House of the Dragon concept artist shares designs for dragon saddles

Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon merchandise are renowned for their exquisite and intricate designs. Notably, even the cast members were often prohibited from retaining the iconic set pieces they held dear. The level of detail in some items is so intricate that it can sometimes be overlooked.

Moondancer’s saddle from House of the Dragon Season 2

House of the Dragon concept artist Jack Cornell recently shared concept art for props from season 2. He showed the complete layout of Moondancer’s saddle, designed by Craig Narramore and team.

Cornell described the design as:

“Baela’s saddle was briefed as – designed for a confident dragon rider, we riffed from the characters riding costume for some consistency . Developing the black layered scales on the buck nose into the buck neck mail and scale armour, as with all the designs I worked heavily from nature using biomimicry as a key design theme – Mondancer’s in particular was influenced heavily by the forms of beetles like the Pray Mantis and species of Trilobite beetle. Coupled with heavy inspiration from ancient Chinese armour and Samurai helmets, the saddle takes on a slick organic feel webbed to Moondancer’s back.”

Moondancer saddle concept art| Credits: Jack Cornell

Sunfyre’s saddle from House of the Dragon Season 2

Cornell was also involved in the production of Sunfyre’s saddle. He had to say this about the prop used by Tom Glynn-Carney as King Aegon II:

“King Aegon’s saddle is the most ornate of all the saddles, it was briefed that it needed to clash with Aegon’s armour, as he would be donning ‘Aegon the Conquerors’ Valyrian armour for the scene. This saddle had some preliminary design from season 1, so I took these elements and went completely over the top to create ornate and embellished show pony of a saddle. The armour is heavily influenced by ornate royal Spanish armour of the 1500s , and baroque style riding saddles, coupled with custom motorcycle engraving. The form of the buck again insect like riffs from the shapes of the Brenthis Daphne crystalis.”

Aegon II on Sunfyre| Credits: Jack Cornell

Meleys’ functional saddle in the Battle of Rook’s Rest

Rhaenys Targaryen and Meleys got their time to shine in the Battle of Rook’s Rest. The saddle used had to be extremely functional, as Meleys had to do a lot of maneuvering in the scene.

Rhaenys and Meleys| Credits: HBO

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12/23/2024 05:52 am GMT