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BD: It looks like you started out with a background in
History. How did you get into art and illustration?
To paraphrase a quote I once heard, "when someone asks
when you started drawing, ask them when they stopped." I think a lot of
people draw, it's simply a question of whether they themselves consider their
work to be art, or whether they think of it as just doodling. Art and
illustration has always been something I did. When I was young I used to draw
comics for my friends, with weekly issues, ongoing storylines, the works - they
were about as sophisticated as you would expect from a pre-teen, of course. However,
for a very long time I considered my interest as just a hobby, and as a result
I tended to put it off to the sidelines. Eventually, I realized art was
something I wanted to do, and whether or not it ended up the primary focus in
my life, I needed to stop dismissing it. I'd say I began to seriously focus on
my artwork few years after graduating from college.
BD: Did your History Training have any influence on your
artwork?
I would say everything has an influence on my artwork.
That's not a very helpful answer, I'm aware! But when it comes to creative
endeavors, such as writing or drawing, I feel that's really the case. Artwork
is an expression of ideas, even if those ideas are simply "what someone
looks like", and the only way to get ideas is to go out and look for them.
My background in history teaches me to pay attention to things like which
domains - countries - are in contact with which other domains, and how they'd
influence each other culturally through that contact. These are things that
would come out in their appearance.
BD: Judging by your portfolio page you have a broad range.
There are many different kinds of images and a variety of mediums from comics to
plush toys. What is your favorite medium to work in?
These days I usually work digitally, which has a number of
advantages. There's no mess, no set up, I can imitate a variety of styles with
different brushes, and the Undo button is a godsend. All that said, when it
comes to results, nothing can compare to a simple pencil or micron pen on sketchbook
paper.
BD: How did you get into plush toys?
My mother quilts as a hobby, and taught me how to use a
sewing machine - she used to sew me clothes when I was much younger. I never
had the patience for either quilts or the precise measurements needed for
clothing, but sewing is always something I've known how to do. I started
experimenting with moths as plush toys because they weren't very complex in
shape, and because almost no one else makes them. It was one of those "if
you want it done, do it yourself" scenarios.
BD: Which artists inspire you the most?
One of the wonderful things about the internet is that I can
find thousands of amazingly talented artists to look at, to the point where
there's far too many to name or even remember. The two I will always name off
the top of my head, however, are Talon Dunning and Tony DiTerlizzi, who
captured my imagination as a kid and never let it go. I would also name Lissa
Treiman, Alexandria Neonakis, and Claire Hummel, although in a different way -
they were all former classmates of mine, though not always in art classes. I
still look up to all three of them a great deal.
BD: You’ve done your own Tarokka Deck (a kind of Tarot Deck
for Ravenloft), I saw some images online and they look very nice. Why the
Tarokka deck? how did this project come about?
My deck is actually a Tarokka Tarot deck, which takes some
explanation. Tarokka was a fictional Tarot analog created to be a companion to
the Ravenloft campaign setting. There's been several decks of it printed,
including a lovely one by Talon Dunning. It's a fine product, but the problem I
have with is two-fold. The more practical problem is that the decks are nearly
impossible to find, as neither of them are available for sale anymore, and both
seem to have had very limited print runs. Talon has noted that his Tarokka Deck
goes for around $350 on sites like eBay. My other issue with the Tarokka deck
is a personal one, in that I simply prefer using Tarot. A part of this comes
from the childhood inspirations that got me into the Ravenloft campaign setting
in the first place - there's a game called Quest for Glory 4 that ranks among
my all time favorites, and the Tarot imagery used in that game had a huge
impact on me growing up. That being said, I always felt the Tarokka deck was
less robust than the actual Tarot, which always aggravated me when I attempted
to use it. For instance, there's no card in Tarokka to symbolize the concept of
"love", which strikes me as a rather glaring omission.
At the same time, the overt Judeo-Christian references in
Tarot don't really work in the Ravenloft campaign setting, and there were
elements of Tarokka that I liked, such as the many subtle (or none-too-subtle)
references to the setting itself. My goal with the project was to create
something personal that combined the two, merging the setting I loved with the
Tarot symbolism I loved. As a result, my deck is technically a Tarot deck,
heavily altered by influences taken from the Tarokka deck.
