Asking for feedback

[remod]

Thanks, Silent Thunder. The last cards I posted on DA are the result of me "steering" an AI toward the images I had in mind, I liked the result even if I wasn't capable of directly drawing them myself. The others I made myself but they were much much easier :).

You can find those eight cards (actually a revised version of those cards) ready to be printed here: https://github.com/rdentato/castingiching/releases/download/v1.0.0/8-I-Ching-cards.zip
 

In the zip file there is also an "instructional card" showing how to use them. I've ordered a printed version on PrinterStudio just yesterday. It will take a month or so to arrive at my door, I'll post a photo when I'll get them so we can have a better idea of the printing quality.

I'll make the equivalent zip files for the other sets. I need some time since the Fu ones need the instructional cards, the set of 3 and 5 cards also need a proper design for their backside.

I'll see if can find some time this weekend to work on them and will let you know how to download them.

Thanks for your interest!
  

[silent thunder]

Wow mate. 

I'm rather stunned.  I will treasure these.

And thanks for the pointer to the site.  I signed up with GameCrafter and am instantly mulling over making a variety of card decks from some of my paintings I've long held onto. 

 

It's a remarkable site.  I had no idea such a thing existed.

[remod]

Happy you liked them

In the meantime, I managed to make the instructional card for the 7 cards with the FU talisman.
You can find the hires images here: https://github.com/rdentato/castingiching/releases/download/v1.0.0/7-I-Ching-Cards-FU.zip

Since you mentioned you plan to use Game Crafter, I named the files so that it will be easier to set up the deck on that platform (but you can use any other you like).

I'm curious about your paintings, did you publish them somewhere? (DA, Instagram, Pixiv, ...). I'd love to see them!
 

Edited February 5, 2022 by remod

[silent thunder]

@remod I've never really shared my work.  My family sees them as I do them and a few hang in our home.  I just love getting lost in the doing, it's play and it's transcendent.  My sketches fill notebooks that lay in drawyers and mostly tend toward architectural and geometric... details, it's all about getting lost in the details.

 

My paintings are nearly all abstractions, purely playing with color, flow, shape and expression.  I keep a couple dozen or so canvases and perpetually repaint over them. 

 

I've come to recognize it now as a form of cultivation which is what initially drew me to your work on these cards.  Imbueing the energy of presence through the medium.  Simple stuff.  I adore the process of mixing colors then mingling them on a blank surface into an expression of shapes and flow. 

 

I laughed recently while staring at a freshly poured acrylic piece when I realized I'd been sitting there, mesmerized for who knows how long literally watching paint dry.    like i said... simple stuff.

 

 

Here's one I shared here in my ppd long ago.  It's inspired by an experience while studying and sitting with Wang Li Ping.

 

[blue eyed snake]

oh wow

so much yes on this

[remod]

@silent thunder Beautiful! And really mesmerizing! I can totally understand getting lost in your own thoughts while looking at those.

 

If you ever feel inclined to print them on cards for casting I Ching hexagrams let me know, I've many more methods that I devised and never published anywhere and I will be very happy to help.

 

I strongly believe that creating a personal method for casting hexagrams, establishes a much stronger connection with the I Ching.

[silent thunder]

2 minutes ago, remod said:

If you ever feel inclined to print them on cards

You hit right on it.

 

It was one of the first things that came to mind when I joined GameCrafter.  I might finally have a method to store and enjoy lots of my paintings without a house full of canvases.    If I'm drawn to one I've done, print it to card form, and still be able to repaint the canvas again. 

 

Sets of paintings... themes that work as a deck... it's a whole new medium. 

I have a version of the tao to ching in haiku format.   Have done many paintings on that theme over the years.  Might explore an image/haiku tao deck.

[remod]

I love cards as well. When you'll make some, please share them with us!

For me, the most difficult part is to wait for the printed cards to arrive It rarely takes less than four weeks.
 

[remod]

Just got the "Fu Talisman" cards from Game Crafter:
I love them

 

Just a note on quality. The print is clear and the cards look great.
The stock card itself, however, is a little bit thin. Cards I've printed on MPC are thicker (and hopefully more resistant) but also more expensive. On game crafter I paid around 18€ all included, the cards I'm waiting from PrinterStudio will be more than 25€ (the same number of cards). Let's see if the quality will justify this 7€ difference.

 

Edited February 7, 2022 by remod

[remod]

And here are five of the 8 trigrams cards printed on PrinterStudio. A little bit darker than I wanted buf, in the end, good enough.

 

 

Images ready to be printed (on Printerstudio, gamecrafter, etc) are here: https://github.com/rdentato/castingiching/releases/download/v1.0.0/8-I-Ching-cards.zip

They are under the CC-BY-SA which allows you to do almost anything you want with them.

 

[remod]

One further note. When you print full images (i.e. with no white borders) it seems they quickly wear out just by shuffling.

 

I should probably have added a border around the images...
 

