Peter Mohrbacher

The Hanged Man and The World - WiP 3

Everyone gets halos.

After a few days away from these paintings, I finally took an opportunity to look them over and explore what they might be missing. Turns out, I wanted to add halos to both of them. Probably not a terrible choice for an Angel themed Tarot deck :)

These glowing rings are also giving me a chance to add some unique color notes into their respective compositions. Something I'm really enjoying right now.

Just a few more tweaks to the content on each of thes...

The Hanged Man and The World - WiP 2

Here are the roughed out color palettes for this month's work.

Both are familiar and contain a decent amount of reference back to their prior incarnations. Whenever that happens I stress a bit and push to try to find a unique offramp for them. As these pieces come together, they are both likely to diverge into their own directions to better suit their role in the Tarot.

The Hanged Man and The World

I had ambitions to finish two tarot paintings this month, but I didn't pay close attention to my family calendar. Kids on spring break, school field trips, and now out-of-town visitors are taking big chunks out of my work time recently. It's been nice, but I'm stretched a little thin. In the midst of the distractions, I lost track of time and forgot to post.

I'll be sharing the progress on these two paintings and then I'll wrap them up early in April so that I can jump into the next tw...

Seeking feedback on an Azrael plush

Here's the latest draft of an Azrael, Angel of Death plush doll. What are your thoughts?

If you can think of ways to improve it, I would love to hear them while this thing is still in the design process.

Much love,

-Pete

The Fool Tarot

The Fool represents new beginnings, having faith in the future, being inexperienced, not knowing what to expect, having beginner's luck, improvisation and believing in the universe.

Upright card (keywords): Beginnings, Innocence, Leap of faith, Originality, Spontaneity

Reversed card (keywords): Chaos, Folly, Lack of direction, Naivety, Poor judgement, Stupidity

Hod, Bathed in Light

It is too clear and so it is hard to see.
A dunce once searched for a fire with a lighted lantern.
Had he known what fire was,
He could have cooked his rice much sooner.

-Mumon

The Fool - WiP 2

I had a really great session hanging out no the Discord and chatting with some community members I hadn't seen in a really long time. It's been way too long since I was in there, so I've been scared to come back and feel foolish for being away.

Something about embracing the persona of The Fool has been very empowering for me!

If you want to hang out with me while I paint and maybe even share your own stuff, feel free to come join us on the Discord: 2023-02-17 11:42:11 +0000 UTC View Post

The Fool - WiP 1

This card is easy for me to relate to.

I remember when I jumped off the wheel of employment and trusted that Patreon would catch me, I was dancing right off the edge of the cliff and expecting to walk on a cloud.

I love The Fool. So long as he stands upon his tenuous perch, those with their feet planted on the ground look foolish by comparison. The persona of The Fool is a lens through which we can invert the rules of society and our constructed reality.

Hod, Embracing the Light - WiP 2

The colors are a little close to the previous version while muted down quite a bit. I'll see where they ultimately land as I push forward with this.

This piece started life as a digital sketch and got up to this state in a single sitting. So I haven't spent enough time with it to get a sense on what I really want out of the final work. Shouldn't be too long though! This thing came together super fast :)

Year 3 - Filling in the gaps

I got curious about how many paintings were added to the collection since the Year 2 collectible card deck was published a few years ago. Turns out that if I include the Major Arcana series as part of the Year 3 deck, all I need to add to finish it up is the remaining revised Emanations along with maybe 1 or 2 extra pieces.

I promised myself to try to finish up the Major Arcana before starting fulltime work on the RPG later this year, so if I'm going to add these pieces, they need to b...

Tarot Pins

I had this idea the other day and I wanted to experiment to see if it would be cool. Typically when I experiment with simplifying my illustrations, the results don't turn out well and the idea gets scrapped. But this time out, I'm feeling pretty good about the work!

What do you think?

I'm thinking about making the whole Major Arcana like this and doing 3" enamel pins and vinyl stickers.

-Pete

The Moon Tarot

The Moon is a card of illusion and deception, and therefore often suggests a time when something is not as it appears to be. Perhaps a misunderstanding on your part, or a truth you cannot admit to yourself.

Upright card (keywords): Deception, Difficult period, Fear, Hidden things, Insecurity, Mental confusion

Reversed card (keywords): Insomnia, Mysteries unveiled, Release of fear, Unhappiness, Unusual

January Downloadable Rewards + Discount Code

I wrapped up 2 tarot cards recently since I still owed one from December. All the new updates are on the Dropbox over here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qj1bbq1putlz0os/AABCiWE8xlx-5HT_mRcZEBbpa?dl=0 

I'm past the halfway point on the Major Arcana, so I'm really considering ramping up production on these pieces. They've also been a lot of run recently.

I'll be addin...

Judgement Tarot

A time of resurrection and awakening, a time when a period of our life comes to an absolute end making way for dynamic new beginnings.

BONUS - SAI GUY

I've been playing around with a number of Photoshop alternatives as part of my exploration into making more educational content. One of the weirdest things I've tried is SAI2. It's a very old and very minimalist drawing program that I instantly fell in love with when I first tried it.

Here's a little doodle I spent a few hours on. If you want to see behind the scenes on this one, I've uploaded the PSD in the Dropbox folder. SAI doesn't have gradient maps or anything fancy, so I had to m...

