Illustrating The Sun
The sun’s energy supports all life on Earth. As someone who has watched hundreds of NOVA episodes with my dad, I have a deep fondness for all things space.
The Sun card, number 19 of 21 in the major arcana, is all about:
Being in your element
Feeling radiant
Bright, positive energy
Enjoy the day
HINT: Scroll to the end of this post to see the final card design!
Examples from other tarot artists
Traditionally, this card is illustrated with a happy-face sun, a cute baby riding a pony, and/or sunflowers. Basically, The Sun card is a good time.
Here are some examples of The Sun card from various tarot decks I use.
The Sun cards from my collection of tarot decks; see footnotes for artist credits.
Sun Science
As I write this, NASA* and NOAA** are under attack from our own US government Executive branch and Congress. Scientists and researchers are being fired, laid off, or forced into early retirement.
This means less science and research on our solar system, our Milky Way galaxy, and our Sun. Until then, please enjoy this wonderful overview of how our Sun works: https://science.nasa.gov/sun/.
Super cool UV image of our sun, courtesy of NASA. See more at https://science.nasa.gov/gallery/the-sun/
* NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
** NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
When I began to illustrate The Sun tarot card, I wanted to make it more science-y than cute. In this post, I describe my process for designing and painting this card.
My sketch of The Sun card, drawn on Imbolc 2/2/2025.
Colored pencils and acrylic paint on paper.
Techno-watercolor
When most people think of watercolor, they think of translucent, soft, pastel colors. Watercolor is a very flexible medium, and translucency is one of its superpowers.
That said, I like to push the boundaries of watercolor to be the opposite of it’s stereotype. I like to create watercolor paintings that are:
Vibrant
Rich
Bright
Loud
The Sun’s surface and the black background of space in this illustration are a painting of liquid black ink and liquid watercolor ink by EcoLine.
I drew the molten lava-like jets and bright solar flares in Procreate, and added them as a layer on top of the painting using Photoshop. The light blue flames in the upper surface of the sun are watercolor blooms that appeared on the right side of my original painting. They were too cool-looking to crop off the final illustration, so I copied that area, rotated it, and placed it on top of the Sun like a blue toupee.
The final illustration
What do you think? Leave me a comment below! I love to hear from you.
The Sun card illustration from my forthcoming Tarot of These Times deck, anticipated 2026.
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Next up: Judgment 👍👎
The next card in the Major Arcana I am illustrating is Judgment. Stay tuned.
What do you think of this card?
Leave me a comment below
I read every comment, and I love to hear from you!
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.
Sunspot light jets 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 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.
