Looking Beyond Westeros' Borders

West side Think you know Game of Thrones? Think again, as artists cast new light on unexplored corners of George RR Martin’s world.

- Sven Sauer

A fantasy artist’s raison d’être is to visualize worlds that only exist in the mind. That’s certainly something the group of 44 artists behind Unseen Westeros, an art exhibition and accompanying book, would agree with.

Led by matte painter Sven Sauer, and involving many artists who have worked on the TV series over the years, the idea was born back in 2015. Their aim was to visualize the parts of George RR Martin’s world that had been mentioned but had not enjoyed realization in the series.

“We were working on season five of Game of Thrones,” recalls Sven, and the book World of Ice and Fire had just come out, which tells the entire story of the world of the series.” After two weeks he had 15 artists on board. Soon, the ranks swelled, boasting artists who had worked on successful video games titles like Horizon Zero Dawn as well as films such as Avatar.