Succession Tarot Portraits
Personal
Succession is one of the best shows in the history of TV. Ahead of the final season I decided to create portraits of the characters through a symbolic lens, something I greatly enjoyed doing for the Khruangbin 2021 Official Tour Poster and wanted to explore further.
I love the Tarot for its ability to shed light on our subconscious motivations, which is a huge element of what makes the narrative of the TV show so fascinating and compelling. Part of the show’s success is the extremely nuanced layers to the characters and all the unspoken, dysfunctional family dynamics. The children of Logan Roy are always acting from a place of their wounded inner children (which lives in the subconscious), so the Tarot is a wonderful way of examining these dynamics.
Kendall Roy & The Tower
Kendall Roy & The Tower — watch the original animation
For Kendall’s portrait I chose to use symbolism from 'The Tower', a Major Arcana card that evokes sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, and awakening, connected to everything that he has tried to do within his father’s company and all that has happened to him in the show.
In my experiments I started with imagery of an explosion that I tried to generate with AI (sadly I lost those images), then researching imagery of things falling to pieces, which led to thinking of a tumbling house of cards, which led to the Tarot.
Siobhan Roy & Death
Siobhan Roy & Death — watch the original animation
For Shiv I drew her with symbolism from ‘Death’ a Major Arcana card that represents endings, change (and resistance to it), transformation and transition. Shiv has undergone some of the biggest transformations in the show, been corrupted by power and her desire for validation from her father
Roman Roy & The Devil
Roman Roy & The Devil — watch the original animation
For Roman's portrait I drew symbolism from ‘The Devil’ 👹 a Major Arcana card that represents the shadow self, attachment, addiction, restriction, and sexuality. Of all the Roy children, Roman is arguably the most attached to Logan and is constantly twitching about in the depths of his shame.
Stay tuned for more characters coming!
Developed as part of my ongoing daily drawing challenge on Instagram.
You can read all about my creative process and insights throughout the challenge on my Substack!
