Happy New Year, my dear watchers and watcherettes!

As you might have noticed, I'm not one to post Journals or greetings regarding the holidays. Mostly because it's a very busy time of year, but also because I'm not very good at making balances or evaluating changes and what has happened before. I also am not one to make resolutions, so... I just like to spend those days with the family and take a breather.

That said, I always try and make an allegorical illustration to kickstart the new year, and this 2013, I chose to dabble into something very close to my chest: The Tarot.

This illustration is made both as a New Year image and also as my First Friday piece over at the most excellent OUTLAND Collective ( [link] ). As I mentioned over there, the number thirteen has always had some rather ominous connotations and for me, it’s always been a sign of changes and evolution. Which happens to be just the meaning behind one of the most haunting and mysterious figures of the Tarot deck: Death.

To some, the visage of the black rider upon its pale horse could be disturbing or frightening. But, once you get past that first impression, you understand that the true meaning of this archetype is much brighter and uplifting than you might think. Death, in the Tarot, is the herald of change; of things past finally settling and the future opening up to its many possibilities. For me, personally, and artistically, 2013 seems to be a year of change. For one, I'm going to try and deliver on all my long outstanding commissions (some going back YEARS!) and I won't be taking on more in the months to come. I will do my best efforts to steer my career into mainly publishing and comic drawing and on evolving my artwork as much as possible.

But speaking of the image at hand, this illustration is done as both an excersise and a revisiting of my roots as an artist. I wanted the figure and overall composition of Death to be a sort of close-up on the traditional Tarot archetype, but of course, adding my own style to it. I also stepped put of my usual rendering techniques and went for a much more old fashioned look. I always loved how Michael W. Kaluta was able to blend pure black and white, linear crosshatching and composition with color, thus giving his images a blend of old and new. I treated this canvas as if it was a black and white rendering, but later added the color, which tied it all up. Yet, the hues I used respect the traditional simple colors of the Major Arcana, plus taking my style back to its monochrome roots.
Even the figure is treated as an old medieval carving, almost flat and very simplistic, as noted especially in the skull visage.

All in all, I’m very proud of this work and it being my first here and in this 2013. I hope you enjoy it as well and wish you all the best in the months to come!

See you all soon.

Nic.-