Edited February 22, 2022 by remod

[remod]

Here am I, with a new set of trigrams cards

 

 

Besides the style, they differ from the previous ones in that you can cast an hexagram one line at the time instead of three lines at the time.

To do so you pick a card at random, rotate it and turn it face up to look at the upper left corner. Summing 5 to the number of red dots will give you 6,7,8, or 9 with yarrow stalks probabilities.

 

I worked quite hard at convincing Midjourney to generate the images I had in mind. AI can be stubborn sometimes

 

A more detailed version of the images is posted on Deviant art: https://www.deviantart.com/rdentato/gallery/84008430/8-i-ching-cards-ukiyo-e.

For those wanting to print and try them, the ready-to-print files are here:  https://github.com/rdentato/castingiching/releases/download/v1.0.0/8.I.Ching.cards.Ukiyo-e.zip   free for anyone to use under the Creative Commons BY-SA license.

 

Hope you like them.

[remod]

Thanks for the reactions, guys. I really need somebody to talk to to help me working the details about these cards but (surprisingly ) this is not a topic many are interested in ...

I'm printing the cards above  (for myself) on MPC and they charge the same for 8 or 10 cards (they go by the number of sheets and it seems there are 10 cards per sheet).

So I designed the card below to reach 10 (the two images are front/back of a single card and you need two of them). I now wonder if I should have used a more direct way to produce lines (instead of having to sum up dots). What do you think? Would summing up be a hindrance?

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by remod

[remod]

Here is what I mean. Maybe this version is "better"? Would you prefer something like this rather than having to sum up dots?

 

It's very complicated, for me, to decide on my own.

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by remod

[mcoolio]

The trigram cards you posted a little bit higher seem a little bit bland to me. All look the same and have to look carefully to distinguish the trigrams. Just my view of course

 

For the casting with the dots inthe last 2 posts: Seems like it could be a nice method to cast a hex. The summing and direct method both seem fine to me.

 

Using 3 coins works fine for me though. Not sure if I would prefer the card using over the coins. Would have to try it out.

[remod]

Thanks, Mcoolio!

When I'll get the eight cards printed, I'll check if they are, indeed, too similar and, in case, will try some other design.

 

I would love to hear from you if you test the two cards method. It's easy to make them with blank business cards and colored markers, the image is just to please the mind.

All these cards are just an alternative method to cast hexagrams.

I was always more attracted to the yarrow stalks method than the coins for their asymmetric odds but stalks are not very portable and require the proper space and time to be done properly (and, probably, this is how it is meant to be).

 

Even using sixteen beads was too cumbersome for me (they rolled around, I kept losing them, ...) so I tried to come out with something easier to use (at least for me) and that would generate lines with yarrow stalks probabilities.

Cards are very flexible in this regard and it seems I did not exhaust yet the possibilities they offer.

Edited August 17, 2022 by remod

[remod]

I created other two cards to try to make it clearer that they can replace pen and paper to track the hexagram while it is forming.

So, even if you use the coins, the stalks, or any other method, you may want to try using cards just for keeping track of the lines received.

I've prepared a PDF file (11MB) that just needs to be printed/cut/glued/trimmed if anyone wants to try.

For example, should you have received lines 7,6,8,7,9,7, you would have stacked the cards in the following way:

 

 

and immediately would have gotten the hexagram 25 (with the 2nd and 5th line moving) on the right and the related hexagram on the left.

 

Here you can see the front/back of each card:

the image in the center is on the theme of "meditation".

 

Here is a set I built for testing purpose:

 

Actually, I feel they are too small, but I might be biased by the other cards I use which are larger.

 

Personally, I find that having to stop after each line, pick up the pen and draw the lines is distracting and interrupts my "flow" in consulting the I Ching. Using cards like these, everything proceeds in a more fluid and natural way, with the action of noting down the received line being part of the casting process itself, rather than being a clearly different action.

 

Any feedback will be really appreciated

Edited August 28, 2022 by remod

[remod]

Just got my printed cards from MPC. I've set up a project in their marketplace for those wanting to directly buy the printed cards from them: https://www.makeplayingcards.com/sell/castingiching

 

I'll put there some other cards combination and a booklet with the explanations.

 

Note that the price is practically the same as if you set up the project yourself, they asked to charge at least 1% on top of the pure production costs (12.70$ vs 12.55 for one deck). Shipping costs may vary depending on where you live (I had to pay 9.99$ for shipping).

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by remod

[remod]

With the cards in front of me, I can say that they should be remade to make them more legible (as Mcoolio suggested).

 

More than differentiate them from one another, the problem seems to be in the orientation. I'll go back to the drawing board (meaning try to convince Midjourney to produce something better )

 

 

[silent thunder]

Bump. 

 

Hey there @remod   Another Bum just posted about what decks inspire us or that we use for divination and your project came to mind.

How's it going mate?

[aotvoid]

Yeah, that'd be me...gorgeous cards and things on your DA site, Remod! On an unrelated note I think Alien Starry Night is excellent too.