BD: Did the original Fabian Deck have any influence or was
the Talon Dunning your primary starting point?
It was mostly Talon's. I think I've seen the original Fabian
Deck all of twice.
BD: You mentioned this is a Tarokka Tarot Deck; was your
primary goal to have something for use at the game table or to have something
for use at the Tarot table inspired by the gaming table?
I only really use Tarot in gaming, so the former. Back when my
gaming group held a Ravenloft Larp, I had the role of a Vistani fortune-teller
who would perform readings for other players. I was using the Tarokka deck back
then, I'd borrowed one of Talon's from another player. I don't have the
opportunity to do that any more, but I still use my deck for the Ravenloft
play-by-posts I'm in.
BD: What has the reaction to the Tarokka deck been like?
Pretty muted, honestly. *laughs* I actually finished the deck back in 2010,
and released a PDF of it for people to print in 2012 - you can find it hosted
on the Fraternity of Shadows Ravenloft website. It didn't make a lot of ripples
at the time. It was only recently that I made an actual deck using Gamecrafters
and posted it up on my G+ account, at which point Jack Shear took notice of it
and shared it on his G+ account. He seems to be responsible for most of the
attention the deck has gotten.
BD: Jack’s post is how it came to my attention as well. You
have been active on Fraternity of Shadows, contributing to resources like the Nocturnal
Sea Gazetteer as an artist, but also as an author with articles like The
Ocean’s Ferry Men: Dread Selkies of the
Nocturnal Sea. What draws you to Ravenloft and how do you try to capture that
mood in your artwork?
Summing up what draws me to Ravenloft requires a lot of
thought. What originally drew me was the writing, certainly. I think the first
product I got my hands on was the Children of the Night compilation, and it
blew me away. Jezra Wagner, in particular, was such a haunting character for a
young mind. So I suppose I like a touch of darkness and melancholy in my games.
But I think the ultimate answer of what attracts me is the broader themes of
Ravenloft, along with my other favorite, Planescape - Planscape, to me, is a
game about people but more so philosophy, while Ravenloft is a game about
philosophy but more so people.
It's hard to explain how to capture the mood, because I
think mood is everything to Ravenloft. Certainly, there's a kind of
pseudo-Victorian styling to it, but I try to branch out from that in my work. I
think the answer is "atmosphere", as well as a feeling of overlap
between the familiar (in other words, things from our world) and the
fantastical. Ravenloft is an exaggeration of the real world, to the point where
emotion has physical effects on the world around it. The best way to capture
that is to try and make things as evocative as possible.
BD: How is illustrating cards different from other mediums?
It's not that different from a simple illustration. The
major difference, I would say, is I needed to be aware of the border. My
illustrations needed to be a precise size, without exception, which meant there
were some cards I had to crop or alter to fit within the set constraints.
BD: What is different about your Tarokka deck?
As stated above, it's a marriage between standard Tarot and
Tarokka. I also made an effort to incorporate parts of the setting that are
often ignored, or which simply weren't as developed at the time when the other
Tarokka decks were drawn. I wanted to illustrate the diverse range of
characters that could be drawn from the source material. Were I to do it today,
the drawings would likely be even more diverse.
BD: What changes would you make if you did started again on
the Tarokka deck today?
There are many artistic changes I'd make just to improve the
artwork and make things fit better within the boundaries of the cards. I'd also
likely change the way I portrayed various figures from various parts of the
setting. In addition to my Tarokka project, I also have a personal project to
re-write bits of the setting to my taste - as you can imagine, it's a very long
running project. It's developed a lot more since I drew the deck, so I would
likely incorporate the setting changes I made into the work as a whole.
Anyone interested in obtaining one of Eleanor's Tarokka decks can contact here at: rinatheelf AT gmail DOT com
Eleanor's Portfolio: http://eferron.daportfolio.com
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