The new version of The Tower illustrates how disaster can come out of the blue. The peaceful horizons of a pastoral scene is being suddenly and unexpectedly interrupted by disaster. Even in Tarot, some things just come out of nowhere.
You can imagine the shockwave of thousands of tons of stone slamming into earth. No matter how destructive it is, it's hard to look away.
2024-02-12 23:57:55 +0000 UTC View Post
It's been a while since I was working on stuff from scratch and I totally flaked on posting about it here!
The Tower card I had illustrated before was my least favorite from the series and one of the places where I felt like I would have regrets if I didn't spend a little extra time creating revisions. I'm much happier with this concept!
One of my favorite ways to create an interesting take on an idea is to turn it upside down. In this case, I did that literally :)
2024-02-12 23:53:27 +0000 UTC View Post
This one took a while but I'm really happy with it.
Looking back over all the edits that added up over these past couple of weeks, I realized that I ended up fully repainting it ala ship of Theseus. Honestly, if I knew I was going to just repaint every single pixel of this thing, I would have just started over.
Thankfully, the plan for the next 3 is to just start over. That should make the process a bit easier!
Finishing this up has been amazing. This piece has reinforced for me that these revisions were a good idea. Looking at these last couple of pieces gives me a lot of confidence in my ability as an artist.
Rounding the new year with this momentum is motivating me to push forward every day on painting and planning for everything down the line.
Thanks so much for the patience and support you provide here on Patreon. It really means a lot!
Best wishes,
-Pete
2024-01-06 18:40:24 +0000 UTC View Post
This is starting to look way more exciting through a lens than those early screenshots.
2024-01-05 21:07:42 +0000 UTC View Post
This was the card that inspired me to consider making changes after I finished with the Major Arcana. Not because I was dissatisfied with the painting, but because I forgot to add an important symbol in the original version.
Looking back on this piece though, I am not satisfied with the level of painting that I had done back in 2022. This was during the period where I was trying to merge a more flat, graphic style with my usual painting tendencies in order to establish a unique look for...
2024-01-03 14:45:03 +0000 UTC View Post
When I first painted the Hierophant card in 2022, I thought I was finishing a really strong piece. Part of that feeling came from my fact that the color palette was shared with one of my most iconic pieces, and part of that came from my recent turn back toward making everything by hand after my stint with AI. Looking back on it now, it seems obvious to me that I started with a weak sketch that lacked the sort of eminence that I was aiming for.
I thought this would be a quick touchup an...
I've been addressing these pieces in batches rather than finishing one and then moving on to the next one.
The Empress is a piece that I've revised multiple times now. This time I'm confident that I'm on the right track. The difference this time is that I'm basing it off one of the existing Angels from the collection for the first time. I don't know why but it kept drifting off into its own weird direction before. Now it's featuring Penemue and sharing a lot of common DNA with the recen...
2023-12-20 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
More than anything, I want the Hierophant to feel more grand!
In addition to cleaning up some stylistic choices, I am rebuilding the composition to create the feeling of power and awe that Armaros deserves. It's still a little rough, but I wanted to share the current state of things to show what the step between breaking and fixing these pieces looks like.
2023-12-18 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
I was very happy with the creative choices in this piece, but I was unhappy with the underlying structure. There was something about the pose of the old version that felt very un-emperor-like to me. My failure here didn't have to do with AI, but with a lack of reference gathering that was also happening during this period.
Skipping on the reference early in the process is the sort of thing that will only bite me in the butt only sometimes. When I stick to my best practices, awkward pose...
2023-12-16 22:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
At some point, I'm going to have to create a unified scene to pop all these guys into so that you can get a really good look at them. As it stands, each sculptor has their own unique way of sharing images with me and it's not a look that is ready for the public.
However, these things are are looking very sweat and you people are special, so I wanted to share them with you.
There are 2 more pieces commissioned with two more ready to commission in the next couple of months.
...
The inspiration to revise this image was twofold. Part of it involved wanting to replace the AI generated bits in the background and the other part was a desire to revise the strange geometric elements that aren't present anywhere else in the series.
When I went to make these changes, I began to fix little bits all over the composition. Before I knew it, the whole piece had been significantly rearranged. I'm discovering that as I go into these edits, sometimes I don't know how much is g...
2023-12-13 22:28:33 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi patrons!
Last month I wrapped up the last card in the Major Arcana, but I don't feel like I've completed this set yet.
Over the time I've been working on this series, a lot of things have been changing for me. This is the largest series in the collection to date and the huge amount of time it has taken to complete has left some marks on the project that I feel obligated to address before I can call it done.
The first is AI. When I started using AI back in 2021, it hadn't ...
2023-12-02 13:32:56 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm slow as always, but I always catch up eventually :) The downloadable content is all up on the Dropbox here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qj1bbq1putlz0os/AABCiWE8xlx-5HT_mRcZEBbpa?dl=0
For those of you who are hoping to pick up something from my store, you can use the discount code FIRE20 at checkout. And there are new things coming in the next ...
2023-11-10 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Reversed card (keywords): Disharmony, Imbalance, Misalignment of values, Self-love
Upright card (keywords): Being at a crossroads, Choices, Commitment, Falling in love, Partnerships
The Lovers represent relationships and choices. Its appearance in a spread indicates some decision about an existing relationship, a temptation of the heart, or a choice of potential partners. Often an aspect of the querent's lif...
2023-11-10 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
There's been a lot of progress on the sculpture side of things. Simikiel is the first one to get finished but I have works in progress for Armaros, Gadreel, and Hasmed all very far along. Once they are complete, I'll be setting up a nice looking render scene for them to show them off in a consistent way. For the time being, each sculptor has been sharing progress images in different states, with different types of renders, so I want to get them all consistent before I start showing them as "F...
