#cecily neville

Warwick is such a mood! Haha!

Happy Holidays everyone!

My mind started working again this time with something to do with Isabel Neville, so I couldn’t help but put this idea into practice. The first time I knew nothing more than how I would like this costume to look, but as its design got a clearer contour, I thought of giving it a context. The year in which I think she could start with such a costume would be 1469, more precisely the Christmas festivities at the court of Edward IV. 

Given the tension caused by the rebellion and the relationship between her father, the Earl of Warwick, her new husband, George of Clarence, and their King, Edward IV, Isabel could have been a little overwhelmed. She is quite young and a new royal duchess after her marriage to George, so I wished that, despite the circumstances of which she is a part, she would simply be brilliant!

I am just trying to represent the moment when Elizabeth Woodville appears in Reading to be presented as the queen and apart from the fact that this horse has squeezed half of my life (I don’t like to draw horses in particular), I can say that it is one of my favorite frames from the whole story! Elizabeth’s current design was entirely inspired by this illustration, which, by the way, I love so much !! 

Well, that being said, let’s get back to work! The comic won’t finish by itself! (God, I need a break.)

I just finished the design of Richard Plantagenet (the future Richard III) and so the York family is the first completed family in the whole family scheme that I set out to do! I did not know exactly what kind of clothing would suit a twelve-year-old child who is supposed to be part of the royal family (given that the action of the first volume takes place in 1464), so I allowed myself to create a much more mature image, probably around seventeen, eighteen? Well, an adult, if we follow medieval standards! The finality of this part of character design excited me so much that I made them their own height scheme and a simplified family tree (because why not?)

PS: I’m usually not very impressed with what I create, but in this case, I can’t take my eyes off of Richard, the Duke of York! lol

The end of the first volume is in progress! Or so I hope. I can’t say that it’s something complete, but in fact, the topic related to the faculty allows me to approach this part of the volume (despite the fact that its core is not concretized at all, lol). I am excited - I can focus a little more on this, instead of having to approach completely different topics and concepts. Well, these two pages of sketch represent the moment of the approaching coronation of my much loved queen, Elizabeth Woodville! 

When I read about the coronation ritual but also about the post-ritual banquet, and found out that the dress she is wearing is purple (but not knowing the type of dress at all), I said to myself that this is the time to use my imagination at its maximum. So I came up with this type of dress, which, by the way, I absolutely adore!

I can only hope that I will meet success on the next pages!

Today I had a day off from the daily chores of college, so I said I would take this time to create the design of Margaret of Anjou. It was not a complicated one to do, the idea came to me almost immediately and the more I progressed with this work, the more I became enchanted by the life of this woman I came to admire! What I find most interesting is the conflict between her, her faction and Richard, the Duke of York, whose design I created some time ago. Well, I told myself, on this occasion I brought them together with the help of this project. Maybe I will have the opportunity to present and develop the conflict between them much better in a separate volume from the main story, who knows? 

Well, until then, I can only try to make things as great as possible!

From the beginning of this project, I had the feeling that as soon as I deepen some things, when I go on several alleys and their perspectives, I will end up having a new obsession every time (as it happened to have with Cecily and Richard, the Duke of York, for example.) But no matter how mentally prepared I felt, I didn’t expect my new obsession (still developing) to be George and Isabel. And when you think that it all started with a trivial character design! 

So, this time I tried to go a little beyond the stage of a character design and I focused on drawing a moment, more precisely, a moment spent at one of their wedding celebrations in Calais in 1469, when the couple shared this small, intimate moment, before a dance. I didn’t find the exact type and color of their outfits (don’t believe me, the truth is that I was too lazy to look for this or try to find out if there is a description), so I made it up completely. Initially, the jewelry in question should have been a brooch, because I know that brooches were offered to brides or future brides by the man, but I ended up drawing a necklace.

Isabel Neville seems to me one of the most interesting but vague personalities involved in the War of the Roses (I still don’t know absolutely all the details about her!), which makes her a character quite difficult to define in my project. I spent days thinking about a character design suitable for her and a few days ago I felt a sparkle: I needed something quite imposing and relevant to my project, thus I was faced with the need to let historical accuracy aside to some minimum extent/to a certain level (in order to better differentiate the characters from each other). Here I portrayed her as the Duchess of Clarence, a relatively mature figure of hers. I keep looking at historical pictures with her, wondering if I made a mistake, but all I can say right now is that I simply love this outfit!

While also working for this term’s project besides the Wars of the Roses, I thought it would be ideal to take into account the height of my main characters (because why not.) I hope that after I finish the other characters properly, I will better separate these elements.

The characters are as follows: Edward IV, Anthony Woodville, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, Richard Woodville, Jacquetta Woodville and Elizabeth Woodville.

I had some free time last night after I finished all the work … I swear.