Every year I do an assignment along with my students, and once again I chose the Tarot project. For this assignment I challenge my advanced and portfolio students to team up to create a set of Major Arcana for a class Tarot deck, and when I participate I choose my card from the leftovers. This year I lucked out and got Strength - one of my favorite cards.
Students have to create a design that conveys the meaning of their card in both the upright and reversed positions, and this is trickier than it sounds. I was listening to the Hamilton soundtrack and the line of one of the songs helped nudge me towards my solution to this design problem: "the moments when you’re in so deep, it feels easier to just swim down."
When Strength falls right side up it indicates power coming from courage and inner understanding - the figure is swimming upwards out of danger with a single-minded focus. When it falls in the reversed position it indicates self doubt, weakness, and insecurity - the figure is giving up and swimming deeper instead.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/37e3d9aa-a38c-4c11-b240-6bb1725b00f6_rw_1920.png?h=56cf1753c55bb831e8277d2d229c3167)
Vector Illustration in Adobe Draw on my iPad Pro with my Apple Pencil and Adobe Illustrator on my Wacom Cintiq.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/ffdbbd04-c0b2-4363-bf40-a49538ab5f3d_rw_1920.png?h=56887b3e5715f78a178177f15cf0b1f8)
Both views of the card - standard and reversed.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/82384688-9780-4e6e-9fd3-dc5ccb16df9e_rw_1200.png?h=44d670a0fc457b8c31647c5af20015d7)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/d4aea959-f55f-410f-a176-80f391e90519_rw_1200.png?h=071e7d50f0dd814193bc070c5cebbbbd)
Outline mode and all shapes selected.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/398c34df-32ff-4c55-8c86-3256ab410340_rw_1920.png?h=0246c3537a4ed823706d16e1fb8e6602)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/6099f33d-c1ab-4cb8-a67a-4e2de23bc86f_rw_1920.png?h=00f667c6b7f5e610701ab422dacb05bc)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/c651de06-fe29-4021-a036-b3d6697d278a_rw_1200.png?h=39742d4c98527ca4e5be0e702e73ab28)
Special thanks to Jon, my TA for my animation class. He pretended to swim around on the floor so I could get references for this. You rock, Jon!