#the only takeaway I got out of hotd was the wedding costumes aldjskdj 😭

[wodania]

What's your process of elaborating costumes and cultural markings in your art? I really love the Targaryen face paint you go for and also how you portray Betha's clothes so I was really curious as to where it all comes from!

In terms of the Targaryens, I mostly use Byzantine reference, though I also like playing with my own styles based off of Byzantine silhouettes and trends. Betha’s dress in my Betha and Egg piece is pretty strictly Byzantine-inspired with the decorated collar and cuffs. Her hair was my own creative choice and wasn’t based off of anything in particular. Her crown was inspired by some costumes in the film Ophelia, which I haven’t watched but am familiar with the costumes of. I drew her in Targaryen attire due to her being Queen Consort of King Aegon V. As a note about Egg, his own costume isn’t inspired by any culture, actually. Instead, it’s entirely my own creation. The style does hold up against the Byzantine-inspired costumes, however, so it doesn’t look out of place.

The Targaryen face paint has ended up becoming a staple of my artwork, and the secret behind it was honestly the Valyrian wedding costumes from House of The Dragon. In the scene, Rhaenyra and Daemon smear each other’s blood upon each other’s lips as part of the wedding ritual. I thought the concept was cool, so I took it and turned it into a style of face paint. As for the patterns I use, the red smear on the lip and chin is a callback to the wedding costume in the show, while any other patterns are my own creative addition. I only ever use bright red for them due to blood being the original inspiration, as well as a present theme with House Targaryen. The face paint also doesn’t show up in every piece featuring a Targaryen, as in my concepts, it has gone out of fashion by the time asoiaf begins. That’s why Shaera is depicted as having it but her sister isn’t; it’s considered ‘traditional’ and ‘old fashioned’. Daenys has it because she’s valyrian, while Dany wears it bc I think the symbolism is cool.