Card 00, the unnumbered card, the Fool. He strides carelessly along, noticing neither the cliff in front of him nor the dog tearing at him. Although he teeters on the edge, he is unafraid; he looks upwards to his dreams rather than downwards to the rocks below. Some say the Fool is central to the whole tarot, representative of the initiate who treads the path shown in the other cards. As such the symbols of the four suits surround him, but they are as yet scattered and unnoticed. Gellpen & Photodeluxe

Card #1, the Magician, in his aspects of both the scholar and the sorcerer. Surrounded by the royal purple, the scholar gazes into infinity and studies the world while the sorcerer gazes into chaos and studies death. Looking at my sketchbook, I see that I unknowingly drew the card reversed (I started by sketching the rough figures as a mirror image, and flipped the book over and over many times while filling in the robe’s details before doing the heads); If you know the Tarot's meanings, make of that what you will. Colored gellpens, background & lettering in Photodeluxe

Card 2, the High Priestess. Seated on the moon and with the sun on her brow, enthroned between the pillars of the secret temple, with the scroll of divine wisdom half-hidden in her hand. Secretive, intuitive, wise, creative, passionate, generous, jealous, and all things feminine, good and bad…
How about a snake for a little anthropomorphic diversity? And because snakes have a natural 'poker face', and to me women are just as inscrutable (don't bother flaming me, my wife will hit me for you).

Card 03: The Empress, glowing with health and warmth, reclines languidly on a pleasant summer’s day. Loving and maternal, she is surrounded by the fruits of nature’s bounty. A carrion crow flies above, reminding that there is no abundance without waste and no fecundity without decay.

A cow this time, again for a little anthro diversity. I tried to make her look voluptuous, but I’m not sure it came out (*THPPP* to all of you who only like skinny girls!)

Card 5, the Pope. For the card of conformity and social acceptance, I chose a penguin pope. He was supposed to have a sheep bowing to him, but... I CAN'T DRAW SHEEP!!! WHY CAN'T I DRAW A FREAKIN SHEEP?? OK, it's bedtime now...

Card 08, Justice: The ancient Egyptians believed that at the end of their soul’s journey to the afterlife, Anubis, the jackal-headed god, would weigh their heart against the feather of truth. If the scales balanced, they were admitted to Eternity; if not, their soul was forever annihilated. The double-edged sword has many double meanings: good and evil, truth and falsehood, the two sides of any argument, and destroying the false while defending the true. Zoroastrianism speaks of the sword-bridge that must be crossed to reach heaven; to those who are righteous it presents its broad side which can be crossed in three steps, but to those who had false thoughts, words, or deeds in life it will present its edge and the three steps will cut them in half.

This picture is a good example of how you can try too hard; I had a pretty clear idea of how I wanted the Justice card to look, but after ruining a page in my sketchbook and despairing of ever getting it right, I gave up and just started doodling – and I got a better card than the one I originally planned. Black Gellpen & Adobe Photodeluxe.
P.S.: if the admins think these descriptions are too long they have official permission to smack me w/a rolled newspaper and I'll be shorter. Seriously.

The hermit picks his way through the deep forest where few have ventured. Is he hiding from the world, or seeking a new path through it? Does his lantern show him the deep secrets that few have seen, or does its narrow beam only light upon that which he wishes to view?

This card came about by good luck... I had intended the Hermit to be some sort of futuristic ronin, a post-apocalyptic samaurai, then in Borders last night in a book on Japan I saw a picture of a wandering warrior-monk and said 'that's the Hermit'!

Here is the black & white version of the card. If anyone else wants to color it, I can send you a larger version of the file!

I've decided to do a Tarot deck. Given my track record in this sort of thing, I anticipate completiton around 2023 if I'm still alive by then.

For a project like this I decided #12, the Hanged Man, life in suspension, would be a good start. He's (I'm) suspended between the Earth & the Sky, between the Land & the Sea, between Night & Day, and between this world and the Next. As the card can also signify both sacrifice and enightenment, I included the noose, the missing eye, and the raven as symbols of Odin, god of Wisdom. Odin plucked out his own eye to trade for a drink from the well of wisdom, and he also hung himself from an oak tree (just as sacrifices to Odin were hung - he sacrificed himself to himself) so that he could learn the things only the dead know. His was not 'instant karma' enlightenment, but wisdom paid for.

Black pen, colored in Photodeluxe.

Card 13: Death, the grim reaper, the carrion crow. Crushed beneath his feet are a crown and a child’s rattle, as Death respects neither rank nor age. On his belt he wears an hourglass with the sand run out; chained to his wrist is the book of destiny. The page the book is open to reminds us that all things must end (“The end is in the beginning”); the next page, however, reminds us that every ending is also a beginning (“The beginning is in the end”).

As a huge David Hopkins fan my first impulse for was to ask for permission to use his Jack character on the Death card, but that wouldn’t be very original, would it? If you’re not reading Jack you should be.

I've completed (in gellpen and Photodeluxe, of course) the 'pips' to use on the numbered cards of the four suits in my Tarot deck. No, I won't annoy everybody by posting all - uh - 36 of them. I'll just post the 3 of each suit so you can see them. This is Coins (Pentacles) / Diamonds / Earth.

On an unrelated note, I see my posts lately have been full of typos. Should do this when I'm more awake.

The 3 of Cups / Hearts / Water

The 3 of Swords / Spades / Air (it's too small to see here, but the Mon {crest} on the samurai's kamishimo is a spade)

And here is the reverse of the tarot deck; gellpens plus cipart manipulated in photodeluxe. I see devils, dragons and bats in it; like the tarot itself, it's a rorshach (sp?) test.

The 3 of Wands / Clubs / Fire. The anthro is a salamander, of course, since they were believed to either start, live in, or eat (depending on who you believe) fire.