- Inspiration -
Artist in focus: Pamela Colman Smith
The original Rider Waite deck was illustrated in 1909 by English artist Pamela Colman Smith. While tarot decks had existed centuries prior, this set of cards rose to popularity and is the most widely used among readers. Each card in the deck is incredibly symbolic, with every detail in the card having significant meaning for the reader to interpret. The illustrations are flat, with shading being implied with the use of thicker or closer black lines and outlines rather than through a gradient. Colors are displayed in solid blocks. While the colors of the card depend on the suit and message, almost all of them have a cool undertone, and include mostly shades of grey, blue, and yellow. Smith used all of her available space, distributing the weight of the illustration relatively regularly-
The original Rider Waite deck was illustrated in 1909 by English artist Pamela Colman Smith. While tarot decks had existed centuries prior, this set of cards rose to popularity and is the most widely used among readers. Each card in the deck is incredibly symbolic, with every detail in the card having significant meaning for the reader to interpret. The illustrations are flat, with shading being implied with the use of thicker or closer black lines and outlines rather than through a gradient. Colors are displayed in solid blocks. While the colors of the card depend on the suit and message, almost all of them have a cool undertone, and include mostly shades of grey, blue, and yellow. Smith used all of her available space, distributing the weight of the illustration relatively regularly-
The card that conveyed the message I wanted to portray best was the King of Pentacles card. The suit of this card- the pentacle, or the coin- is symbolic of wealth, finances, and money. The king of any suit represents maturity, prosperity, success, discipline, and control- thus, the King of Pentacles card represents financial security, success in your career, and prosperity in wealth. I wanted to use this card to depict how I currently feel choosing colleges and majors and careers, and the option of going into a career that makes me money, but that I don't love. Visually, this card is incredibly detailed and would be difficult to reproduce with almost any medium. The engravings of the throne, the foliage around it, the embellishments of the kings robe and the setting he is placed in are all incredibly intricate. While it utilizes warmer colors compared to the rest of the deck, the undertone remains cool. The black lines are thick and heavy to implicate shade
- Process -
The first step in my planning phase was to decide what tarot card best represented my chosen topic- which was the internal conflict between choosing a life path that brings me happiness or money. I found 3 cards that I thought represented this well- the King of Pentacles, the 2 of Wands, and The Fool card. In this piece I decided to represent the outcome of following your brain instead of your heart, with the pentacle icon being a symbol of finances and the king representing general success. I wanted to recreate this card with a block print, but I didn't just want to copy it exactly. I took note of the modifications I wanted to make to the card. The first one was that I wanted to insert myself in place of the king. I wanted to make the meaning of the piece somewhat understandable to those who aren't familiar to the meanings of the cards, and so I decided to replace the icon of the pentacle with a dollar sign. Another modification I made was replacing the towers in the background with skyscrapers.
With a plan, I copied a grid onto my sheet of soft cut linoleum. I always use a grid for art pieces because it helps me proportion everything properly- especially when it involves the human figure. I started by using large, vague shapes to place the head, body, and background objects. I started detailing the face. I used a regular #2 pencil to create dark spaces that I knew to carve around. One thing I made note of right away while in this part of the process was that I should avoid small and intricate details- because of the difficulty of using carving tools. Instead of shading with lines like I attempted in my previous block print about a year ago, I completely blocked in areas I wanted to shade to create some dimension. Overall, however, this gave my sketch a very flat feeling to it. Because the illustrations on the tarot cards were also relatively flat, and that was an aspect of the original art I wanted to keep in my own product. I used thick, heavy lines for more detailed parts of the carving, and left large areas of black empty to avoid wasting time. I planned to keep the robe, the ground, and the back of the chair completely filled with black ink.
