Kimberly Popes amazing Game of Thrones concept art

[HunterKiller_]

I think the lighting and mood are conveyed beautifully.


Brashen: Have you seen concept art from Pixar? Some of them could probably pass for the doodles of a proficient 10 year old, based on a judgement of technical execution, except they still get magnificent visuals out of them.

It's all about the idea. Great ideas and great drawings are not inclusive of one another.

If you made a collection of all the most influential concept art, I think you'll find a lot of it to be very much avant-garde, stuff that doesn't conform to any sort of popular preconceived notions (as it is with so much of industry right now).

[Brashen]

Appreciate the feedback guys thanks!! I absolutely understand what you guys are saying, but I still strongly feel and adhere to the notion that concept art no matter how insignificant it is in the creative process should still display some sort of technical proficiency.

I have mounds and mounds of concept art (from the lowliest 10 second thumbnails to the all encompassing vistas that would not look out of place at the Prado) and have been freelancing for quite sometime so I'm not at a total loss of the ins and outs of our industry. And I'm a big proponent of art for art's sake, and though that may seem that that would bias my answers, let me add that I also religiously follow the time old adage of form follows function.

And by the way, most of you wouldn't think twice about thanking a post that contained technically proficient and good looking concept art even if you'd seen that Druid Elf concept a hundred times before. Yet I've seen another hundred posts with some truly ingenious ideas displayed with nigh a comment or a thank you. So in all honosty you may believe one thing but you guys definitely do not practice what you preach.

[Max Berman]

I'm one of the concept artists for S3 of Game of Thrones and I'd like to chip my ten cents in here for what it's worth. There is a load of really slick illustration out there but what makes a good movie or show is a really good concept artist. Kim Pope is a great concept artist in that she is great at ideas, working as part of a team and on what is after all an episode by episode modest budget, she's fast as fuck. in my opinion, many of the big movies today suffer from what I call a concept art wankfest. These movies aren't designed, they put five to ten of the worlds most expensive concept artists in a room together, wait and see what falls out the printer. Game of Thrones is a designed show and uses concept artists in the best possible use of the word. But I'm one of them so I'm hardly impartial. Looking forward to my work getting ripped apart when S3 is broadcast April 2013.

[Farvus]

in my opinion, many of the big movies today suffer from what I call a concept art wankfest. These movies aren't designed, they put five to ten of the worlds most expensive concept artists in a room together, wait and see what falls out the printer.

Heh. That's good one . I agree.

I believe design shouldn't really jump in front too much but get out of the way so that the story can be told clearly. Especially in movies where you can make the most impact with the story.
Majority of concept art posted on the internet is to show off which can be sometimes misleading to people as to what concept art should look like.

[Aly Fell]

One of the slight problems is the advent of the ‘art’ book to accompany every major media release. Whilst I totally agree the artists involved should be respected and rewarded for the work they do, I suspect that rather than being ‘in-house’, concept art is now seen as a commodity in its own right, rather than part of the self contained process of production. This means production companies piggyback all sorts of bonus material and extras on the success or otherwise of a movie or game and expect it to conform to a marketable pre-conception. It’s all about ‘the shiny’ these days. Face it, as I’ve said somewhere before, if you look at John Mollo’s character and costume art for the original Star Wars you’d not be struck dumb by the awesomeness of the ‘finish’ or anatomy etc, however, as ideas, we got some of the most memorable characters and designs in movie history. Sometimes the best ideas are not the best rendered; that is professionalism too. However this is not to say Kimberley’s images are not 'well rendered', they are, and looking at her other work she displays a versatility others could learn from.

[mozchops]

what I would like to know ....how did they get the huge skull intact into that vaulted chamber, was the building constructed over and around a dead dragon?

[Raoul Duke]

^They probably assembled it on set or shipped it via greenscreen or both.

[Velocity Kendall]

Series 3! Siiiiick!

[TheGnoll]

really excellent production art! They really manage to convey a much grander scale that i could have ever expected on the show and its good to see some of the art involved.
Had to google for some GoT CA right after watching the last episode and was happy to find you had opened a thread about it Velocity!

[Raoul Duke]

Here's another artist with a portfolio loaded with asofai illos.
http://morano.imagekind.com/store/gallerylist.aspx

[Max Berman]

http://www.maxberman.com/www.maxberm...f_Thrones.html

Stuff I did for Game of Thrones SII last year. Mainly did nautical stuff and a couple of doors. Bigger and better stuff to come on SIII.

[Velocity Kendall]

dude this stuffs freakin awesome!
looks like loads of fun too!

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Too bad OP's images are gone. Now I'm really curious.

As for the tangential topic, Over-rendered concept art can actually be.... harmful in some cases, I think. First, it can be an attempt to hide the poor underlying concept (and like Brashen suggested, superficially polished images get a lot more attention, even here). Second, time spent rendering takes away from time spent exploring the idea / other ideas. I bet this stuff has already been mentioned though.

On the other hand, sometimes you do need to reach that refined stage to spot certain problems. Sometimes being rough is... indicative of an unwillingness to confront the real problem layer of the design.

That's the experience that I've got from my personal development anyways.

[Max Berman]

dude this stuffs freakin awesome!
looks like loads of fun too!

Thanks fellah. Funnest job I've ever done. SIII is going to look even better!

Max

[Candra H]

http://www.maxberman.com/www.maxberm...f_Thrones.html

Stuff I did for Game of Thrones SII last year. Mainly did nautical stuff and a couple of doors. Bigger and better stuff to come on SIII.

Oh wow, nice ship designs. Really clean and cool looking.

I admit I got a bit tired of GoT last season but I always love the way it looks. That'll be thanks to folks like you and Kimberly Pope then. Though, yeah, a shame the images are gone. I'm late to this conversation.

Anyway, looking forward to season three, and not much to add to the other side of the topic. Others are covering it better.

[Max Berman]

Another interesting thing to consider is that on a show like GOT, which doesn't have a bottomless budget, concept artists sometimes have to double up as art directors and vice versa. On season II I had to art direct ship stuff, drafting the ships but also produced ship concepts. On season III I was a concept artist but also had to draft and art direct some of the more complicated props. As a concept artist, you may be called upon to use a variety of skills including meeting and working with makers, builders, plasterers and painters. It's not always sitting at a monitor eating snacks.