shatterstripes

I think the spirit of Jack Kirby came down and helped me draw the rough that's going to replace this one.



I drew this a little while back, direct in Illustrator on my new monitor. It's a nice piece but it doesn't really work with the rest of the cards - the figure's way too small (compare it with the other Fools) and the whole thing ended up way too dark and foreboding. Still, having it hanging around in the back of my head worked out pretty well when I sat down today with a head full of inspiration from some highly experimental pieces Chris Goodwin showed me - I'd done some thinking about what the zeroth fool needed to be in relation to the other Fools and the other things related to zeros in this deck.

(I'm kinda tempted to print this one out when I send out expansion packs to the people who have hand-made decks, and call it the -1th Fool.)



And here's the rough I just drew. There's a certain energy in the way I laid down the darks and lines that really reminds me of what I see of Kirby's hand when I look at his pencils; I'm really thinking of letting these rapid, slashing strokes shine through the finished art, somehow, to make certain narrative points about "beginnings" and "unformedness". The Fool cards are engaging with the "Fool's Journey" reading of the Trumps, which always feels kind of tacked-on to me in a lot of places, and this one is me poking at the way I've commented on that with my zeroth, first, and second Fools, and tying it to the other elements I've added to the deck. At least I hope so.