As mentioned in my last post, I've been considering doing all of my own interpretations of the tarot cards. And so, here we are. Me, some oil paints, a metric heck tonne of 4" x 4" canvases, and you, here to watch it unfold. I love tarot and have done some card interpretations before, mostly in watercolour. I also did the big one of 'death' earlier this summer. 
          I was only able to get one work day in this week, so I decided to do a bunch of canvas sketches and break out the oil paints next week when I have more time. I have done my sketches for Death, The Tower, The Moon, Three Of Swords, Ace Of Swords, and The Fool. As I post the finished paintings, I'll explain the reasoning behind each card and how I came up with the interpretation. For now, enjoy my sketches and stay safe!

Top Left: Death, Top Right: The Tower, Middle Left: The Moon, Middle Right: Three Of Swords, Bottom Left: Ace Of Swords, Bottom Right: The Fool

          People seem to forget that if Van Gogh were alive today, he'd have an Easy. In fact, most of ye olde famous artists we learn about in class would have. How else would one get their art out there? This is why I will be talking about one of the most important careers an artist can have: The Etsy Art Seller.  
          Not only does the Etsy Art Seller have to make the art to sell, but also photograph it, market it, work with customers, and work with Etsy. They are responsible for paying many fees to be able to use Etsy as a platform. These include a $0.20 listing fee, a 5% transaction fee, a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee, and a 15% offsite ads fee, which is only applied when a sale is made through Etsy's offsite ads.
          An artist must also communicate and work with customers, which is an interesting experience to say the least. You get all kinds of people on Etsy and it helps learn how to do sales and collaborate with others.
         Furthermore, one must do taxes depending on how large sales are. This puts the financial responsibility entirely on the artist and is great practice for all the taxes you'll have to do later in life once you've racked up all that college debt.
          Speaking of college debt, what kinds of majors are helpful for this 'career'? Literally all of them! Any art major will help you to create more or better art to sell, business and sales degrees can help you sell your art, psychology and marketing degrees can help you get your work out there. Literally anyone can own an Etsy account, and that's the beauty of it! 
          In Conclusion, an Etsy account is a great way to start selling your art and is fun to run. There are so many creative things you can do with it and you can make some money on the side.

I am very interested in tarot cards and witchcraft, so I figured what better project than to make my own interpretation of my favourite card: Death. Death in Tarot does not necessarily mean literal death, but more death of a perspective or ideology. Death of a path you're on. Death of a relationship. It shows increased self-awareness. I began with a sketch on a canvas.

The bird was by far the hardest thing to plan out, so I began with the skeletal structure. This made it significantly easy to draw and eventually paint the bird. The skull was also quite difficult, it being such an abnormal shape.

Then came the painting. I make it no secret that I hold a deep hatred for acrylic paints. I find they dry too fast, don't go on smooth enough, and are difficult to mix. Unfortunately, oil paints cost an arm and a leg, so hellish acrylics it is. I began by painting the skull. I realize now that I should have done the background first but hey, you learn as you go.

I am quite proud of my painting and shading of the skull. I would like to point out that I only used white, black, red, yellow, blue, and gold paints to paint this piece. I learned quite a bit about blending through this.

After the skull, I forgot to take  a picture of the finished bird and 
background, but here is the finished result! I had some trouble with the water reflection, but I think I managed. The bird was a tad fatter than I wanted but hey, that's life. In conclusion: I still hate acrylics, birds are weird, and flowers are difficult to paint. I am considering getting a bunch of small canvases and doing a painting for each card in the Tarot deck, so we'll see what becomes of that. Thanks for tuning in!