After my sketch was completed, I started to carve. I begun with the smallest knife in my tool set, out of apprehension for messing up large details. I carved out the boot on my character first. It didn't take me long to realize that, while the small knife is good for carving sharper shapes, that I could achieve the same affect with a larger knife by simply applying less pressure. Using this knife also gave me the ability to carve out larger areas of linoleum faster. Following the boot, I carved out the face. Initially, I was very careful as to not carve too much out of the face and make the lines thin. When I put the carving into different lighting, however, I realized that the lines could be much smaller than before.
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Following the face and boot, I started to carve out details in the background. I used the thin knife to go around the outer edges of the leaves and lines on the wall behind myself. This was probably the most time consuming part of the printing process, because of how careful I had to be, and how many different small spaces needed to be carved out. At this point I avoided carving the edges of the throne I sat on, because I was still unsure of what to do with it. The background of the piece was something I was also weary about. Because the edge of the hills and mountains just looked like other little lines or branches of the plant, I contemplated added more small details inside to make it more apparently the background of the piece. Because my space was so limited, because I couldn't think of what to add, and because I happened to be on a time crunch, I decided not to add anything.
The robe in this piece was something I was very hesitant about carving. In the sketch, I felt that it should have significantly more detail, however I skipped adding small embellishments out of fear that it would take away from the folds in the cloth. I planned to carve out the larger space in the folds rather than just the outlines of them, but I decided to wait until I made my first print to see if I should go back and fill in those shapes. Without the contrast of the black ink, it looked bland and ugly. I then carved out squiggly lines on the arms of the chair that I would carve out small leaves onto. Even though I sketched out these leaves onto the sheet, I ignored the pencil markings and free-handed the leaves because of issues with space and sizing.
With all of the small details carved out, it was time to empty the background out. I quickly learned a technique that I would apply to every large space I was made to clear out- to use the point of the knife to make deeper cuts into the linoleum in parallel lines, and then to use the wider edge of the knife so scrape in between the lines to carve the surface off. This tactic was much more efficient in speed, and easier to use, than using the end of the knife to do all of the carving. A problem that I had was that I didn't want to carve out the entirety of the linoleum plate, and risk the paper sagging onto the carved areas and catching ink that it wasn't supposed to. To combat this, I carved out an edge to the plate, just slightly over everything else, and only carved out the background inside of that area.
Linoleum in sheets as thick as mine was (about a centimetre) is quite difficult to cut with regular scissors, and even box-cutters. This is why, when carving the outline for the stamp, I left space to cut through with scissors. I cut the stamp out to its final shape with a pair of regular kitchen scissors, after cleaning them off. I then went back in to add just a few more finishing touches to the carving before bringing it to get inked, including the foliage to the side of the throne, and the rocks on the ground underneath my boot. There were a few more things that I had hoped to add, including more flowers and berries on both bottom corners, however I decided to leave them empty. I also used lighting coming from in front of the print to check all of the lines, and cleaned up any spots with ridged lines, for a clean final print. I shook out any remaining chunks of carved-out linoleum inside of the divots, and brought the stamp to get inked.
On a tarp, I set up my ink, roller, and a tray for the ink to go into. For paper, I used the only paper big enough to fit my stamp- which was a massive roll of a smoother, plastic-y paper. I was worried that the paper would be too curved to successfully print onto, and that the texture wouldn't hold the ink. For my first print, I experimented with using less ink, and then I tried a few using more ink that turned out blotchy and thick. After doing 5 prints with this stamp, I decided to go back to edit a few things on my stamp. I rinsed out my stamp and carved a bit of decoration into the back of the throne in order to add more negative space to an area that seemed way too concentrated and dark.
- Critique -
Similarities include:
- Use of line thickness to communicate shape. Seen in the staff and the rocks beneath the foot of the king, the thickness of a line was used to depict shading and shape rather than through a gradient.
- Use of positive and negative space. Both pieces are relatively bottom-heavy, with the top of the piece lacking any details, while the bottom is incredibly busy with a mixture of thick and thin lines.
- Symbolism. Like the original intended symbolism of the King of Pentacles card, my piece uses the imagery of a coin to indicate wealth and finances. Similarly, the common depiction of the throne and the crown indicate power and status.
