Le Tarot Tournant (Bill's Tarot) completed!!

FaintlyMacabre

Thank you so much for the update! It's a bright spot for today!

Diana
 

rylla

Absolutely amazing deck! And that's coming from someone who is not interested in Marseilles type deck (because of the unillustrated minors). So I haven't looked at this thread until now. This deck is wonderful!.If it becomes available I must have a copy! Please include me on the list of those who want to buy a copy (if there is such a list).
 

littlethings

I love everything about this deck. Can't wait until we can order it :)
 

Nemia

An amazing deck. Beautiful beautiful work with water colours. I haven't been so excited by a new deck for quite some time. Whenever I think: well, it seems that everything to be done with tarot cards has been done... I'm proven wrong. There is something very wise and very fresh in these cards. Obviously, a LOT of thought has gone into this, while the hand was so light with the material.

Oh those pips really make my heart sing. Very very elegant packaging, too.

There it goes on my wishlist.
 

OnePotato

Thank you rylla and littlethings!
I'll keep people updated on it.

Thanks, Nemia!
Back when I began this, quite a while ago, things were quite different.
The whole thing began as a purely intellectual pursuit, without much regard for practicality.
Some pencil sketches of an idea, done for a class back in art school.
This drew my attention from the "object", to the "idea", and that pretty much changed everything for me.
 

OnePotato

Thanks Nicky!

...I'm also working on getting some photos of the pips from the Tournant, I'm trying to lay them out just right, so as to show how they relate while at the same time avoiding posting an image filled with cards that can be pirated.....

Hello Prudence!

Here's a photo of the swords, ace through ten, laid out in a line, together with a similar line from an old Marseille deck. If you look at the old TdM, you can see the distinctive growing rhythmic pattern that forms when they're lined up like this. It's a defining feature of the TdM standard design. By moving the impression of that rhythmic pattern from the swords themselves into the landscape of regular undulating hills, it frees up the pip-swords to assume a variety of new individual arrangements, without sacrificing the inclusion of that particularly distinctive overall TdM effect. The interwoven effect is also preserved, but substantially re-worked, in the new arrangements, and the resulting overall impression is something new.

Another change I've made is that the growing/subsiding of the numerical progression is shifted from end-to-end, as seen in the old TdM, into the middle of the run, thus overlaying a new level of order/sequence, and allowing it to transform from a simple linear "build," into a cyclical change instead. (The ends connect.) This is reinforced by the change in light across the run. If you look closely, (Not really clear in the tiny photo) you'll see that the lighting direction on each card shifts across the run from low on the horizon, to directly overhead, and back down at the other end, just as the sun does over the course of the day, or on another level, over the course of a year. Also, the color shifts in the hills, from a wintery dull green/brown at the ends, to a more verdant green in the brighter summer/middle. And, of course, the height of the hills reflects a "more sky/long-day" "less sky/short-day" thing. And so on.

When you look at the lineup, at first glance, it appears that the shadows are on the wrong sides of the hills, because, taken as a completed picture, it looks like the light source is radiating from the bright center of the run. But the sun is not actually visible anywhere, and the lighting is correct for each individual card. This was a deliberate design decision, intended to make the subtle point that it is NOT simply a skinny naturalistic landscape cut into ten parts, but rather 10 separate elements, each of their own individual point in time, but coming together to form a "whole," where the light actually travels over time in an overhead arc.

The Batons are handled in a similar fashion.

The image serves the idea. Rather than simply producing a re-rendering of TdM symbols in a new artistic style, I've concentrated much of my efforts in working out a symbol system, and "telling" it in an organized visual language. I spent a bit more than a year developing an overall Master Plan for the pips, then quite a bit more time fitting each suit or "thing" to that plan and designing individual cards to it. Over time, this project has developed into an investigation into the differences between being an illustration of something, and actually "being" the something. It's not intended as a new picture of old tarot cards.

As I said before, over in my creation thread, you should note that none of this is meant as a trick or a "riddle" to be "solved" by the viewer. I believe there's a certain beauty in underlying Order, in and of itself, that does not need to be fully comprehended to be felt. The thing I've focused on here is creating the experience of that order, rather than the impression of the appearance of an object. (None of this to imply that it shouldn't look nice, as well.)

Anyway, this is just one little bit of it, and I hope I haven't given it too much weight, or said too much here, as I don't want to get off track and spoil the full effect for you.

