Robert Ball reflects on his Beautiful Death illustrations, names his favorite

Over the course of eight seasons, illustrator Robert Ball created some breathtaking artwork based on Game of Thrones fans, working up a new picture for every episode. If you haven’t explored his work, then head to his site like yesterday, because it is splendid.

Now that the show is over, Ball is contemplating his work, as in his video from the official Game of Thrones YouTube channel:

Ball also Mendola Artists about his favorite piece:

"I really enjoyed Ramsay Bolton’s Beautiful Death – Season 6, Episode 9 – it’s actually one of the images that wanders the furthest away from what actually happened. I’ve depicted Sansa as an angel of death standing on Ramsay’s bones with his dogs stood perfectly still, flanking her. I looked at religious imagery and statues for her pose, I thought it was important that after all she had been through, that Sansa was the main figure, Ramsay was a footnote in his own story. Of course, she doesn’t literally break Ramsay’s arrow, or stand on his bones, or even enter his cell, but it felt right to me."

Does it feel right to you?

Ball has created 74 illustrations over the years, and they’re all worth a look. My favorite ones may be for “The Queen’s Justice,” where Lady Olenna died…

…and for “The Long Night,” where Arya killed the Night King:

Hey, those two are kind of similar, with the fist and the knife coming in from above. There’s so many more, but these two make the top of my list.

As for his final illustration, Ball decided to finally depict the Iron Throne, something he had never done. “I wanted to show Daenery’s wider story arc, that her path to the throne has been one of bloodshed – as has every major character’s – and that ultimately the idea of her sitting on the Throne was illusory,” he said. “I wanted to show that the ultimate villain is the Iron Throne, so I wanted to make it look as gothic as possible – lots of black! – and then I picked up Daenery’s line about the Throne being made from a thousand swords. Now I didn’t manage to draw a thousand, but implied the multitude of swords that had been lay at her feet, in allegiance, over the course of her journey.”

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AMAZING! Thanks for all the terrific work, Robert!

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