CREATE ART THAT TELLS A STORY

Chrystin Garland explains how to use colour, composition and detail when you want to develop a narrative within your artwork

- Chrystin Garland

The initial concept for this painting was to recreate a scene from the Seven Swans or Seven Ravens Grimm’s fairy tale. The basic story is about a young maiden who goes on a quest to free her seven brothers from their cursed bird forms.

At first, I planned to paint a scene of the brothers swooping in to save their younger sister from being burned at the stake. However, as I began thumbnailing, it became clear that the painting was going in a different direction. So, I switched the birds out for winged humans and thought it would strike a more caring tone if the brothers were helping their sister to fly for the first time. I began to think of my own family, and how supportive they are for little or big accomplishments in my own life.

Whenever I paint, I try to make up stories like this, because it helps inform a specific emotion that I’d like to capture. It’s my goal to convey as much as possible with a single image, and I hope that comes across.

1 Thumbnailing and sketching