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UPDATE: It's almost finished (and it looks great)! I know, it has taken so much longer than expected ... I've got about six more hours of work on it. Unfortunately, it's the end of the semester and so I've got some finals to wrap up before I can wrap this up.

Underdrawing for an 8x10" watercolor illustration of a seventeenth century Scottish murder ballad called "The Cruel Sister" (also known as "The Twa Sisters"). I am wildly excited about painting this one soon, though I'm not thrilled with the composition.

There are countless versions of the song (at least 21 English versions and at least 125 Swedish versions, according to Wikipedia), but this is the one that inspired me:

There lived a lady by the North Sea shore
(Lay the bent tae the bonnie broom)
Twa daughters were the bairns she bore
(Fa la la la la la la la la la)

One was as bright as is the sun
Sae coal black grew the elder one

A knight came riding to the ladies' door
He travelled far to be their wooer

He courted one, aye with gloves and rings
But he loved the other above all things

Sister, sister, won't you walk with me
An' see the ships sail upon the sea?

And as they stood on that windy shore
The elder sister pushed the younger o'er

Sometimes she sank or sometimes she swam
Crying "Sister, reach to me your hand"

And there she floated just like a swan
The salt sea carried her body on

Two minstrels walking by the North Sea strand
They saw the maiden, aye float to land

They made a harp out of her breastbone
The sound of which would melt a heart of stone

They took three locks of her yellow hair
And wi' them strung that harp so rare

The first string that those minstrels tried
Then terror seized the black-haired bride

The second string played a doleful sound
"The younger sister, oh she is drowned"

The third string, it played beneath their bow
"And surely now, her tears will flow"

~The Cruel Sister by Old Blind Dogs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jktzyL…

Emily Smith's version is quite different but very beautiful:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD3HR0…

Credit:
I used Nastia Osipova's stock as a reference for the younger sister's pose:
nastiaosipovastock.deviantart.…

Description
UPDATE: It's almost finished (and it looks great)! I know, it has taken so much longer than expected ... I've got about six more hours of work on it. Unfortunately, it's the end of the semester and so I've got some finals to wrap up before I can wrap this up.

Underdrawing for an 8x10" watercolor illustration of a seventeenth century Scottish murder ballad called "The Cruel Sister" (also known as "The Twa Sisters"). I am wildly excited about painting this one soon, though I'm not thrilled with the composition.

There are countless versions of the song (at least 21 English versions and at least 125 Swedish versions, according to Wikipedia), but this is the one that inspired me:

There lived a lady by the North Sea shore
(Lay the bent tae the bonnie broom)
Twa daughters were the bairns she bore
(Fa la la la la la la la la la)

One was as bright as is the sun
Sae coal black grew the elder one

A knight came riding to the ladies' door
He travelled far to be their wooer

He courted one, aye with gloves and rings
But he loved the other above all things

Sister, sister, won't you walk with me
An' see the ships sail upon the sea?

And as they stood on that windy shore
The elder sister pushed the younger o'er

Sometimes she sank or sometimes she swam
Crying "Sister, reach to me your hand"

And there she floated just like a swan
The salt sea carried her body on

Two minstrels walking by the North Sea strand
They saw the maiden, aye float to land

They made a harp out of her breastbone
The sound of which would melt a heart of stone

They took three locks of her yellow hair
And wi' them strung that harp so rare

The first string that those minstrels tried
Then terror seized the black-haired bride

The second string played a doleful sound
"The younger sister, oh she is drowned"

The third string, it played beneath their bow
"And surely now, her tears will flow"

~The Cruel Sister by Old Blind Dogs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jktzyL…

Emily Smith's version is quite different but very beautiful:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD3HR0…

Credit:
I used Nastia Osipova's stock as a reference for the younger sister's pose:
nastiaosipovastock.deviantart.…