Magnus Archives Tarot Zine
2020 was a very stressful year, but it was also the year I discovered this amazing podcast: The Magnus Archives. Horror wasn’t exactly a genre I was very interested in, my experience being summed up into bad horror movies with more jump scares than actual plot, so this was an eye opener to say the least. The characters were interesting, the plot was addicting (I literally listened to 23 episodes in one single day) and some episodes even made me lose sleep (apparently I’m still a teeny bit afraid of the dark).
It was also the first year I finally got the courage to participate in zines, and this one specifically was a blast to be part of. The entire deck is beautiful, and I’m honored to be part of it!
IX of Wands | Jon Working
The prompt was “Jon working” and I had a pretty strong idea of what I wanted (second thumbnail) but I still gave the mods a few more options to pick it up.
Jon goes through a lot of changes throughout the series, and I wasn’t sure yet which look to go for. Ended up going with the season 3/4 style since it’s the most commonly represented through out the fandom and would be easily recognizable.
VII of Pentacles | Gertrude and Gerry
Differently from the other card, I had no idea of what to do with these character so I tried different approaches in each thumbnails (a specific scene or a more graphic look, etc.) My favorites were 1 and 3
I had a clear image of Gerry in my mind but Gertrude was still a mystery. I started by exploring her body type and how she dresses and presents herself.
After figuring out her main silhouette I decided to tackle her face, it took me a while to find balance between “harmless and badass” but I was pretty satisfied with the end result (n.8) Looking back, i feel I could have pushed a bit more.
This illustration was done approximately 5 months after the card ones. This was for the stretch goal of 250 copies (we ended up selling more than 700!) and this was a holographic print of the last scene of the last episode of the series!
Thumbnails for the print illustration, since it was holographic I focused on mid tone to darker values.
Sketch to lineart walkthrough.
After almost two years I finally got my hands on the cards (and the rest of the goods)
