Illustrating Play: the Six of Cups
The meaning of the Six of Cups
The Six of Cups is about the sweet moments of life, when all is in harmony, our emotional scale is tipped toward happiness, and we feel the zing of youthful energy. When we get this card, it’s telling us “Go have some fun and PLAY!”
The concept of play may seem unavailable in these dark times we are living through. However, it’s essential to human happiness, according to recent research. And as an indie tarot artist, I wanted to illustrate this card informed by my own attempts at incorporating fun in my life.
HINT: Scroll to the end of this post to see the final card design!
Examples from other tarot artists
This card usually includes two young people, gifting flowers to each other. This varies from deck to deck, as the interpretation of this card’s meaning varies.
Here are some examples of the Six of Cups card from various tarot decks I use.
Six of Cups cards from my collection of tarot decks; see footnotes for artist credits.
Play date
I have loved roller skates since I was a little girl. it was the 80’s, and skating was all the rage. I stopped skating when I went off to college, too serious to be bothered with fun frivolities like skating.
Then, during the pandemic, I desperately needed an outdoor outlet. I bought myself a pair of outdoor roller skates, a helmet, knee and elbow pads, and hit the streets. Specifically, I skated on a paved trail near the Columbia River, not too far from where I lived. It was magical.
I didn’t have my dog, Milo, yet. But I imagined if he ran along side me while I skated downhill on that trail, we would both have so much fun!
With that in mind, here is my original sketch for the Six of Cups tarot card illustration:
My sketch of the Five of Cups tarot card, next to my painting.
Colored pencil and paint 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.
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 Six 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
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.