- Use of line thickness to communicate shape. Seen in the staff and the rocks beneath the foot of the king, the thickness of a line was used to depict shading and shape rather than through a gradient.
- Use of positive and negative space. Both pieces are relatively bottom-heavy, with the top of the piece lacking any details, while the bottom is incredibly busy with a mixture of thick and thin lines.
- Symbolism. Like the original intended symbolism of the King of Pentacles card, my piece uses the imagery of a coin to indicate wealth and finances. Similarly, the common depiction of the throne and the crown indicate power and status.
Differences include:
- Use of color. The original Rider Waite King of Pentacles Card utilized a lot of different colors, most often with a cooler undertone, in order to make the card more unique compared to other King cards in the deck. Because I used plain black ink, my piece is in black and white and lacks the
-Intended message. The original card was meant to represent the positive aspects of wealth and success, and was a promising card to draw in a reading. My piece flipped that meaning completely and instead explores the downside to a career decision made solely based on finances.
- Use of line. While my piece attempts to use line thickness in a way that communicated shadows rather than through a technique like small straight lines, the original Colman Smith tarot card used this far more than I did, and, consequently, did a better job giving dimension to a flat piece.
- Use of color. The original Rider Waite King of Pentacles Card utilized a lot of different colors, most often with a cooler undertone, in order to make the card more unique compared to other King cards in the deck. Because I used plain black ink, my piece is in black and white and lacks the
-Intended message. The original card was meant to represent the positive aspects of wealth and success, and was a promising card to draw in a reading. My piece flipped that meaning completely and instead explores the downside to a career decision made solely based on finances.
- Use of line. While my piece attempts to use line thickness in a way that communicated shadows rather than through a technique like small straight lines, the original Colman Smith tarot card used this far more than I did, and, consequently, did a better job giving dimension to a flat piece.
- Reflection -
This was one of the most time consuming projects I have ever done, so it was important for me to break up my tasks into chunks and to not procrastinate. It was my second ever block print, so I had a bit of experience with the carving and printing process while also still being new to all the techniques I discussed. In connected perfectly to my inspiration as I had intended, and while the message isn't very in-your-face, it is comprehendible when examined closer. My favorite part of this piece was definitely the face, as its something I have the most experience with drawing and shading. I hated carving out the small insignificant details like the ground underneath the throne, just because of how tedious it was.
- ACT Connections -
1) Clearly explain how you were able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your art?
The inspiration for this piece was the Raider Waite tarot deck by Pamela Colman Smith. It was intentionally made to replicate the look of the King of Pentacles card visually, as well as to have similar symbolism that carries different meanings.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The original King of Pentacles card was meant to convey the positive aspects of wealth and power, and was overall a good card to draw.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While researching different tarot cards and their meanings for this piece, I learned a lot about different Pagan practices and beliefs that were conveyed in the cards.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my research was the pagan practice of tarot card readings and their implications for more general societal beliefs of that time.
5.) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made the inference that, at the time these cards were made, financial status and power were prioritized over happiness and freedom compared to today, where people are starting to choose career paths and life choices that make them happy rather than rich.
The inspiration for this piece was the Raider Waite tarot deck by Pamela Colman Smith. It was intentionally made to replicate the look of the King of Pentacles card visually, as well as to have similar symbolism that carries different meanings.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The original King of Pentacles card was meant to convey the positive aspects of wealth and power, and was overall a good card to draw.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While researching different tarot cards and their meanings for this piece, I learned a lot about different Pagan practices and beliefs that were conveyed in the cards.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my research was the pagan practice of tarot card readings and their implications for more general societal beliefs of that time.
5.) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made the inference that, at the time these cards were made, financial status and power were prioritized over happiness and freedom compared to today, where people are starting to choose career paths and life choices that make them happy rather than rich.
- Citations -
Death, Pamela Colman Smith- 1909
King of Pentacles, Pamela Colman Smith- 1909
King of Pentacles, Pamela Colman Smith- 1909