From my creation thread:
If you look up at the night sky, you'll get an overall impression. If you look closer, you'll begin to see features and patterns emerge. If you stay with it, and look deeper and deeper, over time you'll see more and more and more, and find more and more order, even if you never reach the point of finding "everything" there is to find. That is one idea that I set out to capture in this project.

More pics & info here:
https://nopotatopress.wordpress.com/
 

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greycats

Both decks demonstrate an increase in mass and complexity over the series. Le Tarot Tournant, however, is dynamic!! It seems to be building itself. So remarkable!

greycats
 

cirom

A beautiful body of work...congratulations.
 

prudence

Thanks Nicky!



Hello Prudence!

Here's a photo of the swords, ace through ten, laid out in a line, together with a similar line from an old Marseille deck. If you look at the old TdM, you can see the distinctive growing rhythmic pattern that forms when they're lined up like this. It's a defining feature of the TdM standard design. By moving the impression of that rhythmic pattern from the swords themselves into the landscape of regular undulating hills, it frees up the pip-swords to assume a variety of new individual arrangements, without sacrificing the inclusion of that particularly distinctive overall TdM effect. The interwoven effect is also preserved, but substantially re-worked, in the new arrangements, and the resulting overall impression is something new.

Another change I've made is that the growing/subsiding of the numerical progression is shifted from end-to-end, as seen in the old TdM, into the middle of the run, thus overlaying a new level of order/sequence, and allowing it to transform from a simple linear "build," into a cyclical change instead. (The ends connect.) This is reinforced by the change in light across the run. If you look closely, (Not really clear in the tiny photo) you'll see that the lighting direction on each card shifts across the run from low on the horizon, to directly overhead, and back down at the other end, just as the sun does over the course of the day, or on another level, over the course of a year. Also, the color shifts in the hills, from a wintery dull green/brown at the ends, to a more verdant green in the brighter summer/middle. And, of course, the height of the hills reflects a "more sky/long-day" "less sky/short-day" thing. And so on.

When you look at the lineup, at first glance, it appears that the shadows are on the wrong sides of the hills, because, taken as a completed picture, it looks like the light source is radiating from the bright center of the run. But the sun is not actually visible anywhere, and the lighting is correct for each individual card. This was a deliberate design decision, intended to make the subtle point that it is NOT simply a skinny naturalistic landscape cut into ten parts, but rather 10 separate elements, each of their own individual point in time, but coming together to form a "whole," where the light actually travels over time in an overhead arc.

The Batons are handled in a similar fashion.

The image serves the idea. Rather than simply producing a re-rendering of TdM symbols in a new artistic style, I've concentrated much of my efforts in working out a symbol system, and "telling" it in an organized visual language. I spent a bit more than a year developing an overall Master Plan for the pips, then quite a bit more time fitting each suit or "thing" to that plan and designing individual cards to it. Over time, this project has developed into an investigation into the differences between being an illustration of something, and actually "being" the something. It's not intended as a new picture of old tarot cards.

As I said before, over in my creation thread, you should note that none of this is meant as a trick or a "riddle" to be "solved" by the viewer. I believe there's a certain beauty in underlying Order, in and of itself, that does not need to be fully comprehended to be felt. The thing I've focused on here is creating the experience of that order, rather than the impression of the appearance of an object. (None of this to imply that it shouldn't look nice, as well.)

Anyway, this is just one little bit of it, and I hope I haven't given it too much weight, or said too much here, as I don't want to get off track and spoil the full effect for you.

From my creation thread:
If you look up at the night sky, you'll get an overall impression. If you look closer, you'll begin to see features and patterns emerge. If you stay with it, and look deeper and deeper, over time you'll see more and more and more, and find more and more order, even if you never reach the point of finding "everything" there is to find. That is one idea that I set out to capture in this project.

More pics & info here:
https://nopotatopress.wordpress.com/
well, I certainly don't need to try to post any of the pictures I have taken of the pips! Yours are so much better and show what I was trying to explain earlier. You definitely get the feeling of increase and decrease and I must agree with greycats, your pips are so dynamic. There is so much energy in them, and I find the colors to be so beautiful, especially the batons. I do also love the darkness that seeps into and out of the swords suit.

Both decks demonstrate an increase in mass and complexity over the series. Le Tarot Tournant, however, is dynamic!! It seems to be building itself. So remarkable!

greycats
I agree completely, they are dynamic, and I think this is why they work so well in readings.