Recreating 4 Game of Thrones Characters in Skyrim | Ars Technica

I'm Kirsten I'm gonna be drawing some of the characters from Game of Thrones and then I'm gonna be attempting to recreate them in Skyrim Hey you finally awake the producers are telling me I should say I'm playing Skyrim on the Nintendo switch and this is a vanilla unmodern

version okay whatever that means I have no concept of what this game is about or how to design characters in it so this is all totally new to me so I'm an illustrator I do character development fashion illustration editorial illustrations conceptual illustration graphic design toy design caricature celebrity

caricature I like to kind of boil it down to the essential elements and there's really more of an economic view of their face so the first thing I do is google them I don't really draw from the particular photo it's more just the feeling of their face I

think if I get too accurate it kind of loses the spirit of what they look like the next step is I start sketching in pencil I try to do something kind of non intimidating like little thumbnails or whatever it's usually a mess and then they bring it into

procreate which is on my iPad you can sketch in layers and procreate so you can erase and zoom in and it's a much more efficient way to sketch sometimes it comes immediately and sometimes it takes forever so it's no guarantee that it's gonna be like a quick process

for me well so today I'm gonna be drawing Jon Snow Daenerys Cersei and the night king very scary let's start with Jon Snow I'm gonna do a little quick thumbnail just to warm up my pencil get my brain working ooh kind of worried look on his face at

all times at least to me he always seems very concerned I don't know if you can put this in there but I've always thought Jon Snow has kind of a butt face like I don't want to insult Kit Harington or any thinks he's super handsome but there's something

really rounded about his features like his lips and his nose and his cheeks and he's got this kind of cherubic face the next thing I like to do is email it to myself this is in the program procreate this is a low-res drawing it's just a 10 by

10 inch 72dpi workspace I'm gonna dim this layer to be in the background well I make a new sketch right over top of it in another layer I can pivot this drawing which is nice I like to kind of draw people as you would see them from about

20 paces like what immediately stands out so his eyes are dark and you can't really see any whites so I kind of just indicate those with just black graphic little triangles I like to pay attention to the black points on people's faces like their nose hole as a

black point and if it shows then it should be on the face usually kind of creates a little graphic moment in the face okay this is pretty quick but hey you finally awake I'm gonna be looking for the dark brows little black eyes big cloud of black hair

kind of a round face shape but an indication of some cheekbones with this beard which kind of the beard line doubles as a cheek indicator there so oh my god okay now I'm scared oh my god um so what is this like okay this is toggle and this

is oh it's moving his head okay kitty is buff I mean this could be a Jon Snow maybe but he's really dark and Jon Snow is super white so I don't know if that will nose too oh okay nose type Oh I'm changing her nose okay Oh weird

alright you can really control a lot of elements that I would look for like how far your brow juts out or how your eyebrows are on your face I'm kind of just testing what this is capable of doing just randomly here so I can get the lay of

the land forward there we go super forward and then this is what I call buried in your face here let's look at that really quick oh my god various mullets and the Al Pacino and the seventies hair from what I can tell this is pretty articulated in that

you can really control most of the indicators or at least there's a pretty broad range of indicators for face types kind of limited but kind of not tools so Jon Snow in Skyrim I'm gonna start at the top of the list here which is probably not the lizard

if this guy depending on what I can do with his eyes and lips eyes maybe I know the elves are not it cuz they're way too angular for John Snow this guy might work too not the kitty this guy's I mean if those controls are in place then

they're kind of similar no let's go back to this dude he's a native of cryo till skintone we're gonna make him hyper white wait let's see what he ok this is way too jacked up well except for the nude scene he's pretty much like always covered in a

lot of clothes so his body looks kind of bulky let's go to face nose type this is totally way too bony we want it to be kind of like what sometimes referred to as a lump of clay nose Oh weird look at that okay ooh it gets real

witchy in there let's go here I hope there's a face fat button where it like flushes them out a little otherwise this template might not be right and I really seen this move his jaw too much cheekbone high I feel like John Snow has more of like a

flat plane so I'm gonna tuck him up there by his eyes because I feel like they kind of push his eyes up laughing she colored lower let's put a 5 o'clock shadow in there color color color color um forehead color so far he could really use a cheeseburger

he's kind of sunken I don't know if there's a place to do that on this guy if he's just kind of permanently Haggard then this might not work let's go to eyes okay there's got to be just like brown okay I'm gonna leave it there in the sketch

where I really just abbreviated his eyes to these two triangles like kind of slits these eyes are really articulated and you can see bags and lashes and lights so this is gonna be a lot more realistic and I'm gonna try to find a close approximation I hate we're