Judgement Tarot - WiP 3

I'm feeling very satisfied with the current state of this piece, so I'm going to push it forward to final from here :)

Time to find a new series on Netflix or voice chat channel to hang out in while I render. This step allows for a lot of extra brain bandwidth that I can't allow to just sit idle. If I had 4 eyes and 4 arms I would totally be doing jigsaw puzzles while I worked on rendering.

Whew, I think I'm done catching up on progress posts. It's a big goal of mine this year to ...

Judgement Tarot - WiP 2

The colors share too much similarity for my taste with Israfel's first illustration, but I'm happy to have a palette easily drift its way onto my canvas. I'm tweaking it as I go to see if there is an interested variation to explore before I nail everything down.

Judgement Tarot - WiP 1

I was supposed to be finishing The Moon, but I decided that instead of procrastinating, I should just do some sketching and see what happened. Before I knew it, I had a sketch I really liked for Judgement.

Sometimes you're just going through life and a meteor falls out of the sky. We've all experienced this in some form or another. It's hard to say if a sudden change is for the better or worse, but it's also hard to wish that things turned out a different way when it always leads us to ...

Moon Tarot WiP 3

I've been doing everything out of order recently. This piece felt like I was coming out of a slump and I was so excited that I got nervous about working on it. It's been in a holding pattern for the past few weeks but I'm about to get back to it and wrap up the final details. In the meantime I've been also working on the Judgement Tarot for this month's piece. The plan is to deliver them both by the end of this month.

Much love,

-Pete

Looking back 2022 - Forward to 2023

2022 was a unique year for me. Lots has changed and I'm learning a lot about myself. If you are curious about what's going on in my studio, here's an in depth look.

Enjoy!

Work/Life Balance

At the start of the year I rented an office space outside my house and established firm work/life boundaries for the first time since I went indie nearly 10 years ago. I felt that if I could ward off procrastination and distraction, I could produce a superhuman amount of ...

Moon Tarot - Failed Attempts

I keep promising myself to share stuff as I'm working on it, but it's hard for me. Whenever I've shared a work in progress, I feel beholden to stick to that piece and make it the official version. However, I sometimes run into a dead end and need to back out.

This month has been an excellent example of why I get so nervous about this. I've already restarted The Moon card twice.

First attempt - The Malkuth Version

I created a digital sketch early in the month...

Justice Tarot

The Justice card indicates that the fairest decision will be made. Justice is the sword that cuts through a situation, and will not be swayed by outer beauty when deciding what is fair and just.

Justice Tarot - Work in Progress 2

I am "borrowing" a color palette from one my art heroes, Brom.

In my mind, everyone thinks Brom is the best artist in the world. But I'm finding it disheartening to discover that most people I mention his name has not heard of him. It's up to me to keep the weird freak energy of his early works alive in my own heart. And in the exposed heart of Simikiel.

Justice Tarot - Work in Progress 1

I made the mistake of agreeing to a make a few extra pieces as a good will gesture to online friends this month and I ended up way behind on delivering this piece. Fortunately, I feel like putting these kinds of limitations on myself always result in strong outcomes. I am feeling very strong about this piece.

After some time away from the Tarot project, my vision for the whole thing has clarified a lot. No more AI starts. New color palettes. More weird stuff :)

Justice is such a f...

Downloadable Rewards + Discount Code

After a long delay, I've finally gotten the Dropbox folder updated with the latest pieces along with the first couple of WiPs for this month's piece!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qj1bbq1putlz0os/AABCiWE8xlx-5HT_mRcZEBbpa?dl=0 

If you want to add an extra discount on top of the holiday sale that's going on, use the code WONDER20. It's exclusive to yo...

Bonus Content - Hellraiser(2022) Concept Art

Hey guys!

Last year I spent some time doing concept art for the recently released Hellraiser movie. Obviously, it's not part of Angelarium and not a part of the work you pay me for here on Patreon, but I thought you might enjoy seeing my take on a different IP.

Here's a link to a folder with a number of pieces Spyglass approved for release: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/udyqq...

The High Priestess

High Priestess is a card of mystery, stillness and passivity. This card suggests that it is time to retreat and reflect upon the situation and trust your inner instincts to guide you through it. Things around you are not what they appear to be right now.

Keywords: Hidden talents, Intuition, Mystery, Spiritual insight, Things yet to be revealed

Zachriel, The High Priestess - WiP 3

Once that sticky digital paint his the canvas, the whole texture of the piece starts to transform. It's funny. After a year of seeing AI work get posted on social media, I've begun to tune out art that has that overly abstract feel to it. I'm feeling much more attached the the content of the pieces I see in my feed rather than just the mood and flavor of them. That feels like a healthy reminder to me to focus on that for myself. In order to feel like I'm completed this piece, I've had to pain...

Doodles - Oct 26

I think I'm going through some sort of midlife crisis or something because recently I've been obsessed with making drawings again on my iPad.

For one reason or another I have generally disliked painting on an iPad, but I've been struggling to spend time drawing in my sketchbook for so long, that it's finally time for me to admit that I need to create some change in my life. I still despise Procreate tho, so I'm working in Infinite Painter.

I really want my iPad time to be open end...

Zachriel, The High Priestess - WiP 2

What we're looking at now is a mixture of 4 AI generated images layered together with some additional overpainting. This particular version of MidJourney is so noisy and low res that I really need to paint over every inch of this piece before I can call it down. The whole time I'm working on it I'm questioning how much this is a time saver and how much it's just getting me stuck in interesting new places.

In addition to this piece I've begun working on my iPad Pro for the first time in ...