This was the second card done in the set. At this point, I was still trying to settle on a style for the deck. The Heirophant with multiple figures and a variety of finishes seemed like a good next project. Also, I hate drawing hands. so I felt that would be good practice as there are going to be a lot of them before I’m done.

While I am basing my deck on the Rider-Waite concepts, I am trying to put my own stamp on the imagery. For example, changing the richly dressed priests and replacing them with humble tonsured monks and having more fun with the colours of the Heirophant’s robes.

This is also the only card so far to use texture maps. The rest are all hand painted. At this point, I also hadn’t finalized the layout of the cards. That’s why the “V” shows up above the main figure’s head instead of on the header of the card like all the others. 

Design is an iterative process. New things are learned with each card.