The visuals on Game of Thrones are justly praised, but it all starts with concept art. Concept artists like Kieran Belshaw and the people at Karakter do wonderful work on this show, and they deserve just as much credit. You can see that in how closely the final show resembles their designs.
And how closely is that? Redditor KawaiiPotato15 has put together a side-by-side gallery to show us. Let’s have a look, starting with two takes on the Silence, Euron Greyjoy’s flagship, as it sails into Blackwater Bay:
It looks like the only differences are the colors of the Kraken on the sail and the clouds in the sky. Other than that, Karakter’s work is adapted as is.
Staying on the high seas, let’s compare the concept art for when Euron’s fleet smashes into Yara’s ship to the real thing:
Again, the only big difference is the coloring. The cinematographers swapped out blues for oranges, probably because they needed light sources so we can actually see what was happening. At the conceptual level, it looks like the two sets of Ironborn are evenly matched, but on the show, Euron dominates.
Moving on, here’s the moment when Daenerys flies off from Dragonstone to save Jon Snow in “Beyond the Wall”:
Once again, everything is pretty much identical, outside of Tyrion’s clothing being a little darker in the final product. The producers clearly consult these concepts very clearly.
Next, we have Dany and Drogon raining fire down on the Lannister loot train:
You can see more detail in the background in the concept art. When it came to the thing: smoke everywhere.
Then there’s the moment where Jaime charges at Dany and Drogon. The crew couldn’t get quite as wide an angle on Jaime’s charge, but the spirit is the same:
Really, what was Jaime even thinking here? If not for Bronn and his bottomless greed…fwoosh!
I wonder if Karakter also conceived of the Mariana Trench for Jaime and Bronn to sink into.
Finally, we have the Night King and Zombie Viserion’s attack on the Wall from the finale.
This is as exact an adaptation as any we see here. Even the colors are on point this time.
Eatwatch, on the other hand, looks a little different: there are more buildings in the concept art, and the switchback stairs are changed around.
And here, in the aftermath of Viserion’s blue-flamed attack, we see the army of the undead flow through a much larger breach in the Wall than the one we saw on screen.
The artwork is brighter than what made it on the show, but it’s not really a bright moment, is it?
Which do you prefer? The concept art or how it turned out on Game of Thrones? Tell us about it in the comments below.
Next: Game of Thrones season 8: Is filming still going on at the Winterfell set?
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