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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. |
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 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…):
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Alfred The Great's in Winchester |
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First Sketch - get the face right |
Next develop the character |
Then colour him in |
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Interesting links
Events
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