"First lesson: stick 'em with the pointy end."





Warning! Game of Thrones spoilers ahead.

Jon Snow, the Bastard of Winterfell, forged by fire and tempered by ice was picked by the hand of fate to fulfil a destiny with a scope few would have believed in the early chapters of George R.R. Martin's fantastic "A Song of Ice and Fire". Casting himself out of his heritage at Winterfell, the ancient seat of House Stark, Jon chose a life guarding the realms of men by becoming a Brother of the Night's Watch. An ancient order of outcasts that protect and maintain "The Wall", a magical structure that separates the northern "Lands of Always Winter" from the rest of Westeros. With his trustee Direwolf "Ghost" at his side, Jon Snow's adventure has taken him from servitude, rebellion, warfare, command to leadership owing to his own skill and bravery while experiencing and overcoming challenges like Wildling armies, Giants, the Undead, treachery from within and even Death. Unbeknownst to most Jon actually was conceived of two royal bloodlines thusly making him the rightful heir of Westeros. A peerless warrior and intuitive leader, Jon has managed to preserve his humanity against all the odds and looks set to turn the destiny of Westeros on its head. Now that the army of the dead approaches it will fall to him to unite the warring kingdoms for one final stand. Winter has come.

This is a digital collage of about 42 bitmap layers. Using my mouse and standard Photoshop brushes and layer blend modes. The cards and textures I got from FusRoDa and edited them to suit our needs along with the animal stencils, photos and house words. I also tried to preserve as many of the steps as possible for the process animation. I then made the animation in Premiere Pro CC, simplified it, sped it up, added inserts, rendered it as an mp4 video file and then converted it to an animated gif online (nifty!) with 25 fps :)





Category #FanArt Medium Photoshop Suit Spades Character Jon Snow/Stark/Targaryen Universe A Song of Ice and Fire Style Digital Illustration Original Artists George R.R: Martin, Kit Harrington First Apperance 1986





Gif Source "You Know Nothing, Jon Snow" - Ygritte to Jon

Lore





Jon Snow, born Aegon Targaryen, is the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, the late Prince of Dragonstone. From infancy, Jon is presented as the bastard son of Lord Eddard Stark, Lyanna's brother, and raised by Eddard alongside his lawful children at Winterfell but his true parentage is kept secret from everyone, including Jon himself. In order to escape his bastard status, Jon joins the Night's Watch and is eventually chosen as Lord Commander. However, he is later murdered in a mutiny and resurrected by the Red PriestessMelisandre. Freed from his Night's Watch vows, Jon joins his cousin, Sansa Stark, in building an army and together they retake Winterfell from House Bolton, restoring House Stark's dominion over the North with Jon being declared the new King in the North. However, after successfully capturing a wight and presenting it to the Lannisters as proof that the Army of the Dead is real, Jon pledges himself and his army to Daenerys Targaryen, Rhaegar's sister, and steps down as King of the North.

Because he was raised by Ned Stark at Winterfell, Jon has adopted a clear moral compass and a true sense of honor, which he tries his hardest to abide by even when he must make a difficult decision, especially after he became Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.





Process

Here's the animated process for the King in the North that I made out of the individual layers. This is a digital Illustration with some collage elements so I borrowed freely from established imagery for this one. I'm also trying to make a unique transition at the end of each card. Hope you dig it.





Can't believe I've got almost all the face cards now! Making a full deck is becoming a bigger reality with each step. Hope you enjoyed Jon Snow as the "King of Spades"!