After a vacation in the high deserts of Colorado and New Mexico, I was inspired by the Cosmic Western style there. I decided I wanted to make a tarot card that pulled from my experience. 

The finished card is here:

When choosing the palette, I knew I wanted to use a vibrant yellow that I picked up from some desert flowers, and a soft purple that reminded me of the sunset. To compliment, I used a burnt orange and a midnight blue, both of which I had found in some of the images I was collecting for this piece.

I wanted to create the Two of Wands, as it is a card that represents travel. In the popular Rider-Waite-Smith deck (far left), a man holds a globe as he looks out and contemplates his next move. Also pictured: Aquarian Tarot (center), Tarot of Eli (right). 

I find globe imagery to be a bit overused and tired, so I opted for the most similar thing: a map. I clipped it to a large purple circle as a way to pull the subjects together while keeping the palette concise. 

I chose the type family Marshmallow based on the way the numerals looked. I really enjoy the thick downstrokes with tiny flourishes. I went as far as to style the frame after the numerals, and used a thick yellow stroke on the text so that it was cohesive with the imagery.