#queue better believe it
Emmon & Cleos Frey
Two more from House Frey! While I was working on these, I had the niggling thought that Emmon’s portrait looks something like my father in law >.> He has a different chin, but there’s a shape to the eyes which I recognized. These portraits stop feeling like human faces sometimes when I’ve been working on them too long - this kind of odd familiarity shatters my dissociation entirely.
Walder Frey
He’s kind of mottled and miscolored… I imagine old Walder would be, but it frustrates me when I don’t have control over those details! He is said to have age spots on his head, but that’s such a fine detail and Artbreeder doesn’t manage those well. I feel ok about how his neck turned out, but…… It’s not my favorite portrait.
Artbreeder is iffy with older subjects. The more you age them, the more distortion and noise is thrown into the portrait - it doesn’t necessarily add wrinkles to the skin, so while I can get rid of the extra visual static (and I mostly have, here) the result doesn’t appear as shrunken as it could. Best results come from uploading a photo of someone really aged and blending that in, but the one picture that would fit this description which I’ve uploaded is feminine and too kind in the face to add to my Walder - it would just disrupt what’s actually working here (and besides, I’m using it for Old Nan). So the result isn’t pushing ninety as he ought to be. I hope he at least looks sufficiently like a resentful little weasel!!
Tyrek Lannister
I’d really like to know what happened to this kid… Anyways he’s said to be around 12 years old, and handsome with golden curls. I don’t think everyone with the last name Lannister would definitely have green eyes, so let’s say his mom Darlessa’s eyes were blue.
Joy Hill
I’m including Joy here as they’re both the only children of their particular Lannister fathers. We don’t get much description of her, aside from the fact that she’s a lonely child… Too bad she couldn’t have been Shireen’s playmate, then.
Penny
Penny was a rough character to make! There are a lot of subtle to more dramatic ways in which dwarfism can affect facial features, and that varies person to person. Tyrion describes Penny as having a heavy brow and a squashed nose… To pull off a squashed nose, you really need to get the lighting cast in such a way as to shadow the base of the bridge. I think it worked out well in my Tyrion portrait? I’m not sure this one is as successful at portraying that. Let me know what you think!
Lancel Lannister
Lancel is in his older teens when we meet him. I’m not sure he looks quite young enough here, tbh! Also, I’m fairly sure he doesn’t have curls… I think his hair is straight? Anyway, he’s said to look like a young Jaime, so you’d think I started with his face and worked from there, yeah? But actually, I blended some of my early Lannister portraits together like a lion stew, mixed in a dude with the right hairstyle into the pot, and voila! Even so, I compared this portrait with the one of beardless Jaime, and there’s a definite resemblance imo!
As for other notes, I’m debating which other cousins I should make. I’ve got a Tyrek portrait done… Any requests?
Tygett & Gerion Lannister
Tywin’s youngest two brothers! Unfortunately, neither makes it onto the page in the novels proper. For Tygett, we know he’s an accomplished knight, and that he dies of pox sometime after siring his son Tyrek. I’ve depicted him in his thirties since it’s not clear. We also know he has a lot of resentment for his position “in Tywin’s shadow,” as it were, courtesy of his big sister Genna. As such, I wanted him to look kinda like Jaime but angrier. Gerion, on the other hand, was full of laughter and jokes. Jaime and Tyrion both call Gerion their favorite uncle, and I think they share something of his personality. He’s missing as of the start of the series, having gone on a quest to Valyria ten years prior. He was also in his thirties at this point.
Genna Frey (of House Lannister)
Yikes, I posted this before filling in any details! I’m all over the place lately -_-
Anyway, Genna is a fun character. I think she’s got warmth and vivacity to her that I wanted to shine through the portrait! Also, I forget if her hair is golden or more white blonde (like Tyrion or Tommen) but if it’s the former then let’s say it’s lightened with age ;p
Kevan Lannister
The crux of Kevan’s character may be his unflinching idolization of his big brother, and to me it seems rare to see that in older adult characters. Preteens in shonen manga with this dynamic, now that I have seen. It’s cute to see it instead with a chubby, middle aged, balding dad.
Tywin Lannister
Finally posting this bastard! So, for starters, I genuinely picture Charles Dance for this character. For one thing, he was pretty close to the correct age (64ish at the start of the series, to Tywin’s 58). For another, his eyes have something leonine to their angle imo. They styled him wrong, of course, and he was directed to be much calmer/more cool than I read Tywin as being, but yeah. I think if they shaved his head and gave him the appropriate muttonchops, he’d be perfect!
Speaking of muttonchops, what a challenge those were! I’m not happy with the end result, but it was a tremendous obstacle so I feel I’ve done about as well as I could to render his hair style.
Also, I’m throwing an extra goodie at you:
Joanna Lannister
Let’s talk more about Tywin’s hair! So, he shaved it off as soon as he started to go bald. Was it curly beforehand? Somehow, I don’t picture it. However, the twins most definitely have curly hair, and their kids inherit that. So I’ve concluded that Joanna was the one with curls. My portraits of their kids take more after her in general.
(Also, she’s significantly younger than Tywin as she is pictured around the time when she passed away, FYI!)
Tysha
To the left, Tysha as a young teen in the days spent living with Tyrion. To the right, Tysha as an adult in the current day of the series. I know there’s some theories she’s in Braavos now. Wherever she is, I imagine she experienced a lot of grief and stress following the end of her marriage. Perhaps it hardened Tysha as a person, as it did for Tyrion. A turn towards cynicism, you know? I think she was a very trusting young person, initially. Anyways, I tried to make her look appropriately older - her cheeks have lost their round baby fat and she’s more defined overall. It’s not a very dramatic ageing up, because while I wanted to make her look less cheerful, I didn’t want to go too far into making her look haggard. She’d be in her early thirties at this point. And she wasn’t a wee baby at the start like the other examples of ageing up I’ve made!
