I’ve been a fan of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones since the first season aired. As an artist myself, I’m always wowed by the incredible technical abilities of the show’s creators, particularly the costumes and amazing CGI (can you believe those incredible dragons?). As the owner of three medium-sized fluffy white nordic-looking dogs, I’ve often joked that my pups are really just miniature or child-sized dire wolves. So it should come as no surprise that I am #HouseStark and that my favorite character is John Snow!
Remember the news from a couple of years ago that John Snow’s cloak was really made from a $79 Ikea rug? The story went viral, and Ikea even released its own “instructions” of how to make a Night’s Watch cape from its Skold rug. Well, with the final season ending this spring, I knew it was time to make an Imagination image inspired by the tv series. We don’t have an Ikea in Northwest Arkansas, but I was able to find a somewhat similar-looking shaggy rug at the HomeGoods on Walnut Street in Rogers. Following the do-it-yourself instructions, I cut two child-sized capes from the rug. I layered these over long dark dresses from Joyfolie, and long black capes from Little Adventures (which is one of my very favorite creators of soft and wearable children’s costumes). We left the models’ hair wild and it was perfect! Kiska posed for me with her bossiest bark. But the best part was that our child models, who of course have never heard of Game of Thrones and had no idea what we were working on, thought they were playing the part of The Big Bad Wolf like from the Three Little Pigs. Close enough!
In post production, I combined the photographs of the models with the photos of my dog (enlarged a bit to make her a little more imposing), and then blended these with a photo of mountains I took a decade ago when I lived in Alaska.
Who is your favorite Game of Thrones character?
