A fantastical Tarot card deck filled with ethereal art by Kaitlund Zupanic exploring the emotions of the human condition through Dragons, Unicorns, and other fantastical creatures.
78 Cards
4 Artists Cards
SHIPPING WILL BE CHARGED WITH SURVEY'S
A deck to explore Dragons and their lore and duality through Tarot.
Standard-sized cards 2.75"x4.75"
Two decks available - 130# White and 100# Antique papers - both are excellent for shuffling
Printed cardboard deck box
Digital PDF booklet
Printed in the USA
78 card Deck loosely based on the Rider-Waite deck.
4 stretch goal artist cards to unlock
5 commissioned cards are possible
Cross Colab tarot card for backing National Parks Oracle Deck for Tarotopia.
See current cards in progress here. All cards have been designed, just awaiting the final graphite drawing and color.
CARD DESIGN NOT FINALIZED - NAMES WILL BE ADDED - ANTIQUE AND BRIGHT WHITE SHOWN
Kaitlund's work for this deck is inspired by many incredible artists, especially Alphonse Mucha, and the Art Nouveau movement. Culminating in reimagining Art Nouveau with a fantasy flourish and creating her new Draco Nouveau style.
What style is more renowned and loved by the creative, novice, and general public, like Alphonse Mucha's style of Art Nouveau? It is for sure Kaitlunds' favorite style of illustration and one that she has slowly crafted into her own works over the past 11 years.
The deck explores the forces of life and death, triumph and loss through the sacred lens of the Draconic eye as envisioned by Kaitlund Zupanic.
Intro to Tarot Bundle shown with Antique Draco Nouveau Deck
All cards in the deck, including any unlocked cards, will be formatted for printing on 8.5x11 paper. Each will be a printable JPG file, perfect for digital or traditional coloring.
Used to divine yes or no answers or adorn your Altar.
Locally made here in Utah, designed by me. These designs are "The Duel" and "St. George and the Dragon". Each is available in a light and dark version. Perfect for displaying your 3-card draws.
Laser-engraved wood with a masonite core. This wood is specifically designed for laser engraving and can keep its flat shape without warping much. While all wood can fluctuate with heat/humidity, this is the best option for the display stand.
Wood will be Cherry or Birch; we are still working on the final details.
12x12 Cotton cloth with gold ink. Screen printed in the USA.
Petulant Pudgies designed this deck holder. He kindly allowed me to offer this as an add-on for the campaign, with my artwork laser-engraved. He was very kind and allowed me to make some adjustments to the design.
The holder is designed to fit most tarot decks. Due to how it is intended, there is wiggle room for many thicknesses of decks.
The cardholder will be laser cut out of a tan suede leather with a tied leather cord to keep it closed.
Locally printed and designed by me. Machine washable, they are perfect for tarot card draws, altar cloth, or even a keyboard and mouse on your desk.
Generally used for MTG and D&D they are multi-purpose. Some patrons of game mats even use them for puzzles or placemats.
Each design is carefully crafted to be a beautiful addition to your workspace.
Multiple designs will be available, but here are the three main ones specifically for Tarot!
Set of three Motivational Posters with our Buy 2, get one free promo.
Normally $75
Embrace your Darkness, You are Enough, Endure and Thrive.
Each is 12x18
Shipped separately from Tarot rewards in a tube. Separate shipping will apply; please plan accordingly. Estimated to be $7 to ship in the USA, $25 internationally.
SHIPPING WILL BE COLLECTED POST CAMPAIGN IN PLEDGE MANAGER
Many styles have graced my art board, easel, sketchbooks and iPad as I've gone through my lifelong career of learning to paint. Most artists will begin by emulating certain styles of work or specific artists.
For the longest time I attempted to be an illustrator of high fantasy D&D and MTG illustration styles. I fought tooth and nail to create them. While I loved and enjoyed painting them, I didn't LOVE them on a soul level.
It felt like I was trying to emulate and copy what had already been done before, I couldn't find a way to stand out or voice my creativity like my soul craved.
Here or there, I would stumble upon something that I loved; what all of those had in common was Dragons (Some Unicorns) and the style of Art Nouveau.
Over time, the style grew. I took courses with many other illustrators to learn and evolve my style. One of them being Howard Lyon, an amazing illustrator that you absolutely have to look up if you haven't heard of him. He pushed me to grow, not only to paint and draw dragons but to expand to love humans as much as I loved dragons.
So I kept painting and learning, and slowly, the Tarot Deck was formed. A deck that I have wanted to illustrate since I was very young.
