What do you get when you merge Cats, Money, Tarot Cards and Scratchboard together? TAROT CAT! Tarot Cat came about as an idea while exploring new materials to work with.  I found scratchboard while browsing the isles of Pearl Paint. Being introduced to Scratchboard, I found the idea of negative drawing to be a challenge.  As I started playing around with a few scratch nibs, it occured to me that the lines I discovered would work well describing the fur of cats, the lines of money and the printmaking techniques in etching.  I chose the theme of Tarot cards and decided to use various wild and domesticated cats as models for the various Tarot Card titles.  Framing these illustrations around money designed frames, I thought this would enable me to push my abilities of the scratchboard medium while keeping with beautiful design. The results are these Tarot Cats.

Each Card was first experimented on flat scratchboard sheets of paper (2.5" by 4.5"), then redesigned onto ceramic backed Scratchboards plates (5" by 7").  These are more durable and held up well to the long hours of execution of each design.  Along with the two sketches Justice, Death, The resulting designs are  JUSTICE, DEATH, STRENGTH and THE DEVIL. 

Sherwin Banfield - ARTIST​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​