From Fairy Sketch to Winter Reflection: Embracing Warmth and Hope in Art

This piece actually started with a fairy—just the loose sketch of her wings, her posture, the hint of a face. I wasn’t thinking about winter at all. I just wanted to draw a fairy, the way I did when I was younger: wings first, everything else second.

But the moment I started adding color, she drifted into a winter palette on her own. The teals slipped in, the pale greens, the washed-out whites, and suddenly the whole scene felt cold in that soft, storybook way. And instead of fighting it, I just followed the feeling.

Somewhere along the way, her posture changed for me. She stopped looking like a fairy simply existing in a forest and started looking like a fairy protecting something. Her hands kept wanting to cup together, so I finally added a tiny ember of light—and instantly the whole piece made sense.

That little glow changed everything.

It turned this from a fairy in a winter scene into a moment about quiet resilience. About carrying something warm through a cold season. About the small, private things we hold onto—sometimes without even realizing why.

She wasn’t planned. She just… emerged.

And she brought this reminder with her:

Even in the frostiest moments, the muted ones, the ones that feel empty or quiet or slowed down—

Even here, something glows.