gonna tuck him way up under the brow because he's got a really protruding brow bone eye depth a little creepy telescoping they're telescoping forward and then telescoping back eye tint I'm gonna leave this time a high shine below his eyes because I feel like he's kind of a

hero you know so we want the color to also indicate that I'm gonna sue explore the brows a little first let's put them up that's a bit much she looks a little monstery we could get exaggerated about it not that I want him to look monstery but I'm

kind of thinking along the lines of caricature so brow tight let's look at those more oh here we go it's a little more worried mouth shape we want a big fat lower lip actually we want fat lips tuck it up I don't know let's move on to hair

and see if that changes anything else about this here's the fun part all the wigs oh poor Jon Snow okay I'm not seeing his classic mane in here oh wow cheese Jon Snow in 30 years I think this might be the closest option unfortunately because his hair is

really important to his caricature facial hair no he definitely has this – so but not that major oh my god okay so many face hair options like way more than hair hair I think that might be about right I wish I could erase some of his wrinkles again

the dark brows little black eyes big cloud of black hair kind of a round face shape but an indication of some cheekbones with this beard which kind of the beard line doubles as a cheekbone indicator there so I hate let's look at that again oh yeah we shoved

that way up to kingdom come I'm looking for like the smallest darkest eye I feel like this might be it I think that might be close as close as I can get with what we've got here – Jon Snow unless I changed the template altogether with somebody like

John Snow I feel like he has such a baby face and I know he's got eyebags in this photo but he is really young and Trueba kin the face and so I feel like the tool that would be really helpful would be something to remove some of the

Haggard mist mplet like the forehead lines the nasolabial folds I mean this is a different style of eye bag that's down here that's for an older guy these template guys seem to be older and more rugged battle-weary if you will so I don't know I feel like Jon

Snow could really use a smoothening affect Daenerys is a little harder because she's so pretty sometimes beautiful people are harder to draw so you have to pick out something that kind of stands out about that person this wig is so low on her forehead that her forehead is

really short but her face shape is again very cherubic and and big round full lips really pronounced dark eyebrows so she's not a natural blonde I really sometimes this can look a little bird beak ish if you're not careful because she has flesh colored lips I think sometimes

it's better to just indicate the lips indicate the mouth with shadow like a little shadow here and maybe draw the top lip because the top lip is angling this way so it's darker plus it sticks out and so I'm drawing the shadow essentially of her top lip and

then the shadow under her bottom lip and when I bring this into procreate that's where the finessing of the different parts happens or I move the eyes up or down or shrink them or whatever okay yeah this is really not looking to Daenerys II to me I'm kind

of leaning on a trope where she's got this beautiful doll face and these lips and these eyes and so she's looking a little generic it's not really saying Daenerys to me as much as it's just saying kind of any pretty you know they mean and it might be

the nose it's also the eyes I think I look a little freaked out I'm not sure what it is yet I don't know if this is gonna click into place today but I'm gonna give it a shot and see I'm gonna look for a way to evoke Daenerys

in the video game because I kind of feel like I'm not really doing it here too much depending on the color in the video I guess hey you finally awake she's all about the whiteness of her hair white hair dark eyebrow contrast so into the ladies zone right

out of the gate this one is promising I don't think an elf is gonna work or a high elf let me look Kitty no I'm gonna start here I'm gonna go with Nord for Daenerys which makes sense body weight is yeah let's keep it soft and then the

complex oh okay livre really smooth doubt zero dirt color zero scar zero war paint okay that was type no no no that's a maybe it's just kind of got a little bit of an little doll nose you know like a upturn soft I'm gonna leave it there this

is the part I was struggling with in her caricature I think was the nose height in relationship to her lips kind of unremarkable in one direction or the other it's kind of perfect so maybe we'll just see what else happens those legs here that's to Angelina really teeny

it's got to come out jaw height oh look at that the size these parts are coming down okay kind of like I'm up makes her look younger when they're down it makes her look too masculine and she's definitely got a really feminine face jaw forward let's look at

that okay this is where I feel like from the side heard let's take a look I'm not really seeing any movement here am i seeing it from the front oh it's these they're moving forward and it's not the okay that's chin I guess there's a lot of really

specific buttons in here she own height leave them up there right about there give her some blow up no white laughs limes zero nose color nothing chin color neck color forehead color nothing okay is this a lot I'm gonna check out I color before I do this I

think the eye shadow is on her whites are really dark which I don't want ight int I don't want any tint in there at all no what we want to give her a little depth I color eyeliner color okay it ranges from whoa egyptian black kohl to read