Also, please ignore that her ear completely changed shape. To me, this is an egregious flaw, but I couldn’t find a way to fix that without absolutely changing her face shape in the process :T
Shae
I definitely had fun figuring out a design for this character. Shae is described as short with dark hair. She’s also very clearly Tyrion’s type… He convinces himself of their romance so easily, despite being the one to hire her, explicitly instructing Shae to play at loving him. Presumably he’s asked for the girlfriend experience with his sex workers before this point? So I headcanon that she’s got something of Tysha’s look to her.
Shae is one of the most opaque characters in the series imo. She’s told to act in a particular way, and then Tyrion completely abandons his sense when it comes to her (he is convinced what he sees is what she is in truth) meaning the one POV that we see her through is compromised. He’s so shocked and betrayed when she speaks at his trial, and afterwards much too self-loathing to ever reflect on her with a rational mind.
We see a little of her personality, and I think she has some similarities to Cersei, actually! She has some internalized misogyny I think, from how she talks about other women, and she’s ableist as well (resentment for Lollys). I think her fate is very similar to Cersei’s, too… There are some parallels in the uneven relationships and misalignment of expectations of loyalty, etc. So like I totally think she’s more interesting to consider than what we briefly see of her can tell us!
Bronn of the Blackwater
I’m feeling wiped so I won’t go into much detail just now… Bronn was one of the earliest non-pov portraits I made. I really like how he turned out! There’s a look of mirth in his eyes imo, I find it fitting.
Gerold (Darkstar) Dayne
The Knight of High Hermitage is a member of the cadet branch of House Dayne. Gerold is described as a beautiful man with angry eyes. He’s got a streak of black in his silver hair, which was an interesting challenge to portray. Artbreeder resists multicolor hair when it’s something straightforward like a single streak - making his hair generally streaky is more feasible. Even so, I couldn’t get it to look quite how I wanted in the end.
Edric Dayne
I really like how cute little Ned, Lord of Starfall, turned out. He’s a friendly preteen with pale blond hair and dark, purpley-blue eyes. I wanted to give him a classic pageboy haircut befitting a squire, but I didn’t like the bangs on him much. Anyways, I hope the resemblance to the rest of his family is there and that y'all like the little lord!
Arthur, Ashara, and Allyria Dayne
Since none of these three Daynes of Starfall make it onto the page, I decided to post them together. For minor characters, there’s a fair bit of license to do as I wish with them. The only real sticking points are that they have purple eyes, and that Ashara has black hair. It’s probably not interesting to anyone but me, but I got into the weeds on the hair color issue. I don’t think there’s anything canonically stating Arthur’s hair color, though most fancasting I’ve seen has him darker. Allyria is betrothed to Beric Dondarrion, who tragically(/hilariously, in this context) does not remember her hair color after numerous resurrections. Ned, their nephew, has light blond hair, so the unnamed eldest Dayne sibling of this generation (perhaps an Alyn or Arlan or some such thing) likely has a lighter look and/or probably married someone with valyrian coloring. So I’ve decided that Ashara has the blackest, Arthur has dark brown, and Allyria has medium brown hair. Anyways, that’s my ramble for today! Ought to be following this up with Ned and Darkstar after him.
Galazza Galare
The Green Grace is a major player among the Ghiscari nobility. She’s described as over 80 years old, with thinning skin, but still retaining her grace and piercing green eyes. I wish I could show her veiled as she is in canon, but that’s beyond Artbreeder afaik!
I think this is the last of Dany’s courtiers that I’ll be posting for a bit. If you have any characters from the Essos narrative you want me to work on, drop me an ask or a message! I have a couple minor characters from Tyrion’s POV where it intersects that I hope to post, like Penny and Sweets, but again, let me know if there’s someone in particular you want to see me try my hand at.
Reznak mo Reznak
One of the things I love about asoiaf is the way prophecy can apply in multiple contexts. The “beware the perfumed seneschal” bit is one of many warnings that can be seen to reference more than one character. This particular seneschal is another of the Ghiscari serving Dany in Meereen. Reznak mo Reznak is as oily and obsequious as they come. Otherwise, all we really know is that he is small and old and fleshy, soooo I hope you like where I went with it!
Skahaz mo Kandaq
Posting some more councilors from Meereen! The Shavepate is described pretty straightforwardly as having a heavy brow, small eyes, a big nose, and yellowy skin. I fear I may have made a more attractive man than was intended… Of course, that’s always a matter of personal preference, yeah? Regardless of his looks, he’s a reliable commander and a fierce man.
Strong Belwas
The formidable Belwas, folks! This one was pretty fun to make. I used a wrestler as my reference for the character, back when I was paying for the service and could upload images… as I recall, I spent a bit of time trying to make him appropriately shiny and hairless! Anyway, for Belwas the key descriptor is girth. With the eunuchs in the series, I think we do see a trend towards soft and fleshy as they age, with perpetually soft cheeks. I’ve tried looking up how accurate that is to real life - it sounds correct to me, but I haven’t hit on the right search terms yet, I guess.
I hope you guys like my take on the former slave turned queensguard councilor!
Barristan Selmy
Hi folks! Trying to get back in the groove. Where we left off, I was posting some of the many folks who round out Dany’s POV in Essos. Ser Barristan is a valued councilor to the young queen, of course, and eventually gets his own POV chapters~
If you can’t tell, the show’s choice of actor had a big impact on this portrait. I think Ian McElhinney embodied the role perfectly. As I’m one of those folks who started the series with season one of GoT and then rapidly consumed the books, I end up picturing this casting choice in my head for Barristan… He’s got that honorable grandpa vibe imo!
