HP Tarot thumbnails - The Hanged Man

[nendil]

This one is also sloppy because it was done at the same time as The Lovers. Sorry if it all looks like a bunch of blobbiness.

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"My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you?" - Albus Dumbledore

The Hanged Man requires self-sacrifice, letting go of norms, in order to find a new perspective. Severus Snape is the undisputed champion of this card since 1) he devotes his life for the memory of Lily in spite of his natural inclinations and 2) Harry (and the reader) has his view of Snape turned upside-down upon finding out his true background and motives.

Notable art bits:
1. The traditional Hanged Man is bound by his circumstance. Of course here it's Nagini even though she's venomous and therefore not a constrictor but whatever it's magic. However, the snake and its cage do not envelop his head, allowing for...

2. The Hanged Man has a halo of light around his head, representing divine inspiration. I have in its place Snape's silvery memories emerging from his head, revealing the truth about his history. What I didn't plan until I drew it, however, was for the silver swirls to take shape into a doe, taking flight in freedom and also reflecting the true nature of Severus's heart.

3. I don't think I'll depict any blood from Nagini's bite, because the card is more about a spiritual surrender rather than active suffering from sacrifice. Besides, the picture is already morbid enough with a dead(dying) man taking up most of the frame.

4. It's really dark. Unfortunately I just can't see this scene in my head any other way. Will endeavor to bring out the details through small subtle lighting.

5. This one has kind of a different (...dare I say... more competent ._.) feel from my other card layouts. Does it look Hanged-Man enough? Because when I look at it "Death" kind of tends to come to mind. But the Death card won't look anything like this.


(I always knew Snape was a good guy all along. Hrmph. :P)

Comments

[ctrl-a.livejournal.com]

Is Nagini described as green in the books? I feel like the color scheme of the card is not Hanged Man enough -- I think the layout will be okay, but it's hard to say from just a thumbnail. I know the Devil won't have this color scheme anymore, but the Tower does... so in feel this card starts to feel like one of the "evil" ones, while I've always seen Hanged Man as neutral, almost by definition. Anyway, the question about Nagini is tied to the thought that maybe if her color can be made duller, into more of a grey, that would help.

[nendil.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was feeling the same way about the color scheme, which is why I started to make the floorboards a warmer color instead of grey-blue. As for Nagini, I guess her color is never described except for "diamond-patterned" which would make her look like a python or something like that. I'd be concerned about brown/grey even harder to distinguish though... Also, the bubble is not actually described as green so I'll make it a less ridiculous silver.

I'll play around with the colors tomorrow... when I'm not SEWING MY AWESOME TAROT BAGS OH YEAH B)