AI and the death of Tarot

I made a Tarot deck, and I'm glad I finished when I did.

A year and one month ago, I sat down and drew my first Tarot card. Tarot had never interested me in any serious way, but the amazing Goblins and Gardens tarot deck had gotten me hooked.

You can find that amazing deck here. The maker also has a Patreon.

Today, I posted my final Tarot card of the series. I've now drawn all 72 tarot cards! 

Drawing 72 Tarot cards has sharpened my skills. I can attempt things now that I don't think I could have attempted a year ago. Not every card was a success. There are a host of un-naturally long necks, contorted bodies, and arms that look normal at first glance but become successively more disturbing the more you look at them. My hands, however, are universally excellent.

The final card—The Knight of Wands. A bold fellow, he recognizes the chaos around him, but is unperturbed.

Today is also a good day to finish up with drawing Tarot cards because I find it's also the day that AI really started to pollute my reference material.

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You can see my daily Tarot cards and other drawings on Instagram.

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My process when creating a card is this: I do a few sketches. I search Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration. Tarot is the perfect artists Rorschach.  When an artist creates a deck, you get to see their style played out across diverse elements, you get to see what themes and motifs they incorporate again and again, and you get to see them tackle 72 individual images.

A part of my Tarot Pinterest board. 

And that's why it made me feel particularly ill this morning when I investigated cards that I was seeing from a new deck with a vibrant, sophisticated look. It quickly became clear that these were AI-generated cards. Each card leads to a page with blocks of generic Tarot guidance, bloated with ads, illustrated with lush AI artwork. I always look for the artist's reference when I see an interesting deck so that I can learn more about it and possibly even order it. Of course, these pages didn’t have an artist because there isn’t one.

Art and Tarot are deeply personal acts rooted in physical objects and human interactions. AI doesn't ruin that, but it does erase human artists and interactions from the online sphere. AI content doesn't evoke those things. Instead, it makes my heart sink.

I'm done drawing Tarot cards for a while. Creating a physical deck involves a significant amount of editing and layout, but it's a project that's on the table for the future. I'd also like to investigate a way to get original artwork and prints in the hands of Patrons who want them but setting up some kind of online store with 72 different items seems a bit daunting. In any case, the project was worth it.

Hey, if you're still reading. Do you have a favorite Tarot card? I've found that many people seem to have one particular card that resonates with them (perhaps even haunts them). What's yours?