Category: create your own deck

SKT III Status Update Report

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Magical in the Mundane, personal, personal spirituality, Spirit Keeper's Tarot, tarot, tarot community18 Comments

I’ve just finished up the first drafts of the Fives, so I figured it might be a good time to share a status update on SKT III (edition still unnamed). There are some videos up already on my YouTube channel to get a little more into the creator intentions behind each card, though public videos ended at the Threes. I’ve put the videos on pause for now, in terms of releasing them.

Works-in-progress drafts only; final production subject to change

If you might recall, Key 1: The Magus was the very first card I learned digital painting on. The line work was done by hand, scanned in, and the color was subsequently done via digital painting software programs. Then it was Key 2: The Priestess, and so on.

It’s amusing to look back on those first five keys, because it’s painfully obvious how scared of color I was. =) I didn’t know what I was doing. I was winging it. And you can tell.

It’s not until Key 6: The Lovers card that a noticeable improvement happens. Then after Key 7: The Chariot, off I went! =) Now that I know how to color, after finishing the Tens I’m going to return to Keys 1 through 5. I’ve already made notes on how I want to revise them.

You can click on any of these image files for an enlarged view.

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Walk-Through of Key 1 to Key 11 in SKT III

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot17 Comments

This will be a walk-through of Keys 1 through 11 from the Major Arcana for the forthcoming third edition of the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot. Please note that I don’t anticipate the deck coming out any time sooner than 2021, and don’t be surprised if it doesn’t come out until 2022. I also won’t be doing pre-orders until the whole deck is done.

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Inspiration and Process for Coloring SKT III; The Emperor Revisited

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot11 Comments

Yeah, I’m going full-color (sorta– it’ll be a muted palette) for SKT the Third (I’ll be calling it something else, something fancy-shmancy, but for now it’s SKT the Third).

If you click into YouTube to watch the video on that platform, you’ll be able to skip around using the timestamps I’ve provided in the description box.

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SKT the Third, Experimental Trials: Trying Out Full-Color

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot15 Comments

I made a little video to showcase the evolution of my Lovers card from the SKT, laced with Bach’s Prelude in C Major. =) You can click on that YouTube logo along the bottom bar of the video to enlarge.

Experimenting with color…

Please understand that nothing has been committed to just yet. This is nothing more than an experimental trial, though I’m sharing it with you as an entry in my SKT progress diary. Your honest feedback is welcomed!

Actually, it’s very welcomed. Like the previous shitty-Emperor-card post. You all gave me really good critiques that were specific, detailed, and because of the collective you, I had something tangible to work with as I continued trying to draw a good Emperor card. (It’s still in the works. We’ll revisit Key 4 at a later time.)

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HALP ME WHY CAN’T I DRAW AN EMPEROR?!

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot49 Comments

Yeah. I needed the title in all-caps. Because I’m screaming at the top of my lungs and yanking at my own hair.

WHY IS DRAWING THE EMPEROR CARD SUCH A STRUGGLE?

For an irrational woo answer to that, I might say maybe it’s because our global collective culture is moving away from dominant-masculinity, and as a feminist I’m certainly not going to cry a river over that shift, but it does mean I’m really, really struggling with tapping in to that masculine energy.

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Drafting & Tinkering for SKT #3

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot36 Comments

To quell any confusion, yes, I’m at work on a third edition of the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot. No, not a new deck,  but a new edition of an already existing one, the SKT.

I have not yet arrived at a decision on coloring. Do I want it in sepia? Grayscale with accents of colors? Full color via digital applications? I don’t have any answers. I’m going to give all of the above options a few tries, compare, and see which path is right for SKT the Third.

The images in this post are sepia-toned only because my first order of business is to produce both a black-and-white and also a sepia-toned set of base images to work from. That way I can tinker with both and see which I want to work with when creating the full deck.

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Show Me the Numbers: Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing of a Tarot/Oracle Deck

On By benebellIn create your own deck, promotional, Spirit Keeper's Tarot, tarot community8 Comments

While so many of us are still sheltered in place during the pandemic, I’ve noticed a spike in interest for creating a tarot or oracle deck and selling it. This is particularly relevant to artists and spiritual creatives who are looking into a stream of income that might help them stay afloat through uncertain economic times.

For you, we’ll talk numbers in self-publishing vs. traditional publishing. If this subject matter is really of interest to you, then read on. Don’t just watch the video, because I left a lot out of that video, which I’ll get to in this companion post.

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Spirit Keeper’s Tarot Major Arcana Free Download

On By benebellIn create your own deck, free download, Spirit Keeper's Tarot, tarot, tarot community8 Comments

Although the First Edition black and white and second Vitruvian Edition sepia-toned Spirit Keeper’s Tarot decks are now out of print (forever, as they were both limited edition decks), for those interested, you can download a 30-card version of a black and white Vitruvian. These are the Majors only, with only The Initiate card as Key 0, plus the 4 Aces and the 4 Archangels (tarot Kings).

DOWNLOAD ZIP FILE

And for a glossary of card meanings for the 30-card deck, click below to download the DOCX file for Microsoft Word or the PDF.

Spirit Keeper’s Tarot (Majors, Aces, & Archangels)

Download

DOCX | PDF

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How to Self-Publish Your Tarot or Oracle Deck

On By benebellIn cartomancy, create your own deck, oracle deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot, tarot, tarot community20 Comments

$40

For what is a rough average cost of buying a tarot or oracle deck, you will get a comprehensive course pack, including a 245-page handbook and a fully customizable deck creator’s journal that will help you every step of the way through designing, printing, marketing, and selling your own tarot or oracle deck. You’ll be getting industry trade secrets that I haven’t seen shared anywhere else.

The objective of this course is not to tell you what to do. The objective is to first ask, what do you want to do and what is your plan? Okay, now that we’ve established that, let me share with you my insights on how you can make sure you achieve what you want to do, you can sell that idea and people will want to buy it, and how to fine-tune that plan of yours so you ensure your success.

Is there a formula for success? Yes, yes there is.

And step by step, variable by variable, I will take you through that formula. Run your own fact pattern into that formula and you will produce the best possible outcome for yourself. I’m going to share with you how you can maximize the marketability of your creative project.

No matter what your deck project is, we’ll nudge it farther along to bring you more marketing power, more sales, more visibility, and to make your project the best version it can possibly be.

The digital course files you’ll get, Part I

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