Fairy Drawings
Fanciful and Fun

Fairy drawings and tales of fairies abound. You may have your own sketches waiting to get discovered here.

The story of the origin of fairies is found in a chapter about Peter Pan in J.M. Barrie's 1902 novel The Little White Bird.

"When the first baby laughed for the first time his laugh broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies."

Fairies are referred to as trolls and gnomes, wee folk, good folk, people of peace, or fair folk. See a full color "wee folk" illustration here. They have in common a human appearance and magical powers.

Modern fairy drawings often depict fairies who look young, sometimes with wings, and are small in stature. The wings are like those of an insect or butterfly. The size of the wings indicates how really tiny fairies are thought of today.

Centuries ago fairies were originally drawn, illustrated, or painted in one of two ways. Either they were tall, radiant and angelic. Or they were short, wizened trolls, like in The Hobbit.

In any case they are creatures of legend, a form of spirit.

As an artist fairies can be fun to draw. And they are good practice in learning to draw the human form as well as perspective. Then you can shift and change the drawing to suit yourself. You can try it now by downloading this free door hanger template and creating your own custom art and message.

And if you are illustrating a story, you can and most likely would change the fairy image to reflect the storyline.

Practice this more advanced drawing of mushroom-size troll fairies as I conjured them at my art drawing table.

The colored version of the fairy illustration is done in easy-to-use pencil. Pencil is ideal for sketching, smaller size pastel drawings, line work and hatching.

I tend to like a precise coloration when filling in illustration, so using pastel pencils for the job suits me. Pastel pencils are also good if you do not like the mess created with pastel sticks. If you have little practice with pastel sticks, you can ruin a painstaking line illustration.

If you are not sure you can always buy a small set of pastel pencils, and a small set of pastel sticks in basic colors and try both.

Practicing in a different medium, pastel pencils or pastel sticks, for instance, gives you a feel for different effects you can create.