The Lubanko Tarot - fully painted by a single artist
Most tarot decks are a collaboration: a writer, an illustrator, a publisher. The Lubanko Tarot is not. E. Lubanko painted all 78 cards, wrote the guidebook, and designed the packaging on her own. That is not a selling point so much as a fact that shows up in the cards: there is one consistent eye behind every image.
Lubanko has been reading tarot for over twenty years, and that shows in how the deck is constructed. She works from the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition but deliberately diverges where she finds a different image clearer or more honest. These are not illustrations that neatly repeat established symbols - they are paintings that take a position.
What you see on the cards
The paintings use vivid colour, strong contrast, and clear compositional movement. Lubanko designed them with colour blindness in mind, so the cards remain readable without colour distinction. The figures range from human to something well beyond - beings that represent the diversity of life on earth and what lies outside our expected forms. Every suit is a complete journey, and all Major and Minor Arcana cards are fully illustrated. There are no pip cards.
The deck has a pronounced surrealist, sensuous, and queer tone. That is not a later addition; it is built into the composition, the colour choices, and the figures themselves. Experienced readers will find familiar ground but also moments where a card moves in an unexpected direction.
Who this deck is for
This is not a beginner's deck for someone who has never handled tarot. The 110+ page guidebook provides context, but these cards are made to be worked with, not to be explained symbol by symbol. Someone with some familiarity with tarot who wants a deck with a strong artistic voice will find something here worth spending a long time with. That was the intention: each card should have enough metaphor to carry a moment of self-contained meditation.
The deck was originally published through Kickstarter in 2020 and is now in its second printing (2022), available through regular retail channels.
Every one of the 78 cards is a complete painting - not a single card is a variation on a standard symbol pattern without an underlying scene.
About the creator
E. Lubanko is an artist and designer who specialises in the surreal, the strange, sensuality, nature, and metaphor. She has been reading tarot for more than twenty years. The Lubanko Tarot is her first published tarot deck, and she made it entirely on her own - from the first painting to the text on the inside of the box.
Specifications
- Author and illustrator: E. Lubanko
- Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
- ISBN: 9780738780702
- Number of cards: 78 fully illustrated cards
- Guidebook: 110+ pages, in English
- Language: English
- Dimensions: 30 x 129 x 155 mm
- Weight: 626 g
- Edition: Second printing (2022)
- Card stock: 350 gsm with soft-touch matte UV varnish
- Edges: Holographic silver foil
- Packaging: Magnetic hinge box with velvet-matte finish, silver foil, and full-colour printing
Questions we often get
Is this a good first tarot deck?
The cards are fully painted and rich in detail, which is rewarding but also assumes you know what you are looking at. The 110+ page guidebook helps, but the deck was made for people who already work with tarot or want to begin seriously. If you are completely new to it, the imagery may feel like a lot to take in at first.
How closely does this deck follow the Rider-Waite-Smith system?
Lubanko starts from that tradition but deliberately departs from it in several places, wherever she finds a different image more direct or more honest. Readers who know the classic cards well will recognise the framework but will also encounter deliberate differences. One-to-one comparisons do not always hold.
