The Chariot: Crashing into Stained Glass

Hello everyone,

Recently I was honored to work on a large, collaborative tarot card deck with more than 60 other artists, all revolving around a Stained Glass theming. The conceit was that we were all to design one unique card to contribute to the deck, either adhering fully to replicating a stained-glass panel or to include stained glass elements into the piece. It was a challenge to simulate such a rigid physical medium in the endlessly iterative medium of digital art, one that really frustrated me at times. Still, I'm proud to share my progress of my work here with you all so that I can reflect on my missteps in front of an audience.

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I. Concept Phase: The Chariot

I requested and was subsequently assigned the tarot card VII. The Chariot, from the Major Arcana. The reason for my choice is that the image of the chariot is one that I've always gravitated to, since being enamored by Mary Renault's The Charioteer as a teenager. Because of this connection, I wanted to incorporate Plato's allegory of the Chariot which he expounded on in Phaedrus.

The allegory is as follows: Man's soul is a chariot driven by two horses, one unruly black horse and one obedient white horse. The black horse represents Man's id, his innermost and selfish desires, while the white horse represents Man's good sense and generosity. The two are always at odds with one another, pulling in separate directions, but the charioteer (which represents Man's reason) must control the two simultaneously to achieve control over the chaos and move forward with his actions.

I resonate heavily with this struggle, and so I am drawn to the card, which is can be read to be about overcoming one's inner conflicts in order to achieve one's goals. A positive, forward movement.

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II. Research Phase: What is Stained Glass?

Stained glass art is created by arranging cut pieces of colored glass into a pre-determined pattern and fixed into place using lead strips. I thought it was fun that the pattern drawn out beforehand is called a "cartoon". Oftentimes the glass is then painted with further detail using enamel paints, though there are many different ways to achieve a final colored panel. I wasn't concerned with knowing these details, only that I wanted to study how these pieces are normally composed.

I observed a trend of the illustrations sometimes adhering to a standardized "grid" upon the pane, and yet sometimes breaking out of that grid to lend a more organic flow to the artwork. I assume the pane is broken up into this grid like a common window in order to lend structure and stability to the glass, and so that there are no overly large portions of window that would need to be manufactured separately from the standard size of that grid's square. That square could be easily broken down into small pieces, but not stuck together to form a larger one, you see.

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III. Draft Phase: Initial Sketches

An actual chariot was never part of my idea for the card; I instead opted for the implication of one by having the charioteer perched above the two horses. This was so they could both fit in the frame comfortably and also establish a sort of more intimate association between the two parties, the visual of a trio working together as a team rather than the one leader steering the others from the back. I liked the visual of the charioteer actually stepping upon the backs of these horses, as if their eagerness and spirit is propelling them forward to become part of the action.

It was during this thumbnailing stage that I came up with the idea to incorporate an Armless Winged Nike into the piece as the "charioteer", blindfolded and driving the chariot by her teeth. I wanted to use this oft-used symbol of victory to provoke the idea of "a hard-earned success". I'm not sure how but this idea got lost somewhere along the sketch phase, though I suspect it was omitted due to a lack of readability or my assessment that the concept was getting a little too visually muddy (A/N: This is a tarot card, you idiot... dense iconography is par for the course! I can be such a wuss).

Stephanie, the project's organizer, liked the two upper thumbs the most, which I then combined into the final composition.

Yes, it appears the centaurs and horses also melded into one entity in the early draft and became an unusual centaur-man with a horse head and human arms... I guess I was trying to evoke an advanced esoterism but in the end this idea was also discarded for being too muddy. For the black horse, I looked at full-coverage Medieval horse armor and for the white horse, I went for a more revealing folksy dancer's ensemble as a contrast. War and Peace. The habitual riffing continues...

Just look at these gaudy carnival colors. I don't care much for the colors I put down at first, only to differentiate the separate elements of the piece in my mind so that I can then continue to manipulate them.

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IV. Render Phase: The Finish Line

And here we have something approximating a final piece. Like most of my works, if I squint or stand away from my computer screen about 5 feet, it looks quite spectacular. Thankfully, these are tarot cards with a 2 x 3 inch dimension, and no one will be able to make out the flaky bits. It is my weakness, but I also think it adds human charm and texture to what could be a very cold digital work.

I've been trying to chase different textural grits made from flooding color via bucket tool into areas of my piece, but from where I'm standing now I can see this technique did not emulate the "stained glass" technique enough. I attempted to render in discoloration and scratching in the light parts of the "glass", and tried to simulate the oil paint texture for the dark parts that would be painted in on a regular pane of glass, but I feel I failed a bit.

Thankfully, Stephanie liked the end result (and so do I to an extent) but I feel I somewhat fell short from greatness here once more. If I were to redo this project, I would go at the research phase again and look at more stained glass art. Unfortunately, my art has a certain "flatness" I personally enjoy but does not emulate 3D and physical mediums well.

Thank you for tuning in nonetheless.

Much light,

Casper