How to Find Beautiful, High-Quality Artwork for Your Oracle Card Deck
Do you have an amazing idea for an oracle card deck you want to create? And you’re wondering where to find the perfect artwork for your cards?
Perhaps you don’t consider yourself an artist, but it’s important to you to use beautiful, high-quality images that reflect the theme and energy of your card deck.
Or you may have an eye for design and are excited to compose the layouts for your cards, box and guidebook yourself, but hand-painting 40+ art pieces from scratch feels too time-consuming, and you’re looking for an easier way to source the images for your deck.
In this article, you’ll learn about five ways you can find stunning artwork for your card deck without overwhelm or sacrificing quality.
The Oracle of the Magical Fairy Forest by Anna Frolik, illustrated by Anna Babich (card #27, Shiny Objects).
Why Using the Right Artwork for Your Oracle Deck Matters
Finding the perfect artwork for your card deck is important for many reasons.
First of all, you’ll want your graphics to match the overall theme and vibe of your oracle card deck. Just like words, images can be powerful messengers. When I read cards, I often receive many insights simply by connecting with the symbolism and frequency of the images. Using the right artwork adds a certain depth to the meaning of each card and helps to get your message across in a more profound and specific way.
If you’re an energy worker, the images on your cards can help to transmit your magic and healing gifts. While I was designing the art for my own and my clients’ oracle card decks in the past, I could often feel myself receiving the healing frequencies and channeling them into the cards throughout the creative process. I witnessed how each art piece was infused with frequencies that didn’t just help to convey the message of the cards, but that can also served as a powerful healing tool.
Finally, using visually appealing artwork for your cards will help you attract the right audience to your work, make your oracle decks more enjoyable to work with, and increase your sales!
If you’ve been wondering where to find beautiful artwork for your oracle card deck, here are five ways for you to consider. Depending on your specific goals, unique creative skills, time availability, and budget, any of the following may work for you:
The Elemental Goddess Tarot by Kaira Sherman, with artwork by Mariah Lander.
How to Find the Artwork for Your Oracle Cards: 4 Ways to Source Your Images
1. Creating Your Own Artwork
If you are visually skilled and love to get creative yourself, you may want to consider designing your own artwork for your oracle cards. Creating your own images is a beautiful way to infuse your deck with your unique energy—and can be a highly enjoyable process if you have the time and necessary experience.
However, it can also be a frustrating process if you don’t love designing your own visuals or if you already have a lot on your plate. In this case, one of the following options may work better for you.
The Fairy Medicine Oracle by Maritza Luna Moreno. An example of an oracle deck with artwork created by the author.
2. Using Royalty Free Stock Images and Resources
If creating your own artwork isn’t in your zone of genius and you’re looking for an easy and inexpensive way to find beautiful images for your oracle deck, using royalty free stock resources may be the perfect solution for you.
There are both free and paid options. Some of my favourite resources for free images include Pixabay, Unsplash, and Wikimedia Commons. Depending on what you’re looking for, a premium resource like Creative Market, Envato Elements, or Freepik can be an affordable alternative option.
When using royalty free stock resources, always make sure you read the licensing information for each image carefully. Some free resources are available for personal use only, and some of the paid sites will require you to purchase extended licenses depending on how exactly you’re going to be using your images and how many copies you’re planning on getting printed. In certain cases, you’ll also have to credit the artist for the images you’ve used.
The Inner Child Healing Oracle by Britta Baumann. An oracle deck designed with the help of stock images from Creative Market (designed by Anna Frolik, pre-made illustrations by Anna Babich).
3. Using AI-Generated Art: Yay or Nay?
With the rise of AI, generating your artwork with the help of artificial intelligence can seem like an obvious, time-saving and low-cost option to design the images for your own oracle deck.
While we believe that AI has its place as a tool to help make the creative process easier, there are many reasons why it may not be the right choice for you.
