The Mother Of Dragons

 

A few years ago when I first started painting portraits, and really getting to grips with watercolours, I painted another of my favourite characters from Game Of Thrones: Daenerys Targaryan. It has been a little over 4 years now since I first painted the character's portrait, and felt it was time to recreate the same painting as an exercise for myself to see how much my skills have changed and developed.

 

Daenerys Targaryan was and is an incredible character throughout the entire series. I think a lot of people were disappointed with her ending in the final season, citing that her descent in to cruelty and madness was out of character, but I disagree. While she liberates people who were slaves, I think there were many instances where she showed us a dark side to her benevolence. For example, when she crucified the masters of the slaves as an ‘eye for an eye’ punishment, she had inevitably included people in this crucifixion who were trying to abolish slavery before she was on the scene… and did not seem too bothered when told of this fact. When she had to lock away her growing dragons, she shed the tears for them, not for the reason she had to lock them away; they were eating civilians (remember the quip to Sansa when asked what do dragons eat? She very nonchalantly answered, “Whatever they want”.). Her advisers were always there to soften her ‘fire and blood’ approach, but as we all watched, with every betrayal and loss that became harder to do. When those advisers and close friends were no longer around, we really got to see what a Targaryan is capable of, even if it felt a little rushed in the final episodes!

But anyway, I could talk about this forever, so I’m going to stop before I get carried away! This portrait is based on the scene in the first season when she emerges from Drogo’s funeral pyre, her dragons freshly hatched and clinging to her body. While the particular part of the scene I have referenced only has Drogon in view, I wanted to have Viserion and Rhaegal as part of the composition too, so it was a fun exercise to make them a part of the scene.

Created using Winsor &Newton watercolours on Bockingford cold pressed watercolour paper, measuring 42x30cm.