Illustrating the Death card
Here we go! Everyone’s least favorite tarot card: the Death card.
The theme of the Death card is transformation. Most tarot practitioners read this card broadly. Death is a metaphor for a situation ending. It may also signal a time of grief and/or loss for a situation or time in our lives that has passed.
Examples from other tarot artists
Traditionally, this card is illustrated as a dark and dreary scene. The grim reaper is there on a horse, presumably coming to take someone to the nether world. No wonder everybody’s afraid of getting this card in a reading!
Death cards from my collection of tarot decks; see footnotes for artist credits.
Death and cats
I wanted to illustrate this card to represent the way that death shows up in our lives, unannounced. What came to mind was the nine lives of cats, and how they seemingly chase death for fun.
I brainstormed different cats-chasing-death scenes in my sketchbook:
My original sketch for the Death card, which I sketched on a snow day here in Portland.
Graphite on paper.
We had a cat named Phoenix, who lived with us for more than 18 years. He was a silver tabby.
One summer, we moved to a house two doors down from our old one. Phoenix wanted to be sure we would take him with us. That summer, he brought us “gifts” - small critters that he had trapped in our yard. We would deposit their tiny corpses in conspicuous places for us to find.
One day, I heard a scratching at the front door. When I opened the door, there was Phoenix sitting beside that day’s prey, a dead bird carefully laid out on our welcome mat.
So, that’s the scene I ran with for this card illustration.
My second sketch of the Death card, inspired by a real experience with our cat, Phoenix.
Graphite on paper.
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The final illustration
Below is my final illustration for the Death card.
Sometimes death shows up on our doorstep, whether we’re ready for it or not. When Death comes knocking, sometimes the best we can do is lay out the welcome mat, and say hello.
The Death card illustration from my forthcoming Tarot of These Times deck, anticipated 2026.
© Registered copyright Molly Chidsey, all rights reserved.
Next up: Temperance🫸
The next card in the Major Arcana I am illustrating is Temperance.
What do you think of this card?
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Footnotes
Materials 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.
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 Austen Rogers.
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 any of the content for this blog, my other blog Behind the Scenes, or this website.
