The Field of Crows battle depicts one of the great conflicts occurred in ancient times.
It’s also probably the Illustration where I’ve put the highest number of human figures all together at the same time!

Now, I wasn’t supposed to work on this piece.
My assignment for The World of Ice and Fire would have ended at this Illustration.
Then the project was scaled up a bit, and I was asked to work on three more pieces.
Field of Crows was the most challenging of the bunch, so, as always, I started with that one.

The Illustration depicts the battle between the Dothraki and the Tall Men.
Cities after cities had already fallen to the assembled powers of four Khalasars, led by Khal Haro, Khal Qano, Khal Loso (the Lame), and Khal Zhako.
Eighty thousand riders between the four of them.
Let’s not forget, they would have looked pretty much like this.

To stop their advance, the Kings of Sarnor put aside their quarrels and gathered by the walls of Sarnath, with more than a hundred thousand men.

The battle seemed to be in favour of the Sarnori at first, who trampled the first lines of the Dothraki with their chariots, and going as far as killing Kal Haro in their first attack.
Unfortunately for them the Dothraki, who were already super cool back then, feinted a retreat, and then using their superior mobility eventually surrounded their enemies and cut them to pieces.

For some reason, the battle was remembered as Field of Crows.
Maybe because there were scores of fallen men once it was over?

Anyway, I wasn’t really sure of what moment of the battle I should focus on.
The retreat? The final winning attack of the Dothraki? The moment when they seemed to be losing?
I eventually decided that the first charge would have been the best bit to depict. Still all potential, and the uncertainty of who’s going to win.

I have to confess was a bit concerned of the point of view. Too close and the image would have lost the sense of scale. I had to convey the idea of two BIG armies, after all.
Too far away and the armies would have been two indistinct large groups of people.

This seemed to be the best compromise, and in the end I’m quite happy about the result.
Also, despite it being quite a challenging illustration (lots of people! And horses!) the first sketch was immediately approved, so Field of Crows went as smoothly as it could ever go.

by Paolo Puggioni