Story of the illustrations     History is..      Walking to Waltham Abbey    History in stitches

Home
Up
The challenge
The personailities
Developing characters
Style
Unused images
Colouring in pictures

 

Illustrated by Amanda

Creating the illustrations for the book was a challenging, fascinating and immensely rewarding exercise but, above all, fantastically good fun: after weeks of ordering marauding Vikings into battle and encouraging some rather snooty-looking horses to charge across decidedly hilly terrain, I was sorry to return to the mundanity of everyday life (where I am not an omnipotent being, dealing in momentous battles and royal marriages…).

The Challenge

The process by which many of the images in the book came into being was a rather circuitous one, not least because I was not used to drawing Vikings or their weapons, horses and longships.

We were concerned that this book should represent events in as historically accurate a way as possible.

Research

Ordinarily, I try to find a wide selection of reference material – photographs, artefacts, written accounts and even live subjects – from which to assemble an idea of the image to be created and then begin sketching out a series of ideas.

Unfortunately, as the events and characters in question were buried in hundreds of years of history, such robust, visual evidence was in pretty short supply – I became very familiar with the Bayeux Tapestry, and the woefully-few centimetres of shelf-space in my local library dedicated to this particular period!

I was, however, delighted to find that some figures, such as King Alfred the Great, had helpfully been sculpted in bronze by some generous soul for my reference, so I am marginally more confident in my interpretation of his features than, for example, those of King Ethelred the Unready (for which I had precisely no source back-up…):

 

Alfred The Great's in Winchester

First Sketch - get the face right Next develop the character Then colour him in

Interesting links

bullet Battle of Fulford
bullet Battle of Stamford Bridge
bullet Battle of Hastings
bullet English Heritage
bullet Battlefields Trust
bullet Young Archaeologists Club (CAB)
bullet York Archaeological Trust
bullet Regia re-enactors
bullet Viking re-enactors
bulletOnline documents

Events

bullet Riccall Rampage 24 July 2010
bullet Jorvik Festival (there will be another one in 2011!)
bullet Fulford Festival 2010
bullet Festival of archaeology 2010

 

 

 

 

An Illustrated History of 1066
about us
contact
glossary

Site written and maintained by Chas Jones & Amanda Pollard

All material is copyright of the authors -2009. For any permissions contact WritersPrintShop.com

 

read review

last updated 20 Julyy 2010