Cinderella by Alexandra Dawe in initial stages

It isn’t often you get a chance to see how a piece of artwork looked before it was finished unless you are the artist or live with the artist.  This was how Alexandra Dawe’s pencil sketch of Cinderella looked on 17th November 2008.  It took some weeks to complete due to other projects and looking after her young daughter.

In her usual self-deprecatory manner, which is rather refreshing for such a talented artist, Alexandra Dawe said the following about the creation of Cinderella: -

“Cinderella took a few weeks, but I could only do half an hour or so a day as I’d not long had Megan. The pencils were 5B, 2B and 2H I think, regular lead pencils, from WH Smith I believe! I’ve had them forever. Some are very short now. I press down too hard to use mechanical pencils. I had to draw round a dinner plate to do the clock, which made me feel like I was doing a primary school project, I felt like such an amateur! No idea how “proper” grown-up artists do things like that! Doing the clockwork was fun, I might try and do clockwork on something again. I got about an inch into the floral border and then wished I hadn’t done it, that took the longest time! I loved doing the folds on her clothes, I get really into things like hair and drapery when I work in pencil. Faery tales are my favourite things to draw, I want to do many more faery tale paintings and drawings in the future. And British folk-lore, I love all the dark stories we have.

Here is what it looks like now:

Cinderella original sketch by Alexandra Dawe

I’m think you’ll agree it is a rather stunning and well-drawn piece of work.  The artist’s name has been watermarked into the image and does not, of course, appear on the original artwork.