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Sunday, January 21st 2024
Once again, there is a new image in the “Gallery” instead of the Minor Arcana where it should be. Another casual doodle got away from me and became a finished drawing. I didn’t plan for it to happen that way, it just did. Whatever the case, I’d love to hear what you think.
friday, january 19th 2024
Work is proceeding slooooooowly on the “Three of Cups”. For whatever reason, the composition of the three figures is not working for me. At this time, I’ve restarted that card three times, with a fourth possible if not quite imminent. As a result, I needed a change of pace so created a new picture for the gallery. I don’t know what it is, but its’ short, cute, fuzzy and appears to have the IQ of a bowl of soup. It also has what appears to be an awesomely powerful staff, so that’s an interesting juxtaposition. Be sure to check it out in the “Gallery” and let me know what you think via the “Contact” link.
Now I guess it’s time to get back to work.
Tuesday, January 9th 2024
I have finally started work on the next card in my Tarot set. It’s going to be the “Three of Cups”. I was struggling a fair bit with one of the figures, but it seems to be mostly sorted out now, so I should have a first look up soon-ish. It really depends on how it goes, but so far it’s looking more promising than it has. I’ve got the draft sketches for the first two figures done with just the third one to add. Once that’s done, I can move on to the bountiful harvest around their feet. So as you can see, there’s still a fair bit to be done before that initial post. There is however also some forward motion, so fingers crossed the pace will pick up.
Tuesday, December 26th 2023
Since I haven’t been to bed yet, (I’m posting this at 06:49 on Dec 26th) I don’t feel too far off in wishing a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and the best and brightest of the many other celebrations, both spiritual and secular which abound during this festive season. I wish you joy of any and all that you choose to partake of.
And for a festive gift…
I have finally posted the next card in my Tarot deck. Card 0 “The Fool” is finished and both the linework and finished card have been posted. Check it out, and let me know what you think!
Thursday, December 21st 2023
I an running very late with the next card. Between Covid (for the third time) and a lot of stuff going on at work, there hasn’t been a lot of time for the Tarot project. I’ve been doing what I can, but it’s been really, really slow. The outline is done, and I’ve got a start on the line shading. Once that’s finished, I will post the black and white image.
In the meantime, I’ve managed to scrape out a few minutes here and there at work to do an ink sketch on a note pad, the paint it digitally on my phone. Check it out in the Gallery if you’re curious.
Thursday, December 7th 2023
Things have been a little quiet on the site for the last few weeks. That is mainly because I am just recovering from another bout of Covid. So I have been too sick to type an update, let alone create a new card. Now that I finally starting to feel like I may survive after all, I am ready to get to work on “The Fool”. Next update should include the initial artwork for it, hopefully by Monday, December 11th.
Monday, November 20th 2023
In a surprise development, the eleventh card is finished and up. The “Two of Cups” is up in the Minor Arcana section. Work was actually incredibly busy the past couple of weeks, so I ended up completing about ninety percent of the card at home this time. Now it’s time to break out my RWS Tarot deck and do some cuts to see what’s next. I’ll keep everyone posted once it’s decided.
Friday, November 10th 2023
The completed card for the “Hanged Man” is up in the the Major Arcana section! That actually happened much quicker than I expected, which is never a bad thing. I really wasn’t expecting to have it finished before next week. This means it won’t be hanging around on the weekend.
That means I’ll have time to mess around with other creative projects, or maybe start the next card in my series. While idly flipping through Rider-Waite-Smith tarot card images online (as one does when already saturated with Tarot imagery), I decided that the next card will be the two of swords. That is the one that said “Me next! Me next!”, so we’ll see how that goes.
Tuesday, November 7th 2023
The finished linework for the the “Hanged Man” card is up on the Major Arcana section now. It’s getting there. Tomorrow, I can start to adding colour and if all goes well, I should have it completed by next week.
Sunday November 5th 2023
There is a new image up in the Gallery today. A digital charcoal sketch done with my new copy of Painter 20o23 by Corel. This is an awesome program that I picked up for a song on Humblebundle.com. Currently $299.00 CAD I picked it up for just $41.04 at Humblebundle.com. They run a ton of amazing deals on a huge range of books, software and games. One of my very favourite sites on the web and probably my most visited. ;-)
Tuesday, October 31st 2023
HAPPY hALLOWE’EN!
Over in the Major Arcana section, the first sketch is up for “The Hanged Man”. Being late fall here in Ottawa, there is a strong probability that there will be some very “autumnal” foliage when we reach the painting stage. But first, I’ll post the finished line work when it’s ready.
