How to Draw Gothic Fairy Art

Fairy art represents one of the most popular types of genre art; and as such, gothic fairy art takes this type of art one step further. This art retains the fairy elements, such as wings, wild, open spaces and elements of fantasy, but adds darker elements as well. For artists who would like to learn how to draw gothic fairy art, they need to combine their drawing skills with the elements of gothic fairy features.

Instructions

1. Study gothic fairy art to determine what features set it apart from other types of fairy art. These works include not only a darker color palette, but also fairies that while still beautiful, have something amiss with them. This includes having frog feet, vampire teeth, dark eye shadow and tattoos.

2. Create some practice drawings of gothic fairies. Sometimes the best way to learn about how different drawing styles work is to use the work of other artists as a model. So for example, if you want to learn how to draw gothic fairy art, you might pick up a book or go to a website featuring this type of art and see if you can reproduce an image that looks similar. Many fine art schools teach this method, expecting their students to go to museums and practice copying great works of art.

3. Select any reference pictures to draw your gothic fairies. These pictures might include images of beautiful and slightly magical eyes, tattoo designs and pictures of gothic fairy art. You’ll use these as you draw your fairy art.

4. Create rough sketches of your fairies based on your pictorial references. These provide a map for you as you flesh out the details. You’ll pull the different elements together from your various visual reference sources. These become the studies for your gothic fairy drawings.

5. Draw your fairy in basic shapes after you’ve completed your initial studies. Drawing involves the same process, regardless of the subject matter. To start this process, you want to block out your fairy in her most basic shapes—circles, squares and triangles. You’ll fill in the details later.

6. Add in more details to your fairy drawing. For example, if you’ve begun with the head, start making the basic outlines for the eyes, nose and mouth. Pay close attention to what you see in terms of making lines. In addition to drawing basic shapes, accurate drawing depends upon how well you see the lines of the object you’re drawing as opposed to what you “think” you see.

7. Enhance the fairy-like features of your fairy. Darken the eye shadow, start defining the background colors more, add in the shading and bring in atmospheric elements like storm clouds.

8. Continue adding details until your drawing is complete. These could include shading in the dark areas and brightening up the lighter areas, adding visual elements such as black cats, or heightening the green-blue of the shadows. What you're striving for here is developing a completed drawing step by step.

References

• "Good Fairies, Bad Fairies;" Brian Froud; 1998
• How to Draw and Paint: Learn to Draw Whatever You Want
• I Love Whimsy: Gothic Fairy Art
• The Strangeling: Gothic Fairy Art

Resources

• EmptyEasel: How to Draw What You See Techniques
• DrawingNow: How to Draw a Fairy (Blocking In Fairy Shapes)
• Leading-Learning: The Process of Drawing the Visual Environment