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I knew Harold, Harald, Tostig and William would be 'with me' for a couple of
months so.....
Developing 'the look' Although I studied several
books depicting a variety of medieval monarchs, and their subjects, in
order to try and arrive at a generic ‘look’ for that period – I found
this particularly useful for deciding upon how best to coif the men’s hair,
and how to dress noblemen/women/serfs – the appearances of King Harold
Godwinson and Duke William of Normandy are based on their Bayeux-stitched
visages (as far as I was able to identify, with the help of the
folio-compiler’s annotations). |
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As evidence was so scarce, and I knew Harold
(King of England and not to be confused with), King Harald (Hardrada) of
Norway, Tostig and William would be 'with me' for a couple of months, I
tried to bring something of their individual characters into their facial
expressions. |
‘Their characters’ were, of course, entirely derived from
my own, very subjective speculations – based on the impression of their
respective personas I got from reading Charles’ fascinating narrative – but
it allowed me to develop a sense of them as individuals, and to identify
with them whenever they featured in a drawing for a particular ‘scene’: |
Some of the many faces of King Harold
 | Smug at his coronation |
 | Pensive when working out what to do |
 | Cunning when sneaking up at Stamford Bridge |
 | & sick just before Hastings - his mum told him not to go. |
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Interesting links
Events
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