Thursday, October 26th 2023,
So yesterday, I added a general gallery page. This is where you will find my non-Tarot related art. I posted a digital painting of a chubby wyvern guarding his pumpkin patch to kick off the page.
Having done that, it seemed like it was finally time to start on the next card in my Tarot deck. I’ve been sketching out ideas for the card and should have a first look posted by Monday, October 30th. In order to do that however, I have to stop doing this and get back to work.
Tuesday, October 17th 2023
Sooooo… Last night, I was showing the site to a friend of mine, and she asked where my poetry was. She was a little disappointed when I told her none had made it here yet. Which is why GreenApe Studio now has a Poetry page. I realize that poetry doesn’t seem to have a whole lot to do with design and illustration, but I assure you that for me they are all part of the same creative tapestry.
Monday, October 16th 2023
Following a number of challenges, some creative, some personal, the next card is finally up. The “Wheel of Fortune” is the ninth card in my project. I will probably give myself a day or two to play with other things, then I will start on the next card. A series of cuts on my personal Tarot deck selected the “Hanged Man”. I’ll start posting WIPs as they are available.
Thursday, Oct 5th 2023
I finally got the first image up for the “Wheel of Fortune” card. It felt like forever, but really it’s only about eight hours work so far. If you’d like to see the completed linework before I add colour, click on “Major Arcana” in the header and then “Wheel of Fortune”.
As always, use the “Contact” link to let me know what you think.
Friday, Sept 28th 2023
Life has been a bit hectic lately, but I’ve gotten a start on the next card. It turns out to not be my favourite one so far. The diversity of the creatures and lack of any sense of “scene” is a different challenge which is giving me a bit of a struggle. Still, it is slowly coming together. I should have a draft image to put up soon.
Wednesday, Sept 20th, 2023
So, I’ve finished my current set of changes to the site. It should make navigation a little easier until I can figure out how to implement everything I want to. In the meantime, that’s enough web designing for now. It’s time to get back to the “Wheel of Fortune”. I’ll post the first image once the outline is done.
Tuesday, Sept 19th 2023
The airshow was incredible! Which means of course that I got nothing else done on the weekend. But I am back to work now and am finishing up some changes to the site. I’ve also started the initial sketch for the next card. Because my nephew suggested it, that card will be “The Wheel of Fortune”. I had been thinking about that one, but was going to put it off as too complex and not what I wanted after completing “Death”. But… because my nephew was thinking the same thing as me, I decided to take it as a sign. So I guess that’s what I’m going to tackle next.
So…. About Those Changes to the site
Originally, I was just putting all the cards on a single page in whatever order I completed them in. It occurred to me that as I finished more cards, it would become progressively harder to find any specific one. So instead, I’ve split them into Minor and Major Arcana. In the Major Arcana, they will be sorted by number while the Minor Arcana will be further divided by suit. This should make it a little easier to find what you’re looking for. As I slowly learn more about website building, I will see about adding a search function to the site as well.
In the meantime… a couple more changes to finish here, then the nose goes back to the creative grindstone.
Wednesday, Sept 13th 2023:
It occurred to me as I worked on the next card, that anyone visiting this site who doesn’t know me might be forgiven for wondering when the next update is going to happen. So this is that update.
Creating these cards isn’t my full-time job. This means that I can’t devote all the time to them that I might prefer. So a card that takes twenty hours work, might take a week or more to create. Which is why there is now a news page.
Even when I don’t have a new image to post for the latest work, I will put a quick note up here so anyone following the project will know it’s not dead.
Friday, Sept. 15th 2023
I’ve posted the finished card for Death today. I had hoped to have it up before the end of the week, and here we are. I’d pat myself on the back, but I’m not as limber as I used to be.
I may take the weekend off as it is the Aero Gatineau airshow this weekend, so I’m busy all day and probably going to be too wiped out to do much at night. We shall see. I have to figure out which card to do next before I can start anyway.
If anyone has a preference, use the “Contact” link at the top of the page to let me know your favourite card and I’ll tackle it next.
Also Wednesday…
Speaking of updates: I am currently about sixteen hours into the next card. There is a “work in progress” pic up in the gallery from about the eight and a half or nine hour mark. Currently, I’ve finished the line work completely and I’m a little over halfway through the colour process. Hopefully, I’ll have the whole thing done and ready to post before the end of the week.