The Birth of a Painting - Part II

Untangling the Tangle

Continued from Part I. Once the composition is transferred onto the watercolour paper, I will usually draw the image out in pencil and develop it further then paint and finally use a pen.  However with this painting, after drawing out the figure more clearly and working out the top middle section, I dived straight into the pen-work...mainly because the briars were so entwined that I needed to make sure I had got them right... I had to be careful not to go over bits that were supposed to go under the figure...and I wanted them to go over and under and around each other like celtic knot work...

The Tangle Revealed

...the next bit was great fun and reminded me of colouring in as a child... First I painted the roses, hips, buds and leaves, to remind me that this is where the fresh growth is. I wanted to paint the briars leading up to those bits a lighter green to show they are still alive... I painted up from the roots, as if the paint was the sap is rising...

The Sap is Rising

...eventually the image grew and entwined around the girl...

Entwined and Entwirled

I decided to leave the girl in pencil as much as possible to show her softness against the sharp briars, the background grew into a landscape of a dream and her hair became birds flying free as she longs to be...

Green Girl Dreaming

I painted the girls dress grass green with large daisies emblazoned upon it to represent her life force and innocence. Her hair grows lush and long and entwirls with the briars in strawberry blonde strands....

Finally the landscape and birds are picked out with a light wash of paint around the edges to enhance the hills and trees.

In a Tangle (Briar Rose) by Sarah Turpin

An Exhibition - Fairy Tales and Magical Realms

This month I am exhibiting with Amanda Clark and Amanda Sheldrake at Saffron Walden Town Library. Showing a selection of paintings and prints...

The Birth of a Painting...Part I

I've felt very excited about this painting... and probably because I was slightly nervous in case I mucked it up, I found that I was very aware of the process of creating it...like watching from the outside looking in, so I thought I'd share the experience with you... 

The painting I am talking about here is called 'In a Tangle' and is a version of Briar Rose or Sleeping Beauty...


Sometimes ideas just plop fully formed into my head, maybe from something I'm reading or listening to. Words often inspire me, even unrelated ones can conjure an image in my mind. I'll write my initial thoughts down and then move on to something else...work or go for a walk, but always something that allows my mind to moodle the idea around without over-thinking it.  The idea may be moodled for several days, months or even years...until the right time...when it feels like it wants to be made... 

...remove the importance of getting it right first time...

Then I'll scribble on the back of an envelope and either work it up on there or, if I'm feeling really sure of where it's going, move onto my sketching pad. I always seem to panic and think I won't be able to draw what's in my head. That's why I have to move out of my own way... and remove the importance of getting it right first time. I find I can be really playful scribbling on the back of an envelope, it doesn't matter and I can fiddle about until I get the composition right. I always draw with a biro when doing these, I can see the mistakes and learn from them. I've noticed that I will nearly always do a really bad drawing first, just to get it out of the way... 

Dog Rose - Wiki

I sometimes use reference material, such as photographs I've taken myself or found on the internet. However I only use these loosely...mainly to help me get to know the tree or plant or whatever it is but never to copy. In this case the Dog Rose was something I knew well and wanted to give the impression of rather than replicate exactly. However, it needed to be distinct from the roses I've done in the past so I looked at the bud, blossom and hips to see what made them different...

Developing the Pose - Sketch I

Then I may draw it...or elements of it such as the pose...several times in the sketching pad in pencil until I feel happy that it's right. While I'm doing this I usually have more ideas for it or...as in this case, I remember a previous painting which has elements I want to develop for this one. 

The Spinney by Sarah Turpin

For instance I drew my art studio, The Spinney, as a little witch's cottage in a fairy tale wood last year. This made me rethink my initial idea to do a mad tangle of thin briars as you can see on the envelope sketch above and instead do a more stylised, Art Nouveau tangle.  

Playing with Composition - Sketch II

So...in the sketch pad I developed the main briars as inspired by the Spinney picture... then I traced the girl from the first sketch because I liked her pose, which is why she is highlighted in black pen (see above - sketch I) so I could trace her through the paper. This enabled me to move her around into the right position amongst the briars, like a swimmer, and then entwine some of the plant around her so she was caught...

Tracing the Tangle

Once I have worked out the exact composition I'll trace the main elements and transfer them onto the watercolour paper. I try and leave a little room for more tweaks throughout the painting of the final piece. 






Part II will follow soon...

My Little Helper!

Snow Queen