The first season of House of the Dragon introduced us to a wide range of new flying, fire-breathing beasties. We met nine of the fantastical creatures, and there’ll be even more in season 2. Each had its own personality, coloring and temperament. Designing all those dragons must have been a dream job.
Now, artist Constantine Sekeris has posted a bunch of his original concept art for the show’s dragons to Instagram, and it’s pretty gorgeous. Check it out:
See early designs for Syrax, Caraxes, Vhagar and more
“Happy new year …….starting this year with some concept art designs of dragons from the first season of house of the dragon,” Sekeris wrote.
"[T]he design team was show runners Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal and concept artist Kirill Barybin plus me……..at the begining to get in the mind frame and aesthetic tone of the show Kirill and I collaborated on [Vhagar], Syrax and Caraxes…..we each had a dragon we started and then after a week we would flop dragons …..[for example,] Kirill established Syrax and then I took over where he left off……I had established Caraxes and then gave Kirill my model to continue it to finish…..after me and Kirill got the tone down to speed up the process we tackled dragons on our own …there was no ego we worked as a team to get Miguel, Ryan and production what they needed for the show…we stuck as close to the descriptions as possible and respected the books and fan base."
Sekeris and Barybin had first crack at creating the show’s dragons, but there was a lot more that had to be done before they would be ready for primetime. Sekeris explained that as the process went on, concept artist Jack Cornell was added to the team to design the dragon harnesses, while Angus Bickerton served as VFX art director and Jim Clay as production designer.
“I’m very proud of how everything was executed the vfx vendors did such a beautiful job realizing the dragons and production design and costumes were done beautifully,” Sekeris said.
This isn’t the first time Sekeris has designed creatures for big fantasy and sci-fi projects. Last year alone he also worked on Moon Knight, She-Hulk and Black Adam. But designing the dragons for House of the Dragon was special.
“his was another dream job for me loved every moment designing dragons,” Sekeris wrote. “I was very lucky to end up as one of the creature designers on the show as they tested a few artists before landing on me and Kirill.” He goes on to promise “more to come soon,” though whether that’s in reference to the dragons coming in season 2 or some other project, he doesn’t specify.
House of the Dragon season 1 is now streaming on HBO Max, should you wish to watch those magnificent dragons take flight once more.
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