Usually I can’t wait to start painting a piece after I have finished with the drawing. I’ve gotten to the stage where I feel comfortable knowing that I can make the picture come to life with watercolours, layering translucent wash upon wash to build up a rich body of colour.
Sometimes, however, when I finish a piece that I feel particularly moved by…. I can almost not bear to.
This forlorn little waif will become “The Witches Daughter”. I have a soft spot for those poor unfortunate characters that are destined to be hated by “the good guys” in folktales. Just because her mother is a witch (what does that mean anyway – simply that she is an old woman who has been ostracized by her community because she is ‘ugly’ and perhaps knows how to efficiently use healing herbs and potions) she is destined herself to be feared and loathed, never to be accepted into the inner circle of fairies and princesses and dashing knights.
I felt very sad for this girl as I was drawing her.
I hope I can do her justice and show her unique beauty once I begin to paint her.
Hurray for the non-princesses! They can take good care of themselves and don't need knights to rescue them. Too bad that in children tales these characters are always depicted as evil and ultimately loose everything...
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