Art in focus: 'The Tower'

'The Tower' is the one card in Tarot that shakes the very foundations of your life. Dismay, disaster and destruction are written in the cards and great turmoil is upon you. You must face this difficult time reassured in the knowledge that hardship, pain and fear will pass, the tower may be destroyed, but the destruction of its falsehood leaves room for a new beginning rooted in truth and strength.

Traditionally, 'The Tower' is illustrated in a very literal manner. Usually with a stony tower rising up from the earth (sometimes as if from nowhere), and its destruction is depicted full of fire and brimstone, struck down with a lightening bolt sent from the heavens, and its occupants falling foul, cursed by the Tower and falling to their doom. Most depictions maintain these key elements, with stylistic elements varying from deck to deck. 

Chronologically this was the first Tarot I started work on and the first concept I developed when I first began to seriously sketch ideas with a view to doing the series.
I had the vision of a crumbling stone tower being devoured by Hell Mouth, and that was my initial conceptual basis for 'The Tower'.

I wanted the imagery of 'The Tower' to be very dark and dismal, utterly despair inducing. When designing the tower itself, I wanted the shape and form to be quite simple. Something easily identifiable and suitably ancient looking, but I wanted it to have the appearance of having been some sort of defensive tower, a fortification that had fallen to evil and dismay. As an element in many depictions of 'The Tower' I chose to keep the lightening bolt causing the destruction of the tower, to suggest divine intervention and falling foul at the hands of an unknown force. 

Hellmouth is an ancient idea which I have been fascinated with for a number of years. It is a recurring element within my Tarot series, as a physical representation of the gate to hell.

I wanted the landscape surrounding the tower to be very bleak and harsh, so I chose to isolate the tower with jagged, hostile looking mountains and no other signs of life. 

The palette I chose is very muted and dark, it is purposely dominated by Hellmouth and the deep red sky, which symbolises death.
I wanted my interpretation to be as accessible as other depictions, with the imagery speaking for itself about what is occurring within the scene, the disaster and tragedy which is occurring, The suffering and misfortune of the unfortunate few, devoured and damned by Hellmouth, with his unblinking eye staring out; unforgiving, unresponsive and unsympathetic.

Art in Focus: 'Judgement'

In Tarot readings the 'Judgement' card is all about new beginnings, the reevaluation of your own life and following the right path for you. You have life changing choices to make, you have reached a crossroads and have the chance to follow your true calling and intuition. Trust your own judgement, follow it and embrace your new beginning. When making your decisions be sure to follow your head and your heart. 'Judgement' can also have messages of being cleansed and refreshed, ready to face the world anew.

Typically the 'Judgement' card depicts the dead rising from their graves to face final judgement. The Archangel Gabriel summons them with his trumpet and their souls are ready to face judgement, for better or for worse. The scenes are usually rather joyous with only salvation depicted. This simple and largely christian scene is the most common depiction of 'Judgement' across traditional Tarot decks.

When designing my version of 'Judgement' I wanted to maintain the theme of reward and punishment which is featured in a number of my cards. I drew on a lot of christian traditions relating to the last judgement and the apocalypse. All of the dead across the globe are rising again to face their final fate and be judged and cast into hell or ascend up to heaven. Those who deserve damnation are being condemned mercilessly by a demon into the Mouth of Hell. The Hellmouth is a recurring element in a number of my Tarot and is used as the physical representation of the gate to Hell. A man prays and begs as he awaits his fate, but it is too late to change the course of his life and atone for his bad karma.  
The trumpets protruding from the clouds represent 'gods trumpets' from the book of Revelation, which signify the beginning of the end and the last judgement. Seven trumpets are said to sound ushering in the end of the world. With each trumpet comes a different catastrophe or disaster. The final 3 trumpets are called the 'three woes', and what my tarot depicts is the third trumpet being sounded, opening up both heaven and hell.
The landscape is barren and bleak, as the events of the apocalypse have decimated its beauty. All that remain are the dead waiting to face their final fate.

I had a very clear idea of what I wanted the completed 'Judgement' to look like from the very beginning of my sketching. Because the cards are closely related I worked on 'Wheel of Fortune' and 'Judgement' simultaneously, and wanted to have some of the same key features in each card. It was however 'Wheel of Fortune' which proved difficult to resolve, but thankfully 'Judgement' lead the way to a greater design. 

Art in Focus: 'Wheel of Fortune'

As is suggested by its name 'Wheel of Fortune' is all about fate, fortune and luck. This tarot represents the cycles of life which come in good and bad, and having both negative and positive experiences is simply a part of life. If your life feels difficult, do not be discouraged, things will improve, keep your faith and keep working hard to get what you deserve.

When looking at various decks versions of 'Wheel of Fortune' it became obvious that the imagery of the wheel itself was the most important factor. Early Tarot simply depict animals and mythical beasts on a turning wheel, suggesting they may fall and suffer a foul fate. The Rider-Waite deck however has much more complex symbolism. In each corner sit an angel, eagle, lion and bull, representing the four fixed signs of the zodiac. On the wheel itself is IHVH; the Hebrew name of god, the word TAROT and the alchemy symbols for mercury, sulphur, water and salt. Surrounding the wheel are Egyptian gods, all with their own complex symbolism. 'Wheel of Fortune' is probably the card with the most complex symbolism, which without research and reading, would be very difficult to understand.    

When approaching my design for 'Wheel of Fortune' I had some clear cut elements I wanted to feature in the piece, and a basic idea of layout for the card, but certain elements felt quite troublesome and difficult to resolve. I had started my initial sketches knowing I wanted to avoid overly complex imagery which was difficult to understand. I wanted to simplify the number of different elements and have an image which was generally more accessible. As a card, 'Wheel of Fortune' is closely tied with 'Judgement', so I wanted the themes to reflect this also.

In my original design I had a red and black wheel in the centre of the image, with heaven (or reward) above depicted as clouds and golden beams of light (to connect with 'Judgement') and hell (or punishment) below, depicted as the boat of Charon on the river Styx to take the damned to hell. A demon is poised ready to cast the deserving down. Throughout the pen and painting layers I felt uneasy with the piece, I wasn't satisfied it was correct, or the best version of the card I could produce. So after 8 hours work I scrapped the piece and started again, keeping elements I was happy with and altering others.
After re-thinking 'Wheel of Fortune' I decided to take the imagery of the card right back to the very roots of the wheel of fortune as a concept, leaving behind any modern day dilution. The wheel of fortune was an anicent medieval belief system based around the goddess Fortuna, who spins her wheel at random and changes ones fate, with the chance of misfortune or great luck, but the wheel is ever changing and moving, I suppose an allegory to explain the ups and downs of ones life.
In my depiction Fortuna is a giant goddess. She is unclothed, for she has no shame and it is her role to judge others, not be judged. She stands in limbo between heaven and hell, eternally spinning her wheel, with mere mortals struck by its tragedy, pain, misery and punishment, and the lucky few, joy and reward. Hellmouth sits beneath her, waiting to take the souls of the unlucky players to hell, his firey breath expresses his desire to swallow the sinful and undeserving. Initially I chose the boat of Charon over Hellmouth, as I had been concerned that Hellmouth had already featured in 2 of my Tarot, but I quickly realised this had been the wrong decision and broke the continuity of the series, one of the main reasons for starting the piece anew.