even leave it kind of neutral eye depth oh look at this this is my favorite part was when the eyes telescope out like that so creepy I'm gonna put them back to normal I width this is another important indicator that's a little Val Kilmer did anyone else just

see Val Kilmer happened for a second you know what though I feel like her eyes are a little close together just to hair color blue but why are her eye whites brown this is something I would like to teach okay right away I'm seeing that her lower jaw

is jetting forward too much so I'm gonna have to go back and adjust that but first I'm gonna finish up here in the brows on and I want a kind of a graphic brow but not too hairy forehead sleuth okay mouth shape I want her lower lip to

get it a little tucked in oh here we go I think I found the lever I'm looking for that I feel like her top lip is way more prominent than her lower lip although this could work because it's got that Park in if I'm looking for let's look

at hair okay we want the why is this the widest maybe oh yeah maybe this might be the closest this is so roller disco okay lots of hair I mean this could be it oh yeah braids no girl lowbrow huh yeah I think this is probably the closest

every time I pull them apart her eyes are brows it kind of gets further away from her there's a couple things that I would finesse here like a more tucked in lower lip which I don't think I can do and I think I'm missing a certain reflective lighter

quality in the eyes that's also not available other than the kind of glowing blue alien eyes you know which I think kind of pulls it out of human too much for her like a more innocent eye you know so this is pretty close though Circe is next she

has such patrician bone structure it's really elongated super pronounced cheekbones super pronounced jaw very square because she's so cruel I'm gonna kind of exaggerate her eyebrows a little more than they are and make them kind of scowling downward with Circe since she's got harder lines in her face

this section of her mouth I guess the word is um um Bircher embouchure like if you're a trumpet player it's like this muscle a little beer mouth so he's kind of person it grimacing with it so I'm gonna emphasize it a little bit with her bone structure the

cheek bones come in and they point right to the mouth really faint I don't want to put too hard of lines here because she's young and beautiful so anytime you emphasize those too much it ages a person with the exception of like Ursula from Little Mermaid most villainesses

are super boney and angular I'm gonna arch her brows up a little more say they look a little meaner yeah maybe one I don't know she seems like an eyebrow Archer I don't know if she does it or not kind of balances out the mouth I think the

reason I thought this one was easier is again because her face is so symmetrical this is not really something she would wear which looks a little peasanty for her but maybe we don't worry about that yet hey you finally awake I mean in terms of the black points

on her face the brows the eyes and the nose holes on the upper lip exaggeration that it just was a clearer read for me and also just the square kind of rectangular face and the length of her hair shrill long long nose I'm thinking elf this might be

a bit much unless I can square it out a little more she's real pointy in the chin no okay I'm looking for a little bit more of a boxy jawline which this might be there are jaw indicators and stuff like where you can pull it down let's start

here oh they're just kind of I mean I I just kind of blackened them out and make it not that but I mean let's leave them there for a second I I feel like they gotta stay kind of high with eyeshadow above I want a dark in this

area though to make her feel a little more sinister that might be too dark but let's go back since too much costumey makeup for her I'm gonna leave it nothing the brows own these are nice and med but I want them to be heavier that's too heavy no

brow that's a good one too Harry that's a good let's leave it there for a second round eight really mad she's a little more like coolie mad though she's kind of emotionless when she's been but I think she kind of has a permanent sort of disdainful look on

her face like resting bitchface if you will if the brow Ridge is too far forward it's a little crow mag and she is really bony but we don't want it too far forward that's a big one that's maybe similar to what I drew but it's we can make

it wider or bring it down I'm gonna kind of mess with her mouth a little bit this it's got a few things going on mouth forward I feel like sometimes she kind of juts it forward her lower jaw like when she's like clenching her teeth that might register

let's take off this lipstick and see how that looks so maybe we need to change your hair color see what happens there oh here's their shame hair kind of not even she doesn't really show her ears like this she doesn't have unkempt hair so he's done maybe this

because it covers her ears let's go to color and maybe that'll help so it ranges from white wound – we want kind of a gold green look at that chin length this makes her face a little squarer knows why to mean too small to to liam neeson but

when I see something there I feel like this is pretty close she looks a little mad in the eyebrows I wanted her to look scowly but I don't want her to have any wrinkles or indication of emotion just the shape I would maybe like to see a little

more control in the eyebrow zone for this particular one with Cersei so that I could remove some of these crabby marks right here on her but still maintain this kind of flat eyebrow and bring it up a bit on the end so that it had more of a