While I have been posting the works in progress on Howards Artists discord, he recently helped me coin the style name for my works - Draco Nouveau - An authentic and ethereal representation like no other of my current body of work. A callback to Art Nouveau with my favorite draconic element mixed in.
For those of you who don't know me and my work yet.
Hi, I'm Kaitlund Zupanic.
I have been working as a freelance artist for 11 years despite frequent setbacks, trials, and turbulent waves such as a severe car accident and stroke in 2010/2011. I persevered and worked on regaining my artistic voice again.
I wouldn't be swayed from what I viewed as my primary goal in life. The cultivation and growth of my lifelong artistic career, working on myself, and improving.
While doing so, it became apparent at a very young age that I had a singular driving force behind me, and much to no one's surprise, it was always DRAGONS and UNICORNS. They have played a massive role in my work consistently.
Many magical things happen as I expand my work, testing the boundaries of what makes my creations stand out, break the mold, or embody my soul and voice. While there are many inspirations that I can equate this to, I won't get into it here, but you are free to speculate on influences.
Over the past 11 years I have begun to weave stories into my works. Characters that came to life through paint and now, with the help of Paul Genesse and Patrick Tracy, Stories.
My upcoming Illustrated Anthology ties into this Tarot Deck with many characters appearing in both. Characters that you have also seen if you have backed any of my past crowdfunding campaigns like the Anthology Pins.
Join me and experience the beauty that is Draco Nouveau Tarot. I explore Dragons through color and line with themes spanning grief, loss, triumph, and the interplay of good versus evil with morally grey characters who can embody both light and dark traits, the Feminine and Masculine, the Sun and Moon.
You can find more of my work and visit my Studio and Gallery in person at @Provo Towne Centre in Provo Utah.
My Cross Collab Tarot Card will be "The White Stag"
The White Stag protects the portal between our world and the otherworld. He is a deity residing on the cusp of worlds, symbolizing the untamed wilderness, creative life force, transitions, catalysts, transformation, magic, and change.
When this card finds its way into your Tarot reading, the portal is open and awaiting your transition into a new.
🔮 WELCOME TO TAROTOPIA — a celebration of tarot, oracle, and divination-themed projects, with creators launching crowdfunding campaigns from May 1 - May 22, 2025.
🏆 Earn Exclusive Rewards:
Limited Edition Tarotopia Tarot Cloth: Back 4+ projects to unlock this exclusive reward, shipped by BackerKit.
Cross-Collab Freebies: Back partnered projects to score 2 FREE rewards — one from each creator! The more pairs you support, the more you collect.
✨ Quick Guide:
1 FREE Tarot Cloth for backing 4+ projects
2 FREE rewards per Cross-Collab pair you back
⭐️ PRO TIP: Support 2 Cross-Collab pairs (4 projects) to maximize freebies and unlock the Tarot Cloth!
See individual project pages for details. Only physical reward tiers or main digital offerings (if no physical items are offered) qualify.
You can find the current card status here on my website.
Most of these cards are a work in progress, with about 35% done. Thankfully, these go very quickly for me, so I estimate I will be able to have the deck completed by mid to late June.
As a card is drawn or colored, it will be added to that page.
If a card isn't shown, it is because the 2nd stage of the line drawing hasn't been completed. While all the cards have a thumbnail drawing, the thumbnail drawing isn't shown on this page.
THUMBNAIL Each card begins as a thumbnail sketch. These are very small, usually no more than an inch high. These help me brainstorm quickly without getting caught up in the nitty gritty details.
This is my favorite stage of the illustration creation. The sky is the limit, and many different types of ideas can be created with minimal effort on my part. Playing with lines and shapes, figuring out what best fits what I want the illustration to be
As an artist, my intuition is the best tool in my arsenal as a piece is in progress. My intuition has rarely led me astray when designing an illustration.
Graphite is my primary medium for this, with a marker sometimes used for values.
DIGITAL DRAWING Here is where I implement any reference I have taken into a canvas on Procreate or Adobe Fresco via my iPad. Once I have compiled my references, I then complete my 50% complete drawing. Most details are added on the final pass of the traditional drawing.
PENCIL DRAWING The digital drawing is then printed on canson 9x12 watercolor paper with the opacity reduced down to 10 to 20 percent. This allows me to still see the bare bones of the important bits and create a detailed final drawing. Once it is done, it is scanned in at 1200 DPI and then put back into Adobe Fresco and Procreate for color.
