This is the last one I made for A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide.
I haven’t received the books yet so I can only imagine what it refers to.
Ranks in Game of Thrones, maybe? That’s the title of the image at least:)

The brief asked for a middle aged lord, well built, salt and pepper hair and a grave look.
He seems to be listening to someone, his fingers on the blade of the long sword sitting on his lap.
It seems like he wouldn’t mind chopping the head off whoever he is listening to.
A lady is standing by his side, her hand on his shoulder as through trying to keep him calm.

The seat and the sword hilt are both carved in the likeness of a bull, which I figure must be the symbol of the house.
I can’t wait to get the rule book to shed some light on this lord, I have read all the Game of Thrones books but this description doesn’t ring a bell.

This is the one I found most difficult in the bunch of illustrations I made for A Song of Ice and Fire.
There were a lot of elements to show: the bull, the lord, the lady, the sword, the seat, and I struggled quite a bit to have them work together in the composition.

In the end I think it’s not that bad. The eye should go from the sword up to the lord, then run on the lady’s arm to her face, and following the creases on her dress back to the sword again, enclosing the point of interest in a circle.
At least that was my intention.
To emphasise this I also put some lights around the top half of the characters, which are now backlit by what could be the dying embers of a hearth.

All in all I’m not unhappy with the result, even though I came back to it a few times to fix things here and there, making it less fresh and immediate than I would have wanted.

This is it for this batch of illustrations of A Song of Ice and Fire.
The next one will be in a few weeks, hopefully.
So for some time it will be personal work, if I’m not too distracted by all the TV series starting in August.

by Paolo Puggioni

2 Responses

1. dani says:

   May 22, 2014 at 03:15

   This is beautiful!! I think I can guess who they are supposed to be (Lord Durrendon and his daughter, Argella). Really nice work, it’s how I picture them!

   Reply
   • Paolo Puggioni says:

     June 10, 2014 at 19:36

     Thank you!
     Sorry I just saw this.

     I don’t think so, the woman on his side is supposed to be his wife.
     What was his house’s symbol?

     Reply