The Cats of Arx

A 78 card tarot deck, drawn by hand, brought to life with the help of an amazing group of backers on Kickstarter.

The Journey

March 2021 was the year I started to draw cats in earnest, cats doing all kinds of things; scampering, sailing, drinking, playing, sleeping, cuddling, eating. As I drew these very personal felines, requests were made to include little symbols important to them, points of interest, meaningful suggestions of secrets and hidden things. The more I did it, the more I thought, ‘this could mean something.’ Tarot cards are all about symbols and how they’re interpreted by the reader, stories captured on a small scale to give the reader an answer, or highlight meaning where before it was too vague; at least, if you believe in such things.

Whether I do or not, these cats have run rampant over my desk and my imagination, and the desire to tell more stories and share them has only become worse over the past year, I find myself drawing them out and including them in my orders, secret nuances that only I will know.

So! It’s time to put these kitties to work. A tarot card deck is 78 images, each with their own symbols, some related and some completely different from the others. There are 22 major arcana cards, with the other 56 split into four suits.

The Inspiration

More Cats!
Emotion and Skulls.
Kittens Too!
Samples That Invoke Meaning.
Sample Image with Nuance.
Two Stories That Fit Together.

The Process

Thanks to over 100 amazing supports on Kickstarter, all the characters are assigned to the cards, it’s just time to draw! There are many moving parts to this, from drawing 78 cards, preparing the card layouts for the printer, designing the insert, designing the box layout, updating backers and subscribers, managing shipping and logistics, and many more things.

Each card will have a unique drawing created. The samples below highlight what the card designs are intended to look like, none of the samples below are final and are only demonstrative of the card layouts.​

Tarot Card Back Sampler
Tarot Card Sampler 1
Tarot Card Sampler 2

The Cats

It took several months, and much longer than I ever would have expected, but all 78 cards were completed and sent off to the printer for production. These are the final drawings.

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