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After months of shipping delays, this deck finally arrived in the mail last week. In a word, it is stunning. I have not been this impressed with a deck since Night Sun. (Finding out about Shadow Light a day after the Kickstarter campaign closed is a continual source of regret.) Anyway, loads of picspam and squee under the cut.
At its heart, the Shadow Light is a Smith Waite clone, but one into which the artist has put a great deal of thought. He's pretty deep into the astrological correspondences, which are not a strong suit of mine, but there's plenty of alchemical and even runic stuff going on too.
Here is the Three of Cups:
Obvious Smith Waite clone, but the artwork is just fantastic.
And here is the Three of Swords:
Again, you can see the debt to Smith Waite, but he's put a really interesting twist on it. The Tree is an important recurring feature in this deck, and it's put to great use here.
The Queen of Coins
Tecce doesn't skimp on the pips or Court cards. Love the deer here with the Queen of Coins.
The Majors are also really well done. Tecce's removed a lot of the overtly Christian symbolism, but his reimagining of the cards without it is pretty skillful. I love the addition of the phoenix here in Judgement.
Here's the Wheel. Love everything going on in this card symbolically.
Pretty much every deck from Smith Waite and Harris Crowley on has a gimmick--the reason why the artist illustrated a new deck versus just using the Marseilles or Smith or Harris. Usually these are pretty dumb (Aquarian Tarot!) or unnecessary (Morgan Greer doesn't have borders!). Sometimes the art style is the gimmick (the Light and Shadow Tarot, the Secrets Tarot). Sometimes they're well thought out and executed (Davis' Celtic Tarot, the Voyager Tarot).
The Shadow Light Tarot has two: it's black and white, and the Major and Minor Arcana are a single panoramic scene. It's genius, and it works so well.
Man, this is gorgeous.
There are some other neat things about this deck as well.
Not everyone is white.
Or easily gendered
Seriously, this is one of my favorite cards in the deck. It just captures the austerity, and severity, so perfectly. Also: the butterflies!
Tecce illustrated 10 additional cards on top of the Major and Minors. Some of them are (I believe) portraits of major Kickstarter donators. These are honestly kinda meh to me, but still beautifully illustrated. But some are actually pretty nifty additions. For instance:
The Tree of Life
Elemental cards:
Fire and Water, in panorama form.
It was painful waiting for this to ship, but the delays were definitely worth it. Shadow Light has rocketed up to the top of my favorite decks. I am just nuts over this thing.
これで以上です。
At its heart, the Shadow Light is a Smith Waite clone, but one into which the artist has put a great deal of thought. He's pretty deep into the astrological correspondences, which are not a strong suit of mine, but there's plenty of alchemical and even runic stuff going on too.
Here is the Three of Cups:
Obvious Smith Waite clone, but the artwork is just fantastic.
And here is the Three of Swords:
Again, you can see the debt to Smith Waite, but he's put a really interesting twist on it. The Tree is an important recurring feature in this deck, and it's put to great use here.
The Queen of Coins
Tecce doesn't skimp on the pips or Court cards. Love the deer here with the Queen of Coins.
The Majors are also really well done. Tecce's removed a lot of the overtly Christian symbolism, but his reimagining of the cards without it is pretty skillful. I love the addition of the phoenix here in Judgement.
Here's the Wheel. Love everything going on in this card symbolically.
Pretty much every deck from Smith Waite and Harris Crowley on has a gimmick--the reason why the artist illustrated a new deck versus just using the Marseilles or Smith or Harris. Usually these are pretty dumb (Aquarian Tarot!) or unnecessary (Morgan Greer doesn't have borders!). Sometimes the art style is the gimmick (the Light and Shadow Tarot, the Secrets Tarot). Sometimes they're well thought out and executed (Davis' Celtic Tarot, the Voyager Tarot).
The Shadow Light Tarot has two: it's black and white, and the Major and Minor Arcana are a single panoramic scene. It's genius, and it works so well.
Man, this is gorgeous.
There are some other neat things about this deck as well.
Not everyone is white.
Or easily gendered
Seriously, this is one of my favorite cards in the deck. It just captures the austerity, and severity, so perfectly. Also: the butterflies!
Tecce illustrated 10 additional cards on top of the Major and Minors. Some of them are (I believe) portraits of major Kickstarter donators. These are honestly kinda meh to me, but still beautifully illustrated. But some are actually pretty nifty additions. For instance:
The Tree of Life
Elemental cards:
Fire and Water, in panorama form.
It was painful waiting for this to ship, but the delays were definitely worth it. Shadow Light has rocketed up to the top of my favorite decks. I am just nuts over this thing.
これで以上です。