Tarot

The Lovers can represent love, beauty, attraction, romance, commitment, enchantment, devotion. The image shows the couple sitting together, hands clasped, upon the moon. In the upright positon, they could be seen to have made a devoted commitment to one another, and as their eyes are locked, their feelings are equally met. In a reverse position, it can be noted that in being together in the clouds they have managed to isolate themselves from others while caught in their reverie. The reality of their situation may not have hit them, and they have not thought through their choices carefully, as they were so caught up in the moment and each other.  

When I began thinking about creating a Tarot deck, the first card I chose imagery for was The Lovers. I find Victorian valentines really charming, especially couples cuddling together sitting on a crescent moon, so I immediately knew I had to include it.

The art was done in colored pencils. I tried out a new to me technique of blending the pencils with solvent. I liked that it helped remove some of the paper texture look, however I think it shifted the colors a little in a way that I wasn’t expecting. In the future I would consider making a separate swatch sheet of my pencils blended out with solvent to have a better idea of their final shades. I did appreciate that in blending with the solvent it allowed me to add additional layers on top without getting too much wax buildup.