How do you draw in the dragon age tarot card style? It sounds like a weird question but I've been trying to draw my inquisitor but I'm finding the aesthetic really hard
Hi! I felt inspired to make a lil tutorial so excuse me if it`s way too much (edit Heath here, can confirm, it is). I`ll just describe what I do point by point and go on a small analysis of existing DAI tarots.
There is a reason why I always ask for character personality descriptions. There is nothing harder than trying to draw a character you know nothing about. You always need a jumping off point for a design.
When I have a description I start looking for a card that would fit the character I was given. Sites that give short tarot card meaning descriptions are very useful. For example. Way back in the day when I was designing a tarot for my Inquisitor I settled for the Judgment card because it`s description (rebirth, a new phase, inner calling) fit the narrative so well. (Sometimes you can take one element of the specific card and play with it just to give a hint to it without feeling restricted by just copying the card.)
Just recently I started doing 3 sketches for all the commissions. Putting all the ideas you have “on paper” really helps to avoid an urge to change everything when you are almost done (god knows I have those urges a lot).
These are sketches for the commission I recently posted. Commissioner chose the sketch I finished but the whole idea is to try different compositions and moods. You can see how messy and not detailed my sketches are, and tho I am trying to get better at this, I feel even like this they translate the mood and the composition fairly well.
3) DA tarot style (colour rendering and all fun stuff)
Now to the real question. The answer is really simple tbh. There is no set style for tarot cards in DAI because they had a variety of artists working on them. You honestly can`t go wrong with them. Let me elaborate on this.
I`ll show some tarot sets that look very different and then point out elements that carry over from one artist to another creating the cohesive aesthetics.
simple strong colours creating silhouettes
You can see that Cole cards are about contrast and emotion. They are beautiful in their simplicity, pretty much the only part that is rendered is the face because the emotion the most important to the artist.
Advisors cards (not sure if it`s the same artist but the style is more or less consistent)
realistic anatomy and rendering
Very different from Cole. Less impressive compositions but beautiful anatomy and rendering. Emotion is a secondary to symbolism, all of main character in the cards have pretty blant expressions but all the the attention is on their symbols ( Josie`s pen, a sword for Cullen, raven and daggers for Leliana).
VERY close to arcana cards
little to no realistic render and lighting
beautiful use of textures to fill the space
Unlike the advisors cards Sera`s cards are obviously based on certain arcana and they follow if extremely close. All the focus here is on really strong composition and use of textures. Bright colours and Sera herself in those cards create incredible fun mood to highlight her character.
All of the cards above have some things in common that make the looks cohesive despite different styles.
flat elemens on foreground to highlight the important symbols
You can`t go wrong with DAI style tarots, there is no one size fir all. Try finding cards online and look at them while you work in your card. Compare, analyze and HAVE FUN.
(I really hope I was helpful)
