I’m extremely grateful to the people who have volunteered their modelling services so far for The Tarot Project.
Previously, I’d been using images from my own personal stock library; now, being able to pose and shoot models for specific cards is helping to transform the project into something far greater than I’d hoped.
I’m currently working on The Empress, featuring the stylish vintage beauty of Kirsty, a make-up artist from Edinburgh who I photographed last week.
Here’s the first stage.
Kirsty as The Empress
Kirsty was drawn to The Empress because of its association with motherly, caring qualities; she was also keen that the card had a warm feel to it.
I’ve selected this image from the shoot as I liked the expression and the placement of the hands (though it’s possible these may end up hidden in the final composition, as The Empress traditionally carries a shield).
Once I isolated Kirsty from the background, I used some filters and processing effects to saturate the warm colours and increase the contrast. I then added a graduated layer mask on the lower left of the figure, which is intended to add to the ethereal and mysterious nature of The Empress herself.
The next steps will be to source and add in a suitable background; then to play around with lighting effects and colour composition. This will then provide the canvas for the third and final stage – the addition of the symbolic ‘props’ which make the card complete.