Firstly, if you don’t have an eye for design, AI isn’t magical quick fix it may appear to be. While AI engines like Midjourney or ChatGPT can help you generate a large number of images much faster than if you were designing your art by hand, it makes mistakes. If you lack the experience of a professional artist, you’ll almost certainly miss the little details that distinguish a high-quality, intentionally designed deck from one that looks like “just another AI deck.”
Also, AI may mimic the depth and soul of human-made art, but it doesn’t pour the same amount of love, emotion, and intention into what it creates, which can make the images feel “hollow” and disconnected.
The Divine Counsel Oracle by Ericka C. Vega. One of our few card deck projects featuring AI-generated art (graphic design and layout by Anna Babich). While we no longer accept AI art submissions at this time, this oracle is an example of a card deck that conveys the love, intention, and powerful angelic frequencies infused by the author in spite of the art being made with the help of AI.
Finally, you may have ethical concerns about using AI—which can include not wanting to “steal” from other artists, environmental issues, or simply not wanting to flood the internet with more generic images that drown out the original creations of human artists.
For the same reason, you’ll miss out on buyers who aren’t willing to support AI-generated art.
Personally, I enjoyed playing with AI-generated art when it first became a “thing” several years ago. Nowadays, I use AI in a more limited way (for example, for brainstorming), but I’ve made it my mission to support human artists and keep the value of hand-made art alive, so hiring an artist to design my card decks will always my first choice!
The Heart to Heart Oracle by Anna Babich. This deck was made using AI-generated elements as part of an advanced collage art technique. Each card features a selection of many images combined in a skilled way to create a unique, intentional art piece, made by a professional designer.
4. Collaborating With an Artist
If you’re looking for a more unique style of artwork that you won’t be able to find on a royalty free site or create with AI, you may want to consider finding an artist to collaborate with. There are a couple different ways to go about this:
First of all, you may already know someone who creates beautiful artwork and whom you also share a close personal connection with. In this case, an easy way to collaborate can be for each of you to contribute equally to the creative process, split the investment for producing your cards, and also divide your profits equally.
The Oracle of the Magical Fairy Forest by Anna Frolik, illustrated by Anna Babich (card #44, Guardian of the Fae).
Another option is paying an artist for commissioned images or artwork they’ve already created. However, in many cases, you’ll still have to pay royalties each time you sell a deck, which can add to your long-term costs and and also make the entire process more complicated.
Love Messages From Your Pet Oracle Cards by Coco, illustrated by Anna Babich.
5. Get Your Entire Oracle Card Deck Designed for You
If you’re excited to bring a beautiful, high-quality oracle deck to life but don’t have the time, skill, and expertise to turn your idea into a finished physical product, an all-in-one done-for-you approach could be the perfect solution for you.
With this option, you’ll have all the support you need to create a stunning product your audience will love—from developing your vision to editing your content, designing your art and graphics, getting your deck printed, and launching it into the world with professional guidance.
Once your project is complete, you’re free to print and reprint as many copies as you like without needing to worry about any royalty fees. Your deck is yours, and you get to keep all your profits forever.
The Post-Traumatic Growth Deck by Dr. Arielle Schwartz.
If this sounds like the perfect solution for you, we now offer a couple of done-for-you options inside the Deck Creators’ Launchpad:
Firstly, you can come into our community as a mastermind member. We’ll guide you through the entire process step-by-step with the help of our courses, resources, and personalized group coaching. If you don’t want to design your card deck yourself, you can hire our recommended creative service providers for the hands-on support you need. (We can connect you with the artists, designers, and editors most suited for your project.)
Additionally, we’re excited to announce we’ve opened a very limited number of spots for a complete done-for-you service. This option is ideal if you’re an established business owner with a busy schedule, previous launch experience, and a solid foundation for your (6- or 7-figure) service-based business already in place. We’ll manage your entire project in house, design your art and graphics for you, edit and proofread your written content, help you get your card deck printed, guide you through the journey of launching your deck, and more.
If that sounds amazing, get in touch to explore how we can best work together to make your vision for your oracle deck a reality!
Sweet-Ass Affirmations Deck (3) by Rage Create.
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