Approaching Lannisport is the second illustration I made for The Rise of the Dragon, the latest Game of Thrones illustrated book by George R.R. Martin.

First off, in reply to some, I know the Amazon title says “Volume One”, but I know nothing of it. I haven’t been contacted for a second volume yet, so I know as much as you guys.

Approaching Lannisport is set, like all other illustrations in the book, before the time of the Game of Thrones books.

It depicts king Aenys’ trip to the port city of Lannisport together with all his court.

Lannisport is protected by a ring of walls, high and strong. The city
is renowned for its goldwork and goldsmiths and produces a spiced
honey wine. Lannisport is policed by the well-trained City Watch.
The city has a great motherhouse. Like King’s Landing, Lannisport has
higher quality brothels. Merchants from Lannisport often trade with
their counterparts in the Free Cities.

This one still had lots of people in it, but at least they weren’t all supposed to be crammed in the foreground. As a result, the composition was a lot less troublesome than End of Regency.

Obligatory list of known characters: Aenys is the guy riding far away in the distance, with his King’s Guard knights at either side.

The lady on the far left is Princess Rhaena, and the girl at her right is her favourite Melony Piper.

All others are randos of the court.

Excerpt: It was on this journey that the young Princess Rhaena, now
fourteen, drew increasing attention from would-be suitors—though her
behavior was sullen for much of the progress, as her dragon [text cuts
off here]

Once again, I’ve been a good boy and I have kept the sketches. Well, at least the one that got approved.

Like literally every time I look at one of my illustrations after some time (this was completed about a year ago), I’m not at all satisfied with it.
Lannisport in the background should be affected by a lot more atmospheric perspective, whereas its values are pretty much at the same level of the bushes next to King Aenys.
Damn that really bothers me now.

Also, I could have managed the level of details A LOT better, focusing them more around the characters in the foreground and making the background more painterly. Again, this bothers me a lot. It’s something that happens when you stare at a picture for too long, and you stop noticing the mistakes.

Long story short, I would spend another day on it al least. Oh well.

Note to self: start scheduling a couple of weeks between the time you finish an illustration and when you submit it.
I say it all the time but I never do it.

In other news, The Rise of the Dragon made it to the New York Times best sellers.
It’s not like people bought it because of my drawings, I suspect George R.R. Martin’s name, or the Game of Thrones franchise in general, had something to do with it.
But still, the fact that it’s there is still a big source of pride somehow.

It’s still not clear to me why it’s been put in the “Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous” category though.
I guess How to Train a Dragon would have been more suitable for it.
i mean, we had to compete with the winner and runner-up Go-To Dinners and Atomic Habits, which doesn’t sound fair to me.

Anyway, nice to know that my Approaching Lannisport is there, in a respectable fourth place between The Woks of Life and The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse.

More Game of Thrones stuff next week.

by Paolo Puggioni