Witch Tarot

I'd originally planned Moira as a pretty dark, quiet Wiccan, contrasting Ginger being a naive optimistic sun, but at some point their roles ended up slightly switching. Moira became much more fun, which made sense to me as she's such a free character despite her darker themes, while Ginger became more sullen and quiet which also makes sense for her raising. Ginger does still appear as some radiant deity to the kingdom, but it is a role and identity crafted for her by other hands. With Moira, she can be as grouchy as she wants. 

Modern Wicca has no clothing conventions aside from the stereotypical witch concepts, so I could largely do what I wanted here, making my work harder rather than easier. I'm happy with what I ended up with, she has a mix of old common clothes, witch aesthetics and maybe a little bit of pirate in there too. She is more round and healthy than her counterpart.

I redesigned Moira after doing more research, I wanted her to fit the nouveau style more, so she has long, thick, free flowing Mucha-typical hair. I started thinking of her more as a wayfinder, and wanted her to seem more like a searching wanderer, so I incorporated more Slavic, tribal designs. They did look too warm, so I toned down the fur. I was also very wary of her looking too similar to Ginger, which I was probably needlessly nitpicky with, hence me removing the low fur. The last design is a mix of my favourite elements from each.​

As for her reference sheet, I did colour her after Ginger, as much of her is based on Ginger’s scheme. I already had a specific idea of what I wanted her colours to be and most of it has actual significance, so I didn’t want to change it. ​

I wanted her hair to be the same colour as Ginger’s robes, but it was too light and I couldn’t make it work. It was important that she had red hair due to its biblical connotations, representing the blood of Christ and therefore rebirth, holiness most importantly salvation. It shows what she represents for Ginger but works really well for both characters as it also serves to symbolise the inherently sacrificial selfless roles women are often placed in. 

I know it’s incredibly like her skin colour, which is usually not recommended, but I think it works very well for her here, and they’ll be more distinct in shading. Other than that, green and blue represent her more earthy/natural side, as well as blue having more biblical connotations with divinity, faith and heaven. I may repeat some of this on Ginger’s side.​

Ginger is a Pagan converted to Christianity, acting as a kind of royal spell caster. She is made out to be a pure, 'cleansed' version of pagans that they all should aspire to be. She is referred to as not a witch, but a saviour. Having been raised into this all, she's become very docile and obedient to her 'family' (the monarchy). She has plenty of practice with acting the part they want her to be. I'm sure someone like this must also have a sort of quiet gnawing rage that slowly chews away at them too.

She was a bit easier to design, I mostly took reference from priest robes, but also depictions of Mary and Jesus. Hence, her final appearance has an outer priest type robe, with a light dress underneath similar to what Mary is often depicted wearing.