Every year I do an assignment along with my students, and once again I chose the Tarot project. For this assignment I challenge my advanced and portfolio students to team up to create a set of Major Arcana for a class Tarot deck, and when I participate I choose my card from the leftovers. This year I lucked out and got Strength - one of my favorite cards.
Students have to create a design that conveys the meaning of their card in both the upright and reversed positions, and this is trickier than it sounds. I was listening to the Hamilton soundtrack and the line of one of the songs helped nudge me towards my solution to this design problem: "the moments when you’re in so deep, it feels easier to just swim down."
When Strength falls right side up it indicates power coming from courage and inner understanding - the figure is swimming upwards out of danger with a single-minded focus. When it falls in the reversed position it indicates self doubt, weakness, and insecurity - the figure is giving up and swimming deeper instead.
Vector Illustration in Adobe Draw on my iPad Pro with my Apple Pencil and Adobe Illustrator on my Wacom Cintiq.
Both views of the card - standard and reversed.
Outline mode and all shapes selected.
Special thanks to Jon, my TA for my animation class. He pretended to swim around on the floor so I could get references for this. You rock, Jon!
