Illustrating Judgment
The Judgment card, number 20 of 21 in the major arcana, is usually about how we will be judged. Instead, I interpret this card as how we judge others. As I continue to practice the non-judgment attribute of mindfulness, I can tell you this is one of the more difficult lessons I have had to learn in my entire life.
HINT: Scroll to the end of this post to see the final card design!
Judgement vs. Judgment
You may notice that all of the tarot card examples below spell Judgement with an e in the middle. I did some research on this. As a recovering English major, I am interested in the ways that language evolves.
There are two ways to spell this word, one with an e, one without. Generally, judgement is an older spelling that historically was more common in Britain and legal papers. However, judgment is a more common spelling now. Here is a good summary from Grammarly.
As a noun, it is defined as:
The ability to form valuable opinions and make good decisions (Cambridge dictionary definition)
An opinion or decision made after careful thought. (Brittanica dictionary definition)
I decided to part with tarot tradition and use the modern spelling for this card:
My hand-lettered calligraphy of the word Judgment for my tarot card #20.
Examples from other tarot artists
Traditionally, this card is illustrated with a judgment day vibe, with souls rising from their coffins at the sound of an angel’s trumpet. While I don’t relate to this imagery, I do appreciate Judgment as an important aspect of human life which can go horribly awry if not kept in check.
Here are some examples of the Judgment card from various tarot decks I use.
Judgment cards from my collection of tarot decks; see footnotes for artist credits.
What is non-judgment?
I learned about non-judgment in a chronic pain management class. Basically, having negative thought patterns or judgments about pain actually make pain worse. This finding is from the research-backed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program.
I can’t explain why, but I found that the more I practiced non-judgment about pain I experienced, the less it hurt.
In mindfulness practice, we become aware of the mental habit to categorize experiences, people, or things as good or bad, right or wrong. This is super hard because the human brain is literally built to categorize things this way as a shortcut. (Here is a scientific paper on Category Learning in the Brain if you want to nerd out on this further).
That’s why I decided to take a different approach to illustrating the Judgment card. I wanted to show the ways that we judge things all day long, throughout our lifetime.
The never-ending conveyor belt of Judgment
Do you remember that scene from I Love Lucy where Lucy gets a job on a chocolate assembly line, only to find herself eating all the chocolates because the line starts moving too fast? That’s my inspiration for this card.
Instead of chocolates, our hero has to label boxes as “Good” or “Bad” as they come along the conveyor. Her work is endless, represented by the infinite line of boxes headed her way.
My sketch of the Judgment tarot card.
Colored pencils and ink pen on paper.
Working in layers
I combined liquid watercolor, watercolor brush pens, and hand-drawn linework in Procreate to create this illustration.
The main character and background are watercolors, which I scanned after painting. Here are the watercolor layers drying on my painting table.
Watercolor layers for my Judgment tarot card, drying on my painting table.
The final illustration
What do you think? Leave me a comment below! I love to hear from you.
The Judgment card illustration from my forthcoming Tarot of These Times deck, anticipated 2026. 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 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 any of the content for this blog, my other blog Behind the Scenes, or this website.
