When I presented to the family of the sisters Evija (aged 8) and Adele (aged 6) all illustrated fairy tales, the ‘Dragon and Owl’ fairy tale had two illustrations. The family chose the second one for further development. However, the second illustration didn’t include the forest that was so wonderfully drawn by Adele. Therefore, I decided (with family’s approval) to substantially extend the composition at the bottom and this way include a whole forest landscape under the dragon with owls.
In addition, during the presentation of all illustrated fairy tales, Evija had to choose her favourite illustration for further development and she was having a hard time picking one. She also really love the fairy tales ‘Fox and Wolf in the Bushes’ and ‘The Witch’. While I was working on my research, I remembered this moment and thought I could include some of the details form those fairy tales in the composition of the final painting. When I presented this idea to the family, Evija really love it and we decided to make her favourite characters – wolf, fox, evil spirit and the witch – to be ‘hiding’ in between the trees of the forest.
The ‘hiding’ part was expressed in artistic means. Because the fairy tale ‘Fox and Wolf in the Bushes’ was inspired by drawings that sisters made using charcoal and pencils, I also used these materials to draw out the characters. While the trees were in vivid and dark paint colours, the characters appear much lighter and somewhat ghostly.
During making, I firstly sketched out the composition of the forest trees. Then I marked approximate position of the characters. When I was satisfying with the composition in drawing, I moved on to painting. When the background and forest painting was almost finished, I made preparatory drawings to have a clear image of how the characters should look like. Then I was ready to draw out the characters on canvas.
The Fox
It’s important to study how the animal actually looks in nature. However, the artistic representation of an animal will only look ‘alive’ if I find a creative expression that captures the essence of the animal (instead of making a diligent copy of nature).
The Wolf
The Ghost
The Witch
This drawing was made during our workshop with the sisters. Evija started an abstract scribble without any intentions. Then I added a back hat and said that it is a witch. Afterwards, inspired by all of our drawings, the girls create a fairy tale ‘The Lighthouse – Home of the Witch’.
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