now, here is the catch to all of these assignments: the Majors, Courts, and Aces are mostly portrait cards. For these, I have chosen a CHARACTER rather than a scene whenever possible. A few of them are multiple characters (The Moon, The Lovers, The Wheel).
I want to avoid repeating characters as much as possible. There are two clear exceptions: Harry, since he is obviously both the Fool and the World, and I have placed him also as The Sun; and Minerva, since she has a place as a Head of House in the court cards, as well as being Justice. (If anybody can come up with some alternatives feel free to let me know.) Another "exception" is the use of the Animagi/Werewolf forms of the Marauders, as well as having Lupin and Sirius in their own cards.
Anyway, the point is, my reluctance to repeat too much is why some characters who seem obvious fits for Court Cards do not appear there. They have probably already been assigned to a Major Arcana card.
The pip cards are still very fluid. They will most likely be the last ones to be drawn, and as such there is a lot more time to re-assign and tweak the images. They will be scenes from the book straight out of canon or something that canon clearly implies, rather than trying to make up new scenes for each one, or shoehorn HP characters into Pamela Coleman-Smith's compositions. This is why each card will have a keyword as well as their number assignment, since it may not always be extremely obvious what the suit is from the scene. (There will not always be a place for the actual pips to be visualized.)

Ok, them's the rules. Comment at will.
( big honkin' table )

Title: Ace of Cups
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Character: Salazar Slytherin
Summary: Salazar Slytherin, wearing his locket and ring, stands in his library the evening of Samhain, with autumn foliage visible out the window.



( image under cut )

Title: Ace of Wands
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Character: Godric Gryffindor
Notes: Godric Gryffindor holds his wand ready, sword at his side, in a cloister with a blooming May Day garden.



( image under cut )

Title: Key 16: The Tower
Artist: zephre
Rating: PG
Character: Sirius Black
Medium: photoshop + tablet



( image under cut )

Title: Key 12: The Hanged Man
Artist: zephre
Rating: PG
Character: Regulus Black
Summary: Regulus Black is dragged beneath the dark waters of the Horcrux Cave by Inferi.
This card represents "trial or meditation, selflessness, sacrifice, prophecy." (source: aeclectic tarot)



( full image under cut )

New tarot card layout = aggravating foreshortened limbs (too many hands! aieee!) plus extra bonus person sinking underwater. Water is its own oddity, and magical water? Hmm. Also, I am having some trouble envisioning casual day robes for the young wizard circa 1979. Anybody?
It's weird, is what I'm saying.  But I love it anyway.

Egads.  Robert Place just left a comment complimenting my Temperance card on my Tarot NING page. 
Eeee!

Title: Key 14: Temperance
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Character: Severus Snape
Notes: Flower symbolism as follows: iris for cherished friendship, blue hyacinth for constancy, purple hyacinth for begging forgiveness, yellow hyacinth for jealousy, and lily for devotion.


( full image under cut )

Oh. Hey.

Judgment.
( quoting and stuff )
It's like my brain is just leaking tarot bits all over!

OK, I have re-assessed and re-assigned more cards.
The Hanged Man and The Tower have been totally re-imagined. Harry is no longer the Hanged Man, which I'm sure will make a few folks out there happy.  I know that's not a popular choice with all the tarot folks out there.
I think I found a better option - Regulus, falling into the pool of Inferi.

Also, even though the imagery seems written for a typical tarot deck, I have decided to move away from Dumbledore's death on the Astronomy Tower as The Tower card, and go with something I felt had a more immediately devestating impact on Harry.  So The Tower is now Sirius falling through the Veil.

The Wheel is giving me hives. Change, fate, luck, unexpected events. I've thought of Tonks, or perhaps Bill. Nothing is firm with this card yet.  It used to be just the circle of House Point Hourglasses, but I'd really like to have a character in there instead.  Hm. Maybe this one needs to be Draco! Woah. I may need to ponder that. Early morning is apparently when my lizard brain comes up with *fantastic* possibilities!

Judgment is also a bit frustrating, although I really like the idea of the Sorting Hat the composition is driving me mad. It seems like the initial Sorting Ceremony doesn't really fit the card, so do I instead choose a moment when someone is pulling out the sword? Or do I look again at the whole card? The Heirophant gave me this sort of trouble until I moved totally away from my initial idea and embraced something different. 

Good grief, I'm having another card changing moment...
( The Emperor reconsidered )

So in contemplating my Luna/Snape ficlet in progress this morning on my commute, I had a brainstorm of epic proportion regarding the HP Tarot Deck.

But I have a doubt. 

(I also watched The Fifth Element this weekend. If you don't get the reference, just press on.)

I am obsessed with Snape as Temperance. ( lots of Tarot blather below )
I have these brain bubbles all the time.  Luckily I have no plans to draw Death or Temperance any time soon.  Next up, actually, are Justice (McGonagall) and Strength (Neville).   Plus there are cards (The Wheel of Fortune, Judgment) that don't actually have people in them.  Those will keep me busy enough for a while while the gears squeak.