Illustrating Fulfillment: the Ten of Cups
The meaning of the Ten of Cups
Metaphors for abundance are a dime a dozen (ha). During difficult times, we are encouraged to look on the bright side, to be grateful for what we have, not what is missing. Argh.
The Ten of Cups is not asking us to practice gratitude. It’s pointing to the fleeting - but very real - moments in our lives when our hearts feel full, when the proverbial rainbow emerges after a storm. These moments of emotional fulfillment can happen in the midst of chaos. They exist whether we notice them or not.
When the Ten of Cups arrives in a tarot reading, it asks us to practice mindfulness in the way that we allow our minds to notice a good experience at the moment it is happening. This practice, as described in detail in the book Hardwiring Happiness by Rick Hansen, PhD, is a research-backed method for developing our capacity to notice and feel joy. It’s been a lifesaver for me, personally.
My concept for this card is a rainbow landing in ten cups, which overflow into an endless river of color.*
👇 Scroll to the end of this post to see my full card design!
Ten of Cups tarot card examples
This tarot card is popular for good reason; it represents emotional fulfillment, the treasure at the end of the rainbow received. It is typically illustrated with rainbows and motifs of family love. Here are several examples from tarot decks I use.
See footnotes for artist credits.
How I made this card
This card is relatively simple compared with my other complex drawings in this deck. I wanted the rainbow and river of color to be front-and-center. My original sketch (below) included a blue sky, but when I created the painting I opted to leave the background bright white instead.
I used a wet-in-wet painting technique to achieve the look of colors bleeding and blending into each other. This stands in contrast to the crisp black linework.
I used my usual multi-layer process to create this illustration, but this time I only have two layers: my painting layer and my drawing layer. The painting is done with liquid watercolor (Ecoline watercolor brush pens by Royal Talens), scanned, then layered underneath my Procreate drawing using Photoshop.
The final illustration
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The Ten of Cups card illustration from my forthcoming Tarot of These Times deck, anticipated 2026.
© Registered copyright Molly Chidsey, all rights reserved.
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Footnotes
🌈 Artist’s Note
The Ten of Cups tarot card typically includes a rainbow in the design, see examples above. I am including a giant rainbow in my version of this card deliberately. As a straight, cis-gender, hetero woman, I believe strongly in the possibility of emotional fulfillment and deep love among all people, including queer and trans folks. In this regard, the rainbow is symbolic of the endless depth of love that exists in the universe for all.
Materials and technique notes from this post
Blick Hot Press 100% cotton watercolor paper; EcoLine liquid watercolor paint and brush pens by Royal Talens; Winsor & Newton masking fluid. This illustration also includes metallic watercolor paint by Fintec on the clock tower. I use an Epson Workforce Pro printer to print my drawings onto watercolor paper, using their water-resistant Durabrite ink.
Linework is drawn by hand with Apple Pencil on iPad Pro using Procreate app, and added as image layers on top of scanned painting using Photoshop.
Roman numerals, hand-drawn linework, and all calligraphy were drawn by hand using Procreate, Apple Pencil and iPad Pro.
Artists of other tarot cards featured in this post
Clockwise from top left: Rider-Waite Tarot, illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith; Modern Witch Tarot Deck by Lisa Sterle; The Wild Unknown Tarot by Kim Krans; The Gentle Tarot by Mari in the Sky; Rainbow Heart Tarot by Rachel Rosenkoetter; and The Reclaimed Tarot, ReClaim it! PDX, collage by various local artists.
Learn about tarot
Want to learn more about tarot? I highly recommend the book Modern Tarot: Connecting with Your Higher Self through the Wisdom of the Cards by Michelle Tea.
A note about Ai and this project
I do not use Ai (artificial intelligence) to write the content of this blog or to create illustrations. I also do not allow Ai training. See here for my copyright notice.
