Have you ever heard of totem or spirit animals before? Sadly, with the movement of life, certain things have been taken in and made "popular" and "trendy" to the point it's difficult, to near impossible, to find a things original meaning and purpose. So, finding a truly reliable description andor definition for totems, spirits, and so on is pretty and annoyingly difficult, especially in this modern age where everything is online. Across a few pages online, I've come to the conclusion that Totemism is very interesting but WAY too complex to sum up in an opening paragraph.😂 So, I'll sum it all up as best as I can.
Totem/spirit/power animals and plants are representations of qualities, traits andor characteristics that an individual, or family, has andor aspires to have. Sort of like part of your soul, possibly from a previous reincarnation, that is trying to reattach itself to your current soul. They're also similar to your guardian angel, looking after you and giving guidance as best it can along your rollercoaster lifespan.😂 It all sounds rather romantic, I know, but that's what happens when you get a summary over the full story. 😂These interesting and adorable beasties are my Totems. Each represents aspects of myself, my personality, my sensibilities and traits I personally am attracted to or interested in. If this is the first time you're ever seeing or reading the names of one, some or all of these beasts, definitely look them up! Each one is overflowing with interesting things and fascinating histories!
For each of these Portrait Playing Cards I first prepped each card by painting what would be the "face" of the card with a parchment colored acrylic paint. Next I hand sketched each portrait on a sheet of graph paper (I used the grid method to ensure I didn't mess up the face too much😂) using between 2B and 4B graphite. Once the sketches were done, I transferred each sketch from the paper to the painted card using a gel plate. For most of them I didn't require any additional paint when transferring them to the cards, but, for a few I used the same parchment colored acrylic paint over top the print on the gel plate to transfer the pencil sketch to the card. And all of them were colored using primarily Gelly Role gel pens, but I also used Posca paint markers, Derwent's Inktense Washes and Staedtler Watercolor markers.
