Baroque Bohemian Cats Tarot

baba-prague

lunakasha said:
Karen:

Just curious....will you be featuring any black-and-white (tuxedo) cats in this deck??? I'm thinking maybe THE DEVIL??? ;)

:) Karen

Ah - well, this might be giving it away, but so far the sketches of High Priestess and Hierophant are both black and white cats. For all sorts of reasons. Partly that I wanted them to look like two sides of the same coin. They are marked similarly, but very different facially.
The only thing I'm not 100% sure of is the Heirophant. He may get changed (though I like him very much - but boy, is he one battered old tom cat - bits of ear missing!) The High Priestess will stay the way she is. You'll get it at once when I put her up and you see her face. She's perfect.
_____

Hudson. Thank-you for that encouragement - appreciated. Well, yes, in fact I did hold off showing this deck (and held off posting for a bit) because of that bunch of weird stuff from that guy in November (or December? can't remember now). I just thought that if he was going to send a bunch of accusations over Tarot of Prague, then I wouldn't provoke him any more by showing him this. I could just imagine how sarcastic he could be.
I did also think that some people - not him! - might be disappointed and think BBCtarot is not serious enough, so I waited months before posting (plus of course we only had rough sketches anyway). In fact, I think in its own way it IS serious - I just know it will read in a very interesting way - not in a silly way. But I thought there might be a bit of "good grief, what are you doing?" Not that I'd mind, but it did make me nervous to start off with.

But, I think I may have said that a very well-known graphic design critic friend gave us confidence, because every time she comes here she doesn't at all want to see the new "serious" graphics we are doing (we do have one very "fine art" project up our sleeves) - instead she just goes weak-kneed over the tiny costumes! It makes me smile - really nice that she can be so honest about what really, truthfully does appeal to her.

_________
edited to add. Oh my goodness, the photos are great! Lovely cats you have there - real beauties.
 

Major Tom

baba-prague said:
The only thing I'm not 100% sure of is the Heirophant. He may get changed (though I like him very much - but boy, is he one battered old tom cat - bits of ear missing!)

OK. I wasn't going to get into this. You can certainly chose any cat for any card that you and Alex desire.

The Heirophant, or The Pope as I'm beginning to prefer, is my soul card. I can assure you that both my ears are intact. :laugh:

I was going to rant and say I thought a ginger tom might be more appropriate, but I can see where you're going with black & white. ;)
 

baba-prague

Tom, he's a very wise old cat - and in fact was one of the only cats at the cats home that sat on my lap and purred for ages. He was one of the ones "in charge" there, and all that seemed to make him suitable.
However, he isn't beautiful. He's interesting looking - has obviously seen a lot :)
 

M-Press

I will start loving cats...I think...
 

skytwig

M-Press said:
I will start loving cats...I think...
Ahhhhh..... the sweet fruit of sharing your delight!!!! :)
 

Mimers

baba-prague said:
Recently I have also been thinking about adding more pictures to the book. I think the little "extra" pictures in the Prague book were a bit of a late decision, but in fact added a lot. We have some wonderful old books, including some early drawings of cats, and I am thinking of using those - in fact today we went searching for more in some of the antiquarian bookshops here. Personally, I like tarot companion books to be decorative and visual.

Karen, it would be lovely to see some of the pictures you did not use in the deck, in the book. Kind of like Riccardo did in his book for the Fey Tarot. It was very enlightening to see how the cards evolved into the finished product.

BTW, I am not a cat lover myself, but have already been told by my two cat loving sisters to buy this deck in order to do readings for their cats! I, of course, being a huge fan of yours and Alex's work, was planning on buying the deck anyway. My sisters ogled over the pictures for quite some time and can't wait for the deck's release!

Keep up the good work!

Mimi
 

lunakasha

originally posted by baba-prague:
<<Ah - well, this might be giving it away, but so far the sketches of High Priestess and Hierophant are both black and white cats. For all sorts of reasons. Partly that I wanted them to look like two sides of the same coin. They are marked similarly, but very different facially. >>

YIPPEEEEEEE!!!! Can't wait to see them both (although I still think the DEVIL would be more appropriate to the personality of the tux) ;) kidding of course

:) Karen
 

augursWell

Really awesome!

Baba, et-al

Don't change a thing, the deck is awesome. The Knight of Swords reminds me of an old fairy tale illustration, not sure which, of puss-n-boots, or some such character, from fables that were read to me as a child. Borders like the ones you have give my mind plenty of room to drift off into detailed, verigated... whatever. I love the borders.

As to the earlier dialogue about cats and women, gay men, testosterone, etc...

There have been cats in my life since before I was born up until this very day and anyone who thinks that cats are not brave, outrageous, loving, "manly", or whatever have, unfortunaetly, never had cats in their life or known them well enough to truly understand them.

I've even seen male rabbits with more courage and bravery than some human beings I've met. It's like the tarot, some people read into them what they want to see. Not that cuteness is a bad thing, but I don't see only that in these cards.
 

baba-prague

Re: Really awesome!

augursWell said:
There have been cats in my life since before I was born up until this very day and anyone who thinks that cats are not brave, outrageous, loving, "manly", or whatever have, unfortunaetly, never had cats in their life or known them well enough to truly understand them.

Well, this will be a brief post as it's gone eleven pm here and we are about to leave and get home, but as if to prove the point, here is our very un-cute King of Swords. I put a copyright notice as I was a bit startled with the way some of these are appearing all over the place on the web, but I hope you can still see that he is holding (pulling?) the strings of a puppet...

In real life this guy is a Supreme Champion British Shorthair - and is king of the roost (sorry, bad metaphor for a cat!)

http://www.tarotofprague.com/cats/Websmall_c_king_swds.jpg
 

ncefafn

I dare say this may be the best King of Swords I've seen in any deck. He's so regal and commanding. I love him. What a face!

Kim