COLOR FINAL With the detailed drawing put back into my iPad I can then work on the final color stage. Each suit will have a similar color theme that matches its element. Lots of layers are used in this stage, including a texture overlay, among other color adjustment layers.
With most cards sticking relatively closely to the original Rider Waite cards, some transform as my creative intuition takes hold. I hope you can come to love this deck and appreciate all of the work that led to its creation.
Dragon and Unicorn Talismans are bronze sculptures by Colin and Kristine Poole. These beauties are sold in my gallery, and Colin and Kristine have kindly let me add them to this campaign because they go so beautifully with my deck, which has dragons and unicorns as its main creatures.
Each set comes with a Draco Nouveau Tarot Deck, Tarot Display, and Tarot Cloth.
At some point, every card in this deck will be available to buy. I will update this page with what is still available as drawings sell.
All are drawn on Canson cold-press watercolor paper in graphite.
These drawings are in various stages of completion. Most cards won't be incredibly detailed but will still have minor shading and the outline drawn around the piece.
Some older drawings have the printed border around them for aesthetic purposes. Others don't. I won't draw the border on any of these or print them on the newer drawings.
The goal of this deck is to be simple, elegant, and affordable.
While a luxury deck may be an option in the future with foiled cards, the world is in flux, and I want to make it available to as many people as possible.
This will significantly reduce the cost and eliminate waste products from the deck. Creating a luxury deck of tarot cards requires a lot of manufacturing, which isn't necessary.
Another benefit of going basic on the deck is that all the current companies making those styles are based overseas, specifically in China. So, I have found a local company based in the USA that can fulfill the deck manufacturing, printing the cards, and deck box, which will have my artwork printed around the entire box.
This provides two benefits.
1. Avoid the looming tariffs by manufacturing this deck in the USA. While the Printer may source paper from China, the cards and deck box will be printed and cut here in the USA. Currently, the only items that are manufactured in China for this project by me are the divination coins, and I would love to keep it that way. However, it is more than likely possible that my suppliers get items from China, such as the sublimation blanks for the Tarot Mats, even though they are printed here in Utah.
2. Removing or severely lessening the risk of the artwork being stolen and reprinted as a bootleg deck showing up on Temu and other unmonitored sales avenues.
As an artist, this deck is the culmination of years of my life's work, experiences, hardships, heartaches, and wounds. To have this beautiful deck that I have worked so hard on showing up on Temu would break me.
All decks sold by me will have my stamp and signature applied to the inside of each box.
The decks have also been limited in where they can be shipped to reduce the chances of a bootleg version showing up. See the rewards levels for info on how to order outside the campaign after this has been fulfilled.
This deck is a soul project for me, one that I have wanted to do since I was very young. I hope that you will enjoy it regardless of the extra fixings, such as embossing or gold foil, that are missing.
Eventually, a company may be found to do a luxury version that isn't crazy expensive for a second re-release, either through me or a Publishing company.
It simply isn’t an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons - Sarah Ban Breathnach- Simple Abundance
Only one creature has graced the lore and legend across time and continents like the Dragon.
They're infamous for both great destruction in the countries of Europe, while revered as healers and divine creatures in Asia.
Dragons embody not just the light and the dark in Religion and Spirituality, they are mirrored inside humanity itself—a great creature of myth and legend capable of enormous destruction and mass healing.
Within this deck, you will find the heart and soul of a Dragon guided by other mythical creatures such as Unicorns.
“There has never been a time without unicorns. We live forever! We are as old as the sky, old as the moon! We can be hunted, trapped; we can even be killed if we leave our forests, but we do not vanish. Am I truly the last?” – Unicorn, The Last Unicorn Peter S. Beagel
For me, Unicorns and Dragons are two sides of the same coin. In my Anthology, Dragons and Unicorns are partners in the ruling and running of the world. One side is unable to complete its duties without the other.
Unicorns are Stewards of the land and equal to Dragons, and just as magical and powerful, albeit in different ways.
Because of this, Unicorns play a large part in this deck alongside Dragons, especially the Wands suit.
Embodying their world purpose, energy, ingenuity, and creativity. Their actions help grow the world and bring forth new life. Embodying spring and the energy of Fire and the light.
Shipping will be calculated and collected after the campaign through the Pledge Manager.
Estimated to be $7 to $25 per tier level, depending on what is in it.
A few tier levels will require more shipping due to weight.
Specific items such as the Vintage Posters will also ship separately, shipping estimated to be $7 to $10.
INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING Some pledge levels will not ship to specific countries. If you would like to receive the deck, you may email me at [email protected] to see if you can get some of these items post-campaign.