2023-11-10 01:05:25 +0000 UTC View Post
The final stages of these paintings has felt increasingly heavy to complete.
I've got my theories why they seem to have gotten progressively more difficult over the years rather than easier but no one explanation feels fully satisfactory. One interesting theory is that through a combination of switching to progressively nicer monitors and getting progressively better at spotting mistakes that I've become increasingly picky about small, meaningless mistakes. The primary evidence for this...
2023-11-10 00:40:35 +0000 UTC View Post
Before I even got a chance to post the first work in progress images, I got sucked back into working on this piece and got a rough color palette out of it.
If you caught me working on on this on Twitch yesterday, then you probably saw me struggling with the colors. The reason why I wasn't able to get them done was because I had not fully worked out the values of the painting. Whenever my colors fail to stick to the canvas, it's always because I haven't worked out the values enough.
<... 2023-10-17 10:41:15 +0000 UTC View Post
I was at a loss as to how I was going to illustrate this card for a long time, since I didn't really have a good vision for an Angel from my collection involved in romantic love. Azazel might have worked, but he's already on the strength card.
Thankfully, a patron on here sent me a DM about his preference for this card being The Lover (singular) and sent me some resources about some other classic representations of this card in Tarot. Rather than romance, The Lover represents themes lik...
2023-10-17 10:36:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey there, here's an update on this wing of the Angelarium project.
After I shared the Raziel mini here on Patreon I had to stop and reassess how I planned on moving forward with these. I love making them and I believe that there is a market for them, but that first piece was a minor failure. Thankfully, the support I get here on Patreon allows me to make failures on this scale comfortably.
The plan going forward is to actually triple down on minis. I am commissioning 10 sculpts a...
2023-10-13 21:31:51 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm kinda lost in this new version of Patreon and I've been a bit scattered recently, so I can't tell if I posted the works in progress on The Chariot or not.
This was a really tough piece since it required drawing a lot of animal anatomy that I'm not familiar with. But after many hours of pouring over reference and man many tweaks, I feel like I'm finally happy with it.
Sorry about that, I'll make sure to be more attentive with sharing the works in progress earlier on the next ...
The Chariot is a card about overcoming conflicts and moving forward in a positive direction. One needs to keep going on and through sheer hard work and commitment he will be victorious.
Upright card (keywords): A journey, Ambition, Confidence, Drive, Overcoming obstacles, Will power
Reversed card (keywords): Lack of direction, Scattered energy, Self doubt
2023-10-13 21:13:12 +0000 UTC View Post
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/angelarium/angelarium-oracle-of-the-fallen?ref=project_build
The long-delayed second Oracle deck is now live on Kickstarter! If you're one of the first 100 people to back the project, I'll send you a hand-signed copy (sorry, US only).
2023-09-18 11:43:08 +0000 UTC View Post
I've just double checked to make sure all the latest files are in place on the Dropbox. If you want to check that out, here it is:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qj1bbq1putlz0os/AABCiWE8xlx-5HT_mRcZEBbpa?dl=0
I also added the last 15 studies I've done along with their PSDs. After completing 64 of them I feel like I'm making real breakthroughs in my learning. If you w...
2023-09-11 13:25:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Strength predicts the triumphant conclusion to a major life problem, situation or temptation through strength of character. It is a very happy card if you are fighting illness or recovering from injury.
Upright card (keywords): Confidence, Enjoying power, Inner strength, Potency, Self-belief, Virility, Vitality
Reversed card (keywords): Hedonism, Lack of self-control, Lacking courage, Self-doubt, Vanity
2023-09-04 11:28:09 +0000 UTC View Post
After only a few days of poking around on this painting, I'm finding my self making a list of last minute corrections before I begin finalizing everything. Starting with a strong sketch always ends of smoothing out the process quite a bit. It's something I'm putting as a top priority for all my work going forward, especially after experimenting with solutions that largely skipped the initial stages of the painting.
I also think that my daily photo studies are making me much more comfort...
2023-08-24 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
There was a lot of back and forth trying to figure out what I was going to do with the colors on this one. You can see the extensive experimentation in the form of the oil slick like dabs of different colors throughout the work.
Ultimately, I chose to divert from the values I had laid out earlier in the process and flip the values of the Azazel and the background. Originally I was thinking that the background would be light and the figure would be dark, but that was sapping all the focu...
2023-08-23 12:05:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey there,
The plush campaign keeps moving forward bit by bit! It's a bit of an odd thing based on the style of my work, but it's something I'm really happy to have worked on. Throughout the design process, I worked really closely with Makeship to make Azrael exactly how I imagined them to be. Now, the final step is to push the marketing so that we sell enough of these to make it to production.
2023-08-21 11:21:12 +0000 UTC View Post
I was working on sketches over my vacation, so now that I'm getting caught up on all my backlog, I'm finally taking a look at these drawings to see if they are good enough to complete the few remaining cards for the Major Arcana.
Personally, I am super happy to have this sketch. This feels like a slam dunk. The plan is to bring this bad boy home really fast and move on quickly to The Chariot or The Lovers next. Then I'm going to begin the process of remaking or cleaning up the cards I'm...
2023-08-18 13:06:57 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm on an upward swing after falling behind and I'm going to be rolling straight into the final pieces for the Major Arcana ASAP. This is technically a couple of weeks late, so you might see another post like this pretty soon.
Part of posting this month's rewards involved looking through old requests for missing content from Dropbox and correcting those mistakes. If you are looking for older pieces that are missing from folders, don't be shy to ask for them.
2023-08-18 13:03:52 +0000 UTC
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