Mark and the Five-a-side Kickabout

I drew this card before leaving my boyfriend's house this morning. It's the one that many call the apprentice. I did a reading last night, laying thirty-odd cards out on the bed, and this one had come up amongst them as well. In my mind, it represented the learning and perfecting of new skills.

My favourite 8 of Pentacles is from The Robin Wood Tarot, showing a young boy in a workshop, crafting a pentacle out of wood; pretty much the same as what we see in the Radiant Waite version here. I remember buying that deck when I was away in a caravan by the sea with my parents. At the time I was in-between jobs (am I ever anything else?!) and had chosen to go with them for some peace and quiet so that I could work on my portfolio. The card made sense at that time, as I sat and drew new trend-based silhouettes and fiddled about with colour palettes and themes.

I have been in this place many times. The card reminds me of starting university and being on a week's sewing course back in 2001. Many of us on my fashion degree had wanted to design but had no clue of how to make clothing, so we were all given an intense week's course, which found us making samples of every kind of pocket, cuff, zip, seam and collar you might imagine. The card suggests progression, but shows that there is still much work to be done. Similarly, I remember undertaking a one to one day's course five years later in Adobe Illustrator, paid for by a company I was working for at the time. In that day, I built on the knowledge I already had, finding out how to do those things which I might require in my job. Very 8 of Pentacles.

I fancied a little fun with this card, so I decided to give it my own twist. Over the years, I have read of people colouring their own cards, so I thought I'd give it a go. I traced off the lines of the original Rider Waite with a pen, but when it came to the figure in the 8 of Pentacles, I changed it to make him my own. I scanned the drawing into my Mac and then transferred it to one of my ageing laptops to boost the simple line drawing up with some colour in Photoshop. There was something nice about following Pamela Coleman Smith's lines. I have looked at these images probably more than any others in my life, but never with such intensity. As an example, I don't think I ever noticed the knot work on the original wall where the pentacles hang.

So here, in my version, we have Mark. Mark is dressed in his footy kit. I don't know anything about football, but he tells me it is an England strip, so I'll have to take his word for

it. He likes to get out on a Thursday morning and play with his local five-a-side team. They usually bus it into town, dressed in shorts and boots, and play inside the walls of an old school building. Mark usually works on the weekend, so gets a lot out of his Thursday's off. However, this week, his routine has changed and he's got some work to catch up on today instead. He's all dressed up, hoping he'll get away and make a game or two with his mates, but at the moment, he is snowed under. He wants to progress at work and knows that any effort he puts in now will aid him in the future. You can see the old school with the games hall behind him in the distance. Of course, he'd rather he there having a kick about, but right now, he's got this last pentacle to fashion out of wood. His boss took a chance on employing him with such little experience, so he doesn't want to let either him or himself down.

The sun is finally shining here, as I study Mark in my own snide Rider Waite. I've got things to do too but would rather find something else to keep me occupied. For me, it is maths that will keep me in the workshop, since I really should revise over old topics before tomorrow's lesson. Like Mark, what effort I put in now will be paid back when I go for my university test. I read a good quote about the 8 of Pentacles this morning while I was sitting on the train. It said "If you want a helping hand, there are two available to you at the moment - one at the end of each arm".

Illustration from The Radiant Rider Waite by Pamela Coleman Smith, recoloured byVirginijus Poshkus