The Hanged Man

Hi friend! I like you. Thanks for visiting!

 Do you feel like your life is turned upside down? Maybe there is an uncertainty you can't explain? A life rearranged.

You might of drawn The Hanged Man card, featuring the gorgeous Sal Boenzi. Formerly a talented Teacher from Tuscon. He just moved across the country, changing everything that he knows, growing in the process. 

I also changed quite a bit for the final Hanged Man Tarot Card edit. Let's go through the evolution, shall we?

Originally the shoot was done with black light reactive paint. Which is fine, but I felt like the colors were too bright and did not match the rest of the series as much as I would like. It's the same challenge I had with Wheel of Fortune (also done with black light reactive paint). Big surprise, I like neon!

There's just something lovely about it. So I started to play around with tones, exploring blues and purples.... hmmm not quite.

Although he does look marvelously sinister. How about black and white?

Fun, but that's not the assignment. Would you like to see the very first card choice I made last year? 

The above photo is pretty dreamy, but the next photo was the original "Tarot" debut of the Hanged Man. The idea was he was trapped in a spider web made out of stars. Pretty cool concept, but I told Sal earlier today I was thinking of going with a different photo. He gave me his blessing!

I made some pretty big changes to the RAW file data, and did some heavy color grading too. I've done similar with most of the cards actually in this series, as I try to smooth out the tones and balance the elements. The next photo is the first example of that, and was nearly the final card choice. I really vibed with the greens for some reason. 

Sal is actually a pretty cool guy, and he came to my last birthday party in 2019. I still remember him clearly singing me Happy Birthday, and being surrounded by lovely friends.

He's the one doing the peace sign, while my new assistant Leigh is flipping me off in the picture. ;-p

Of course, lots of other bad ass people that I adore too. Some I still see pretty regularly. Anyway, I digress. So far you've seen that it started out pretty bright, neon in fact, before I toned it down and shifted the hue towards the greens and blues. The final card choice is one of my favorites in the set now... and I think it really came together in the end. 

So what did you think of this card's journey?

This is going to be such a beautiful deck! I'm working more on the Kickstarter later today. Wish me luck!

Love and Sleepies,

Brandon