P V shape but without the wrinkles or forehead lines she also has just the slightest amount of thing here I think that's working I don't know if I want to mess with that actually just little things like that okay the night king is next this guy's got a

lot going on on his face this is the kind of face I like to say jaws itself his face is so graphics you kind of can't screw it up the complex part about him though is the horn situation on the top of his head or the points on

his head I don't know if that would be a problem for a game of Thrones fans do they count that stuff but I'm going to abbreviate it I like to abbreviate faces so that's a clearer read these super points are happening right here almost like worn down Batman

with the back a little bit the eyes are so intensely mean it's all brow Ridge creating this kind of almost a figure 8 of blackness like a mask the thing about his face that's really creepy there's all these wrinkles leading to his mouth like he's been scowling for

so many hundreds of years or whatever that he's got permanent scowl wrinkles he has had no Botox I didn't draw the outfits on anybody else really but this one comes up to here and it's a lot of vertical lines that kind of emphasize this really linear wrinkly expression

of his whole face in head I would never show a client this kind of sketch but I know how I would make the final you know these ears are a little elfish but I think it's the shape of the shadow around his eyes that's the important thing it's

the blackest thing on his face with his super intense glowing blue eyeballs and then all the wrinkles leading to the scowl and then certainly this unique ice devil elf head shape is all about you know freaky shapes so very identifiable you finally awake I'm tempted to start with

the lizard person here but I don't know if there's no ears it's kind of no deal because we need to see his pointy ears so maybe that rules out the lizard right out of the gate he's a hard no I mean that's a maybe his Chin's way out

of whack but let's look at some of the other elves I guess they all have that weight he's maybe the most Haggard of the elves so that's good please the nose is really wrong it's got a real Roman bump happening here and I don't know if that is

editable in no style but his crown is also really narrow his head let's start there let's go to skintone and see if we can get more blue purple white so maybe this is close enough for what this game has had war paint color is this happening unless it's

oh maybe around the eyes is there something masked like we can use like these lines are indicating kind of similarly once we adjust his weird lipstick and stuff let's leave it there for a second turquoise green here's a blueish okay these are more like random scratchings he seems

kind of impervious to damage he's just looks this way naturally like he was born with his weird face dirt color it's not really dirty complexion super craggy this one or this one they look the same a little more forehead action okay and that was type you want a

downturn to nose to start with and I want to shove it way in that's a maybe it's almost like flush which I don't know if we can do but maybe if we bring the lips out a box here this is the sneaky tool that I kind of can

I'm having trouble seeing what this does really oh I see okay it's all about the which we're gonna leave super high cheek color and look Rouge okay nose : that's kind of like the brightest spot on his face so let's leave it there let's look at eyes for

now I hate spring it down oh let's go to I color an important one for this guy white red perhaps he's black oh that's a bummer there's no glowing blue but there were for some of the other characters there was like a whitish blue which would have been

really perfect here we can maybe fake it with this kind of white right there's just no pupil brow tight you want ultra arched and shadowy mad hyper evil definitely don't want raised we want furrowing mouths sheep take this clown lipstick off no color or a little bit of

a tint of blue chin like this out of control mouth height it's up to high I wish I could make his nose a little longer too now that it's my off this down mouth forward sherry let's try that all those wrinkles kind of culminate but the mouth shape

it's more like that hair hmm maybe there's some weird horny haired horn hair horns he's got like kind of a White Walkers wig on there without the ponytails good maybe since there's no horns at all in this selection he could kind of have the next best thing which

is maybe this mohawk and it can be like his CBGB's look I'm not seeing a blue which is weird in the hair zone there should be some blue hair okay this is as close as I can get to the night king which i think is closer than he

was when he had the super black lips and luncheon and he started off as an elf I wish that uh I could bring his nose down to a flatter place and have kind of more of a weird inhuman snake nose and maybe add some custom ridging there's a

lot going on here and the horns and the ice and the glow and the color there's a lot of stuff that is kind of you can't really customize this is as close as he gets at least from me mm-hmm it was fun it was cool to see the

personality change and most of the indicators here are things that I look for and finished when I'm doing a caricature like eye height and this distance of your friend ulam eyebrow separation and tilt and all of that stuff the Daenerys turned out a little better here than she

did in my sketch I think because I was able to look at all the different eye styles and then I kind of realized that her eyes are a little closer I was sketching and maybe a little up in a little different shape and just it got really granular

with the eye style with her and I think that that was helpful actually people who have unique faces or interesting faces or ugly faces or just strange faces are much easier to draw because obviously that what makes them unique is just what immediately stands out in character as

well finally awake you