Painting naturally – first attempts

I have been dyeing my home spun yarn  and wool with plants for a couple of years. Here you can see some of it….

plant dyed yarn
plant dyed yarn

 

….but this is my first experiment to use plant based paint on paper. Well I re-drew the Ace of Cups from the Hes Tarot, and painted it with natural paint this time:

Two versions of the Ace of Cups, left the tempera , right the natural paint
Two versions of the Ace of Cups, left the tempera , right the natural paint

I prefer the second one with the plant paint,  – the colours are much more vibrant – but I see that it is far from perfect. First of all there are white lines around certain areas, where the two colours meet, so I have to concentrate and pay more attention while painting on the edge of the colour patches. The other consideration is that I should use lighter colours otherwise the “wood-cut-lines” will not be visible. So one layer of my plant paint is enough:)

In the next post I will share some thoughts about the natural paint….

Clouds or ruffles

….. looking at the Ace of Swords and Batons.

To compare:

Ace of Swords, CBD - Hes-Derua - Original Rider Waite
Ace of Swords, CBD – Hes-Derua – Original Rider Waite

The WS card and the Hes -Tarot depicts clouds, this is where the hand with the actual symbol emerges from.  Not so the CBD or even other Marseille decks. It is interesting to note, that there is an other difference , namely, that around the “clouds” we can see  an area that symbolizes radiating light. The colour of the clouds is blue, while the “light-area” is yellow….. Soon  I will be able to  post an image about my coloured Ace of Swords:).

Which one is the original, or rather the first step in this evolution:)? Well , on the Noblet Ace of Batons we can see a ruffle sleeve and on the Dodal as well….. So maybe the original image was that with the ruffles , a more down to earth approach….

 

The Fool has no

The Fool, Hes - Derua Tarot
The Fool, Hes – Derua Tarot

underpants in the Hes deck like in the most ancient Marseilles decks …. For me it is important since this is one sign, that the Fool is not part of the society, or  any kind of hierarchy.  He is freedom, living without fears, not because he is  brave, but because he has nothing to lose…. He is not even aware of his “misery”, it is only misery from the point of view of those who are part of social hierarchy.   If the Hes-Fool had some awareness, he would feel sorry for those within the cage… but he is not able to reflect, he is just happy – living in the present.

Somehow I feel like putting here the image of the Visconti-Fool. It is a rather sad counterpart of the Marseille Fool. Same condition – different attitude.

The Fool - Visconti - Sforza Tarot cards
The Fool – Visconti – Sforza Tarot cards

About directionality….

The Fool  in the Hes deck walks in the other direction in contrast to many of the Marseille decks. Does he lose direction?:), or rather we are the ones who assume that the left-right-past-future-system is universally valid. Although it is based only on our writing system.

Nowadays I tend to use directionality very carefully. I incorporate into my interpretation only the relative directionality between the neighboring cards in a card-row.

Have a nice day.

Knight of Cups

Knight of Cups, Hes-Derua Tarot
Knight of Cups, Hes-Derua Tarot

One of my favourite cards in the Hes Tarot deck – a real Knight of Cups – just look at his face, but not only….  If you look at the picture closer you can see, that the reins form a heart in the Knight’s hand:).

Colouring the cards..

I have not coloured any of the cards except the Ace of Cups, I am not really satisfied with. I coloured it with tempera, but I have been thinking about an alternative , more period colouring: plant based paints.  Some years ago  I participated on a course , where I learnt how to prepare paint from plants for use on paper and wood, but to be honest I have never practiced this skill. Moreover I have no paint ready, and to produce them I had to wait till summer:). But at least I have the plants in my garden, or the seeds.

In the meantime , here is my tempera-coloured Ace of Cups….

Ace of Cups, Hes-Derua Tarot
Ace of Cups, Hes-Derua Tarot