Illustrating the Four of Cups
The meaning of the Four of Cups
The Four of Cups is a card that calls for self-reflection on the ways we close ourselves off from others. Receiving this card in a tarot reading may mean:
You might be distracted by your own troubles
You feel apathetic or disconnected
You don’t see opportunities right in front of you
As an indie tarot artist, I wanted to reimagine this card with a contemporary twist. With this in mind, let’s get into how and why I illustrated this card the way I did.
HINT: Scroll to the end of this post to see the final card design!
Examples from other tarot artists
This card usually includes a person sitting under a tree, sulking. Their arms are crossed, their mouth in a pout, they do not see the outstretched hand offering them a cup.
Here are some examples of the Two of Cups card from various tarot decks I use.
Four of Cups cards from my collection of tarot decks; see footnotes for artist credits.
The caged heart
My own interpretation of the Four of Cups is this: We may lock our heart away from others, but we also hold the key to unlocking it.
The image that came to my mind was a human heart, locked inside a cage, wrapped in barbed wire, inside a safe, and under water (yikes!). But inside the cage, beside the heart, lies the key to unlock it.
Haven’t we all had those moments when we feel as if we are so closed off from the world around us that we can’t accept love when it is offered? I know I have.
There may be legitimate reasons for protecting one’s heart. As I write this, children in the US are being separated from their immigrant parents, torn away from their loving protection. I can only imagine the trauma this will cause now and in the future of these kids’ lives.
This card can inspire action too - instead of locking away our hearts to prevent the pain of witnessing such horrors, what if we show up with loving kindness instead? Unlocking our hearts means we are able to bear witness, to stand together with our neighbors and friends in times of need.
With that said, here is my original sketch:
My sketch of the Four of Cups tarot card.
Colored pencil and pen on paper.
How I made this card
This illustration includes lots hand-drawn linework I created in Procreate, based on my original sketch above. I printed the linework on watercolor paper, then used liquid watercolor paints and watercolor brush pens to create the paint layers.
Note: I simplified the concept of my illustration so that it would be easier to interpret to the reader… and easier to draw! I painted the watercolor background of the water tank and the heart as separate paintings. I scanned them, edited in Photoshop, then layered those with my original drawings from Procreate. I added one more transparent layer of my blue watercolor to the top to create the illusion that the whole cage and contents are under water.
Here are some of the layers included in this illustration. Note the rough edges of the watercolor layers, which I crop out after I scan the painting.
See more about my tarot art illustration process here.
The final illustration
What do you think? Leave me a comment below! I love to hear from you.
The Four 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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What do you think of this card?
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Footnotes
Materials and technique notes from this post
Blick Hot Press 100% cotton watercolor paper; EcoLine liquid watercolor paint and brush pens; Winsor & Newton masking fluid. 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
(1) 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 any of the content for this blog or create any illustrations. All concepts, illustrations, and written content are written by the human Molly.
