Editing Begins!

Plus a Social Media Sidenote

It's almost criminal to have failed in sharing scans of the cards as they were painted, and now they’re all complete! Of course that still leaves a pile of editing…

I will amend that faux pas in this post by sharing every card all at once. My hesitation in doing so previously was two-fold; First, scanning and colour-correcting those scans was just a whole thing. Doing it bit by bit as I finished the paintings was annoying so I held off.

Second, while I do my best to paint everything correctly the first time around, I have a lot of editing to do on my computer. Occasionally my ego flinches at the thought of sharing work when its so close to being done, without actually being DONE DONE. 

But today I'll be a brave little toaster and finally share all of the paintings together. Then I can go into my (possibly insane) editing process.

At the very end of this post I also have an announcement, which is rather boring and can be summarized briefly here: I'll not be using Instagram any longer, and will be refocusing energy towards keeping my website maintained instead.  

With all that out of the way, let’s get into it:

I’ll begin with the Major Arcana. These cards were edited and prepared for print ages ago. I see many more corrections I can make now and , thankfully, I believe I have the time to make them.

Next, I will share all of the unedited Minor Arcana cards. I have made a first pass at the Coins suit, so you may notice it looks a little shinier than the others.

Now I’ll talk a little bit about my approach to editing these paintings.

My process is essentially to continue painting digitally in a program that can reproduce the textures of traditional painting mediums. Currently I’m using an application called Rebelle 6, which I like quite a lot for my purposes.

I avoid using layers, and just pretend that I’m painting the corrections like I would on the original. The main difference is that I don’t have to spend any more time or paint mixing colours, and I won’t start to pull up paint while I rework an area.

When I worked as a production artist, the game was to find the fastest way to edit an image. That meant trying to be a little more clever with the use of layers and masks and whatever little tricks you had in your adobe tool belt. It can be a fun puzzle, like carving a round peg of an image to suit a square hole (Though I suppose in this metaphor the puzzle has been circumnavigated by forceful craft…).

Nowadays, I just don’t enjoy that approach as much. I feel more physically connected to my work when I avoid layers and have to work brushstroke by brushstroke to get the image where I want it to go. I even like maintaining a bit of the risk as well. I can undo a lot of my mistakes, but if I go completely off the rails, then I’ll have to just start over. This creates a sense of intention while I work that I find meditative.

So, as you can see, I have a lot of work ahead of me. Not nearly as much work as I have behind me though, so I’m not worried about it. I’ll be spending this week on edits, and I can’t wait to update you all again when those are complete.

Thank you once again for any degree of interest you've invested in this project. I'm so happy to have brought it to this point and can't wait to put a little extra care and detail into each card, so they really shine when they're finally in everyone's hands. 

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Now for my more long-winded note on Instagram: I have decided that it no longer serves me to use it. This decision is spurred by Meta’s refusal to allow artists to opt out of their work being used to train AI, but that was more of a reminder to me of it’s driving purpose. I have no interest in trying to strongarm an app into serving me, when I can simply redirect my time and attention elsewhere.

I would also like to recognize the integral role Instagram plays in the lives of creative people. It makes living off of your creations possible in a way that takes a huge amount of work otherwise (though make no mistake, it still takes a huge amount of work). An amount of work that raises the barrier of entry for so many people, and consequently limits our collective ability to enjoy art from every perspective. So please know that when I say I’m leaving Instagram, I am doing so because it serves me personally to do so, and I am in a privileged enough position to do it. I don't expect the same from others. I hope there continues to be a space where people can make a living off of their creative endeavors.

While I would also love to see Meta curb it’s self interest, and show a little respect for the creative communities that make up it’s platform, I have zero faith in that happening. Companies are not human beings, and they don’t limit themselves out of a sense of duty to their fellows.

I suspect the only way creators will be protected from their work being stolen and fed to AI is if the laws governing us adapt very quickly. They’re known for that, right?

ANYWAY, please continue to be lovely human beings who support each other and share wonder and comfort through whatever media you prefer.

As for me, I will be using this platform, along with my website to make my art and thoughts available to the general public.

In addition, I have scrawled out a nearly incomprehensible list of things that I actually want out of Instagram, and have done my best to come up with replacements that might suit me better. Perhaps some of these ideas will apply to your own life, perhaps they will be completely illegible to you. Only time will tell.