For some unknowable reason, I thought I had already posted about this subject. And It think I had intended to post it at the very beginning of this blog. But, either I got side-tracked or I was hemming and hawing over whether or not this was something too personal for me to post. In the end, I have decided to share some, keep some to myself, and hopefully I won’t have to invoke the Grundle Gheist on anyone trying to steal my art.

If Necessary, I will have to replace my images with ones covered in gratuitous watermarking.

The Servant 

The Cloud was my first Clow Card, or the Servant, in Rune Emmerson’s Clow Sorcery tradition. There is a lot of debate about the nature of Servants in the Clow Sorcery discord server. Some people have noted that many Servants possess a quality that is very in tune with the nature of the sorcerer. Others have also made the counter argument of many examples wherein the Servant was either something the sorcerer lacked or needed more of. I never really figured out which, if any, camp The Cloud fell into in the context of our comparing and contrasting natures. 

But, there was one thing I was immediately certain of when I began my journey in that tradition—and that was that I was meant to re-draw each Clow Card (and the other cards in the ‘clear’ section) myself. And that made my Questing cycle a bit different than everyone else’s. 

The Process

I had a few design choices for The Cloud left over from my previous attempt to change the illustrations to something unique and personal to me. First, I wanted to keep the fluffy, cloud-like hair texture. Second, I wanted to get rid of the spirit’s outfit.

I also wanted to add more color into the design. I didn’t really care for what amounted to a monochromatic drawing with a single accent color. But, that was where my previous design had taken me.

I spent a lot of time frustrated that I could not find reference images that were quite right for my use. So there were probably a total of 8 hours spent on pinterest and other image collection websites in total, just fussing over poses, clothing, and individual references for cloud and mist shapes as well as the pipe. So for those of you wondering if I drew everything from imagination? No. I use references. I use a LOT of references.

I was at a loss, going over ideas but unable to settle on anything until I considered the idea of a prop–and the idea of a long-handled pipe like a kiseru or long-stemmed opium pipe was a perfect fit. After all, it is used to create ‘clouds’.

With that choice, the idea of adapting scholar’s hanfu with fantasy elements seemed logical. I ended up going with a very pastel color pallet of white and dreamy blue-green gradations–in keeping with the idea of the Cloud itself. There were a few places I repeated the ‘cloud’ motif, such as in the hair ornament and at the front closure of the robe.

After that, I spent a considerable amount of time trying to draw cloud-shapes and carefully erasing portions of the shape to reveal details underneath. It’s definitely got a different feel than the original version. In the process video below, you can see several false starts.

One thing we discuss within the Clow Sorcery group is that the cards often have manifestations individual to each Sorcerer. How do you think yours might differ from the original version?